On October 23, presentation of the reprint of the one of the most popular books published by Gaidar Institute Press ”Would You Kill the Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong” by David Edmonds, has been held at Library on Gazetny.
The book is based on a famous ethical mental experiment conceived by British philosopher Philippa Foot in 1967. A train without brakes is hurtling toward five people tied to the rails. You are standing on a railroad bridge next to a fat man you don't know: if you throw him off the bridge, he will die, but his body will stop the train and save five people. Would you kill the fat man?/p>
This question, while seemingly strange, has for half a century forced moral philosophers, and more recently, neuroscientists and psychologists, to puzzle over the nature of human ethics.
In the course of the discussion, Irina Dudenkova, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, Assistant Professor, RANEPA, Alexander Markov, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, Professor, Russian State University for the Humanities, and Pavel Stepantsov, co-founder and Managing Partner of Synopsis Group, lecturer at Skolkovo, School of Architecture (Universal University) and RANEPA, discussed, why majority consider killing of the fat man is wrong, and how ideas about right and wrong have changed throughout the history of moral philosophy.
We thank everyone present for their interest and questions.