The Trolley Problem Essay Example

The Trolley Problem, like other philosophical problems, isn't meant to be solved. Its goal is to provoke thought and initiate an intellectual discussion in which the difficulties of addressing moral dilemmas, as well as our limitations as principles, are acknowledged. This is referred to as consequentialism in philosophy. According to this viewpoint, morality is determined by the consequences of an action, and only the consequences matter. When we talk about a pandemic and the vaccines we have to remember that people made their choices based on the response of the situation they were facing and the consequence of that choice. 

In our pandemic podcast we answer questions about our lives and situations through the pandemic. One thing that I think would be common in all of my peers' podcasts would be the sacrifices we made and the effects of the pandemic in our lives. This pandemic brought to us unwanted situations where we had to make a choice and go on with the consequence of that choice. While also affecting our day lives as the entire country changes its policy and rules. He had to adapt to the new way of living and face all the new challenges. We now have to adapt to wearing a mask every time we are in public places, stay six feet apart and have to wait in line longer due to limited capacity in places. People started losing jobs due to factories closing down , companies went bankrupt due to not having enough money to pay its workers. Our whole world was upside down. Every time we faced a situation we faced it the same way as the trolley problem, the scenario would be different but the choice would always have its consequences. For a lot of us that train symbolized the problems we faced in the pandemic and the consequences being the track , the 5 lives would be our family and the 1 life would be us. We made the choice of the decision based on how the consequence would affect us and our family. I promise you that all of us made the choices of making our family safer even if it made us get run over by the train. For example , having to work double shifts and not going home until late but having money for the family to buy groceries. The problem would be having to work more and the consequence will be being tired but the family would have money to buy groceries and pay the bills. As for the #2 scenarios of the trolley problem won't correlate since there is nothing that would stop it from affecting you or your family.

In the essay “How does the trolley problem relate to the essay "Good Reasons to Vaccinate: Mandatory or Payment for Risk?" We can see how there are two choices in these situations. The first choice would be to make the vaccine mandatory for the greater good and the second being to have an incentive to attract people to get vaccinated. Offering an incentive would make people get vaccinated  since they would get something out of it. For example a lot of companies are giving bonuses for people who are vaccinated and get vaccinated. Those bonuses allowed people to get that one thing they wanted , take the vacation they wanted but didn’t have the money or maybe pay some bills they were behind on. On the other hand, making it mandatory would benefit the entire community since the number of people affected would go down and it will stop it from spreading more. Here the people have to choose one being for the greater good or to look out for themselves. To put in context with the trolley problem you will have two choices: to make it mandatory to keep everyone safe or to have an incentive to try to motivate people to get it. If you pull the handle to have an incentive some people may get the vaccine, others don’t but if you make it mandatory all the people will get it make the cases go down and the amount of people getting it lowers. As for #2 scenario of the trolley problem there is nothing you can do to benefit both choices. 

Every human being is going to make a different choice if put in the same situation. That's what makes us different from each other. That's why when discussing a pandemic and vaccinations, it's important to note that individuals made decisions based on how they responded to the environment they were in and the consequences of those decisions.