Philippa Foot Trolley Problem

As a company, or an organization, ages the ethical standpoint of that enterprise can move and adjust to the surrounding climate. Ethics can even be challenged or vastly changed simply by altering the viewpoint of a problem slightly, even when the final outcome is the same. The greatest example of this challenging of ethical standpoints of a person, with only a small altering of viewpoints, can be seen in the “Trolley Problem” first outlined by philosopher Philippa Foot. In Foot’s original ethical problem a driver of a runaway tram must make a choice, stay on route and kill five workmen ahead of him or steer the tram onto another spur of track killing only one man. When this problem is proposed to research participants on average 90 percent of the participants say that it is morally and ethically right to steer the tram onto the spur saving the five workmen for the cost of the one. This can largely be attributed to that fact that most people agree that killing one is better than killing five.

This ethical problem was then further developed later by Judith Jarvis Thomson who altered the problem slightly coming up with what she called the “Bystander at the Switch.” In this variation of the Trolley Problem a person stands at a

This so called gauntlet was formed on the third floor and as a rite of passage was exclusive to men only. In the gauntlet men waited for females to walk down the hall so they could grab, pinch, pick up, and grope her inappropriately. While some women entered the gauntlet willingly and knowingly other unsuspecting women were lured in. It was not until Lt. Paula Coughlin was lured into the gauntlet unknowingly and fought back, not only reporting the incident to her superior but also sending letters to senior naval personnel, that this culture within the Navy was