When you present students with the trolley problem, they may respond that the various scenarios are implausible. After all, who has ever been in a position to shove a bulky man over a railing and thereby save the lives of workmen on a track below? Yet if you cannot offer a more real-life example, philosophical speculation may appear idle. To counteract that misconception, I offer a story told by a survivor of the Shoah that, while serving as a reminder of its horrors, also illustrates why thinking about the role of a bystander as a tram approaches can illuminate how we should act in the face of unmitigated evil.
Near the end of World War II, prisoners in one concentration camp were sent on what was later termed a death march to avoid their being liberated. As they struggled to keep moving in a snowstorm, a Nazi guard handed a heavy bag to a prisoner and ordered him to carry it. The prisoner opened the bag, found food, ate some, and distributed the remainder to others. Upon seeing what had happened, the guard halted the march and sought to punish the offender. Due, however, to the snow and the similar clothing worn by all the prisoners the Nazi was unable to determine who had opened the bag. He shouted that the perpetrator should identify himself, but when no one did, the guard announced that if the guilty party did not confess, every tenth prisoner would be shot. As this punishment was about to be carried out, one prisoner stepped forward and accepted responsibility. He was immediately killed, then the march continued. To this day no one knows whether the prisoner who took the blame was the guilty party or instead had sacrificed himself to save the lives of numerous others.
Now vary the facts slightly. Suppose one prisoner known by the guard not to have been the guilty party took it upon himself to save many lives by choosing another prisoner at random and declaring that person guilty. Would the bystander’s action, sacrificing one to save many, have been morally wrong?
Regardless of the answer, focusing on such a serious case serves as a reminder that whereas a trolley is for most of us a quaint image and hypotheticals about altering its possible path may appear fanciful, the underlying moral dilemma is potentially heartrending and all too realistic.
In sum, while I am not proposing any solution to the trolley problem, I am offering an example which I hope contributes to students recognizing that the issue is not mere philosophical frivolity but a matter of major consequence for action. That realization is a lesson in itself.
Steven M. Cahn
Steven M Cahn is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Among the recent books he has authored are Teaching Philosophy: A Guide (Routledge, 2018); Inside Academia: Professors, Politics, and Policies (Rutgers, 2019); Navigating Academic Life: How the System Works (Routledge, 2021); Professors as Teachers (Wipf and Stock, 2022), and, most recently, From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor, Second Edition (Wipf and Stock, 2024).
