Trolley Car Problem (ethical dilemma) Transcript:

Imagine that you’re watching a runaway trolley hustling down the tracks, straight to five workers who can’t escape

Now you are standing next to a switch that will switch the trolley onto a second track

There’s a problem.

That track has a worker on it, too, but just one.

What do you do?

Do you sacrifice one person to save five?

This is the Trolley Problem, an ethical dilemma that philosopher Philippa Foot introduced in 1967.

It’s popular because it forces us to think about how to choose when there are no good choices.

Do we pick the action with the best outcome/result

Or stick to the moral/ethical code that won’t cause someone’s death?

The morally correct decision is the one that maximizes well-being for the greatest number of people.

The five lives outweigh one.

Even if achieving the outcome could lead to someone’s death.

Now let’s change the trolley problem a bit.

This time you’re standing on a bridge over the track, as the runaway trolley approaches.

Now there’s no second track, but there’s a very large man on the bridge next to you.

If you push him over, his body will stop the trolley, saving five workers, but he’ll die.

Do you make a same decision: lose one life to save five?

先是social justice的定义【Definition: social justice is a concept of fair and just relations between the individual and society. This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity and social privileges.】

要思考的关键问题1： equality vs. fairness

- but what is “fairness”?

要思考的关键问题2： equality of outcome vs. equality of opportunity

- but what is “outcome”?

接下来请思考： Is inequality always bad?

e.g.我们会differentiate the efforts that people have made

所以不是所有的inequality都等同于injustice。

而Inequality is unacceptable when:

- basic needs are unmet [social welfare]

- people living in poverty has little hope of escaping from it

我们来考虑一下How inequality is produced, 尤其结合report类大作文的causes来考虑。

1. 财富、人力、社会资本分配不均（在我们出生时）。Uneven distribution of physical capital (wealth), human capital (capability) and social capital (social connections) at birth

A. “Birth lottery” （人们无法选择自己的出身）

B. innate “laziness” （天生怠惰）

2. Structural violence: social structure or social institutions may prevent individuals from having a meaningful life.

A. Unfair laws: apartheid, discriminatory policies against minorities（种族隔离、歧视少数族裔）

B. Exploitative economic system: unregulated capitalism (e.g. a lack of standardized minimum salary) （不受管制的剥削资本主义）

C. Insufficient social protection: lacks necessary enabling resources from the government（社会保障不足，政府缺乏扶持资源）

以上是inequality是如produced的，我们来讨论更深层次的一个问题：inequality是如何re-produced：

• Class stratification: different social classes have different access to resources and power （阶级分层）

• Social immobility: the impossibility of moving to higher or lower social status （社会流动性、阶级固化）

• Intergenerational poverty: transfer of poverty across generations （代际贫困）

【Solutions】 

Responses to inequality: social welfare

• Redistribution社会资源重新分配/welfare policy?

• Taxation, entitlements (给特定群体的政府津贴，比如Medicaid and Medicare Program医疗补助、老年医保 ), subsidies (财政津贴，比如农业补贴 farm subsidies)

• Progressive income tax （累进所得税，即税率随个人收入的增加而增加）, wealth tax （财富税、净值税，对减去负债后的余额收税）, tax on inheritance（继承遗产需纳税，即遗产税比如韩国，我国暂时没有）

• Universal basic income (UBI)? 全民基本收入（e.g. 瑞士、芬兰试行，但又废止）

• 请思考：

• Should social welfare come with conditions?

• Is the more welfare the better?

Responses to inequality: affirmative action

• Affirmative action?

• Alignment between economic inferiority and other social attributes: gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, etc.

• Historical oppression vs. positive discrimination (= affirmative action)

• Over-reliance on welfare vs. giving them an opportunity

• Role model effect vs. stigmatization

Responses to inequality: empathy

• Using miserable images to promote altruistic goals?

• Forcing the advantaged group to experience poverty?

• Supporting slum tourism, volunteer tourism and medical tourism?

• Key questions:

• Is it ethical to objectify the poor? [e.g. “the poverty porn”]

• How perceptions of the poor/poverty affect how we treat them?

Final question: structure vs. individual efforts

• Do you regrets the romanticization of poverty?

• Do you support Barack Obama’s statements that emphasize African-Americans taking individual responsibility for improving their own position in life?

Michael J. Sandel’s lecture about social justice

http://open.163.com/special/justice/