F. M. Kamm

The Trolley Problem Mysteries by F.M. Kamm takes a very deep look at a seemingly simple scenario and exposes deep reaching philosophical questions. Kamm is an American philosopher specialising in normative and applied ethics. Kamm is currently the Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Professor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Harvard. Before joining the Harvard faculty in 2003, she was on the faculty of New York University and also worked for the World Health Organisation as an ethics consultant. She is a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution.

Suppose you are driving a trolley down a hill and find that the brakes are not working. You are heading directly towards five unsuspecting people who will be killed if you do not divert the trolley. On the only available side track is one person. You will not be able to avoid hitting that person if you chose the switch to the side track. Your choice is limited to one person or five people dying. The simple choice would be to let one die rather than five. In the same line of thought, suppose you are a doctor and by removing the heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver from one person you can save five people. Suddenly, one dying does not seem as right as saving five. What is the difference in the two thought experiments?

Back to the trolley. Perhaps you could throw a person fat enough to stop the trolley under the wheels. Is that the same as choosing to switch tracks or is that simply murder? In that same line of thinking as the driver, you are not responsible for mechanical failures that in this case will kill five people. However, your decision to switch tracks does make you responsible for the life of the person on the side track. A simple decision is far more complex when it is scrutinized.


Deep scrutiny is exactly what The Trolley Problem Mysteries is about. Kamm explanation is met by three other philosophers. Individually each makes their own interpretations of the dilemma and Kamm returns to defend her position and provide criticism. Judith Jarvis Thomson, Thomas Hurka, and Shelly Kagan take part in this debate. The simple decision of which track to choose spirals into complexity as side theories and corollaries pull the reader deeper down a rabbit hole.

A fascinating read where simple answers are not always so simple. What makes one decision right and another wrong? Can four philosophers agree that changing to a side track is the right answer? Is utilitarianism, the greatest good for the greatest number, always right? Why do answers change in different but similar situations? The Trolley Problem Mysteries is a book that will keep the reader thinking long after he or she has finished reading it.… (more)

The Trolley Problem Mysteries by F.M. Kamm is a debate on various "solutions" to the classic problem from moral philosophy, the trolley problem. The basic problem, from the publisher's blurb: "Suppose you can stop a trolley from killing five people, but only by turning it onto a side track where it will kill one. May you turn the trolley? What if the only way to rescue the five is to topple a bystander in front of the trolley so that his body stops it but he dies? May you use a device to stop the trolley that will kill a bystander as a side effect?"

The beauty of this problem is that whatever choice you make there are moral and ethical decisions you make which, if converted to a basic rule for action in general quickly becomes something you no longer recognize. If it is okay to sacrifice one innocent person to save five innocent people, then it should be okay to sacrifice one healthy patient for organ harvesting to save five innocent patients. But most of us would never agree with that. The corollaries and theories can be frustrating at times but at the very least demonstrates that there are no simple moral or ethical decisions.

This is the type of problem which requires precise language and explanation, which all of these philosophers exercise. Yet the information for these relatively simple problems can become dense very quickly. While this book is, I think, fairly accessible to most readers, it should be noted that this is not a quick read. Even as familiar as I am with the problem and many of the approaches to it I would not even consider breezing through the book. There is so much to ponder and apply to everyday life that a slow contemplative read will enrich the reader's life.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (more)