The Trolley Problem — Origins

The Trolley Problem is a thought experiment in Ethics that was first created by philosopher Philippa Foot and then later rehashed and developed by philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson. In this piece, I will try to convey how these two philosophers presented the problem. I will develop more about the Trolley Problem in other Medium pieces, including more contemporary examples and applications.

Philippa Foot (1920–2010)

Philippa Foot was a British Philosopher born in Owston Ferry, Lincolnshire in the UK. Her maternal grandfather was Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States. She spent most of her career at Oxford, where she was a student and then a professor. In the 60s and 70s she was a visiting professor at Cornell, Berkeley and CUNY. She is one of the founders of contemporary virtue ethics. She was the first to write about the Trolley Problem.

Philippa Foot’s original paper was called “The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect” and was published in 1967. In this paper, she was thinking of the Christian doctrine of double effect. According to this doctrine, there is a difference between:

• Foreseeable consequences.
• Intended consequences.

One example of this kind of distinction would be a military airstrike, the intended…