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Ethics Lesson: The Trolley Problem

This lesson plan uses the trolley problem thought experiment to explore ethics and decision-making. It begins with explaining the classic trolley problem scenario of choosing whether to divert a train to kill one person instead of five. Students then discuss variants of the scenario, including choosing between saving strangers or a friend. They watch a video discussing different perspectives and complete worksheets to reflect on their views. Critiques of the trolley problem are discussed, and students predict results of a real-life version of the scenario.

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Camila Brizuela
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123 views2 pages

Ethics Lesson: The Trolley Problem

This lesson plan uses the trolley problem thought experiment to explore ethics and decision-making. It begins with explaining the classic trolley problem scenario of choosing whether to divert a train to kill one person instead of five. Students then discuss variants of the scenario, including choosing between saving strangers or a friend. They watch a video discussing different perspectives and complete worksheets to reflect on their views. Critiques of the trolley problem are discussed, and students predict results of a real-life version of the scenario.

Uploaded by

Camila Brizuela
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Trolley Problem: Lesson Plan

The trolley problem explanation: The “trolley problem” is a famous thought experiment used
to debate the value of human life and discuss what is the most ethical way to act if one person
suddenly has the power to decide the life or death of many others. The classic trolley problem
involves deciding between doing nothing and letting a train kill five people or flipping a switch
and redirecting the train to a different track and killing one person. However, many variants of
this classic problem have since been proposed and debated.

Warm-up: Set an imaginary scenario and discuss

Imagine you’re a firefighter in a burning house that’s about to collapse. In one room, there are
five innocent people about to die from breathing in too much smoke. In another room, there’s
one person who’s also about to die from too much smoke. You only have enough time to reach
one of the rooms, but you can save all the people in that room. Which room do you choose?
Why?

Imagine the same fire scenario as above. In one room, five strangers are about to die. In
another room, there is your best friend, who is also about to die. You still only have enough
time to reach one of the rooms, but you can save all the people in that room. Which room do
you choose? Is your answer different from before? Why?

Watch video:
https://www.ted.com/talks/eleanor_nelsen_would_you_sacrifice_one_person_to_save_five

Questions to discuss:

1. What do you think is the value of a human life? Can you estimate this value using some
kind of unit? Money? Gold? Are all human lives worth the same amount?
2. What do you think of the variant of the problem shown in the video? Does your
answer to the trolley problem change? Why? What’s the main difference between the
variant and the original problem?

Complete Leaders 4SCs: Complete the worksheet individually or in pairs. Then share their
answers with the group.

Take the “Philosophy Experiments Should You Kill the Fat Man quiz”:
https://www.philosophyexperiments.com/fatman/Default.aspx

SS will try not to think too deeply about their responses and go with their first instinct. It
should take about five to ten minutes to complete. Then, they’ll have to examine their results
and write a short reflection paragraph about what they discovered.

Afterward, they’ll break up into small groups and brainstorm some of the limitations of the
trolley problem. What do you think are common criticisms and why? Keep a running list of
these critiques and then debrief as a group.

When presented with the original trolley problem, most people typically choose to sacrifice
one person and save the five. In 2017, a television program redid the experiment and
convinced subjects that a train would hit five people unless they pulled a lever and diverted it
to hit one person. They’ll write down their hypothesis on how they think these subjects
behaved. What percentage do you think would pull the level? Do nothing? They’ll have to
explain the reasoning.

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