Moral philosophy, thought experiment and an out-of-control trolley

Abstract

David Edmonds' book, the recent Russian translation of which is under review here, belongs to a very popular branch in contemporary experimental philosophy, the so-called ‘trolleyology’ where thought experiments with a runaway trolley are used to analyze the situations of forced choice and to study the alternative modes of decision-making. The author provides an account of the history of trolleyology and of the various theoretical approaches to the problems typical to it. Trolleyology is a valuable way to improve our understanding of the theoretical implications of thought experiments and, in broader terms, of the method of case studies as applied to moral philosophy. It certainly has highlighted such theoretical issues as intention, ends and means, motives and results, the sphere of moral principles, the limits of moral responsibility, all of which are important in normative ethics and in the different branches of applied ethic, like bioethics, ethics of punishment, just war theory, etc. The book is a brilliant specimen of popular philosophical literature; apart from giving a highly satisfactory representation of the current discussions in trolleyology, it shows the potential of applying the whole range of related issues to philosophical education.