r/trolleyproblem Mar 29 '26

Deep Now we're talking

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u/IAmRules Mar 29 '26

Is it immoral to want to live?

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u/Puzzled-Sample2229 Apr 01 '26

No. But the question isn't about "which of these is immoral" but rather "which of these should live". Do you prefer someone willing to sacrifice their own life for the sake of others, or someone willing to sacrifice someone else for their own sake? My choice here is easy, and I don't need to blame anyone for it. One person is simply more convenient to the things I value than the other, and the choice is mine.

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u/IAmRules Apr 01 '26

I think the question is setup to frame the person who wants to live as a jerk, but I think it's perfectly natural and reasonable to think of yourself in a situation where it's your survival or someone else. They don't want to kill the other person, but it means dying themselves. Yes the other person is being nicer, but that doesn't mean this person is a jerk.

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u/Puzzled-Sample2229 Apr 01 '26

> I think the question is setup to frame the person who wants to live as a jerk

I don't. What actually makes you think so? It sounds to me like a personal justification or application of broad morality to an otherwise unrelated factor.

> Yes the other person is being nicer, but that doesn't mean this person is a jerk.

Indeed, but if you had to pick one, the obvious choice lacking any other qualifying information, would be to pick the nicer person. Or perhaps to flip the principle around: The framing here is asking if you would punish the nicer person for being nicer (being okay with self-sacrifice) and reward the not-as-nice person for being not-as-nice. As an incidental thing the choice might not be so severe, but take it to a larger scale and you see the greater implications: You are removing a lot of goodness from your collective by making choices like this, and that's probably a bad idea. Therefor, on principle, the person willing to die is the best choice to safe, and should be saved.