Adam Smith discovered -- and solved -- the Trolley Problem

4. Same situation (hurtling trolley, no brakes) as 1 and 2, except the current track has 100 million people on it, and the diverted track has your little finger stuck on the rail. If you do nothing 100 million people will die, but if you divert you will lose your little finger.

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I know, that sounds ridiculous. But that, mutatis mutandis, is exactly the question posed by Adam Smith in a famous passage in Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith asks what would happen if a “man of humanity in Europe” heard that there had been a terrible earthquake in distant China, which killed “a hundred millions of his brethren.” Smith imagined that the man would express genuine sorrow that this had happened, reflect on “the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment.” …

What’s really interesting is that Smith first claims that the reason we would divert the trolley (my words) to cut off our finger instead of killing a hundred million is that we are concerned what other people would think of us if we were selfish. But then he doubles down, and claims that the fundamental reason for our sacrifice would be what we think of ourselves.

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[And this is why cultural formation is so important. This is about rising above base incentives to grapple with and solve moral problems rationally and unselfishly. Without a solid moral foundation, personal incentives are all that matter. Smith certainly understood that altruism has its place in individual choice, and that without a moral foundation to establish it, altruism cannot succeed when it is necessary. — Ed]

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