trolley problem Reference library
Sarah Richmond
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.)
... problem . Suppose you are driving a trolley whose brakes have failed. Ahead of you five people are standing on the track. But here the track forks, and on the alternative path one person stands. Is it morally permissible, or even required, to divert the trolley to save the five from death, at the cost of one? Most people's intuition is that this is at least morally permissible. Why, then, do we not think it permissible for a surgeon, in urgent need of five different organs to save five patients, to kill a healthy patient to procure them? Dr Sarah...
trolley problem n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
... problem n . A hypothetical moral dilemma used by philosophers to investigate ethical judgements and intuitions. The original trolley problem was proposed by the English philosopher Philippa Ruth Foot ( 1920–2010 ) in an article in the journal Oxford Review in 1967 . In the slightly modified version that became standard, a trolley is running out of control down a railway track. In its path are five people who will be killed if it continues on its course. By operating a lever, you can divert the trolley on to a different track, where a solitary man...
trolley problem Quick reference
A Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
... problem Problem in ethics posed by the English philosopher Philippa Foot in her ‘The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect’ ( Oxford Review , 1967 ). A runaway train or trolley comes to a branch in the track. One person is working on one branch, and five on the other, and the trolley will kill anyone working on the branch it enters. Clearly, to most thinkers, the driver should steer for the less populated branch. But now suppose that, left to itself, it will go to the branch with five people on it, and you as a bystander can...
trolley problem
Introduction to the Pentateuch Reference library
G. I. Davies
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...Alten Testament (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer). Patrick, D. (1986), Old Testament Law (London: SCM). Rad, G. von (1966), ‘The Form-Critical Problem of the Hexateuch’ (1938), in his The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd), 1–78. Rendtorff, R. (1990), The Problem of the Process of Transmission in the Pentateuch , ET (Sheffield: JSOT), from German original, Das überlieferungsgeschichtliche Problem des Pentateuch , BZAW 147 (1977). Skinner, J. (1910), A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis , International Critical...
nothing
acts/omissions doctrine
conscience n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...right and wrong, generally accompanied by corresponding regulation of thought and behaviour. More specifically, a feeling of remorse or regret following an unethical action ( I have a guilty conscience about not repaying the loan ). See also Knobe effect , superego , trolley problem . [From Latin conscientia knowledge, from conscire to know well, from con- wholly + scire to know + entia indicating a state, condition, or...
Clymer, Eleanor Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature
...and is finally able to do so when his family buys a house in the country. A city family longing for a country home became a common theme in Clymer's work and life. In the much-loved The Trolley Car Family ( 1947 ), a family takes an old trolley to the country and lives in it for the summer. In the 1960s and 1970s Clymer wrote realistic novels about inner-city social problems, some from the perspective of African American children. In The Spider, the Cave, and the Pottery Bowl ( 1971 ), she wrote convincingly about a Hopi Indian family. Linnea...
Thomson, Judith Jarvis (1929–) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Ethics
...a persistent critic of consequentialism , advocating a version of deontology in which rights play a central role. In applied ethics she has authored some of the most influential papers in the field, including ‘A Defense of Abortion’ and ‘Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem’. The former is the most anthologized article in philosophy. Her books include Rights, Restitution and Risk (1986), The Realm of Rights (1990), and Normativity ...
double effect, principle of Quick reference
A Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
...the civilians intentionally would be disallowed. The principle has its roots in Thomism . Its applications include the problem of removing (thereby killing) a life-threatening foetus. All the clauses of the definition are highly controversial, but the second especially gives rise to deep problems about the relation between action, consequence, and intention. The principle is often explored via examples such as the Trolley problem...
nothing Quick reference
A Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
...to be afraid of. A rather different set of concerns arises when actions are specified in terms of doing nothing: saying nothing may be an admission of guilt, and doing nothing in some circumstances may be tantamount to murder ( see acts/omissions doctrine , trolley problem ). Other substantive problems arise over conceptualizing empty space and time...
acts/omissions doctrine Quick reference
A Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
...a result, which may not be, if, for instance, the result is death of a patient. The question is whether the difference, if there is one, between acting and omitting to act can be described or defined in a way that bears general moral weight. See also double effect , trolley problem...
Knobe effect n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...was helped’ for ‘the environment was harmed’, and people were asked whether the CEO had intentionally helped the environment, only 23 per cent replied ‘Yes’. The effect has been replicated many times, even with children, but its interpretation is controversial. Compare trolley problem...
Suburbanization Reference library
Jennifer L. Kalish
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...situated on large plots of land (up to twenty acres) and connected through curvilinear roads, which, in stark contrast to the gridiron pattern of the city, followed the natural contours of the land. The expansion of the trolley car in the 1880s ended this era of “romantic” suburbs and ushered in a new period of peripheral growth. Trolleys offered affordable cross-town transportation, allowing middle-class Americans to live on the suburban fringe while continuing to work in the city center. Although plots were smaller and conditions more crowded than in the...
Olds, Ransom Eli (1864–1950) Reference library
The Encyclopedia of the History of American Management
...efficiency of his assembly operations. He employed production methods that were later developed more fully by Henry Ford . The organization of the Olds factory in Detroit was laid out according to the flow-of-materials principle. Vehicles were moved around the factory on wooden trolleys (prior to this each car was made in one location with the workers and parts coming to each), the work force was assigned to specific tasks along the route, and components were placed in convenient locations. Olds had had to relinquish considerable control of the company in order...
Regulatory Agencies, Federal Reference library
Thomas K. McCraw and Stephen E. Randoll
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History
...insisted that a separate independent regulatory body be retained, and the FPC was renamed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), preserving its independent status “within” the department. Congress granted FERC the added responsibility to hear appeals of DOE oil price con-trol determinations and to conduct all “on the record” hearings for the DOE. In 1978 , FERC was given additional responsibilities for harmonizing the regulation of wellhead gas sales in both the intrastate and the interstate markets. In 1983 , FERC undertook to bring greater...
Istanbul Reference library
Catharina Raudvere
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World
...mufti of Istanbul. He issued fetvas (fatwas) in accordance with seriat (Sharia), while the qadis (judges) served under the grand vizier. The modernization of Istanbul started in the nineteenth century. As the home of the Ottoman elite, the city embraced novelties like trolleys, cinemas, and outdoor cafés. This modernizing process meant a mixing of the sexes and of individuals from different religious and ethnic groups that also provoked conservative reaction. In 1923 Ankara was declared the capital of the newly founded Turkish Republic, but...
Mass Transit Reference library
Gary Wray McDonogh
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World
...Paulo to Tokyo and Mumbai. Late-twentieth-century high-speed (bullet) trains have increased intercity connections, too, although trucks and automobiles challenge railroads in many markets. Germany and the United States first tested electrified trolleys and trams in the 1880s. As companies resolved technological problems, these spread worldwide through the 1920s, spurring streetcar suburbs. While buses often replaced them after World War II, they retain a nostalgic place in many cities. Such rail-based surface systems sharing multiuse roads also foreshadow...
Electricity and Electrification. Reference library
David E. Nye
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...capitalism (as opposed to partnerships and family firms). From its inception, the electrical industry also relied heavily on scientific research and development, a fact formalized when General Electric founded the first corporate research laboratory in 1900 . Electric trolleys, eagerly sought by burgeoning cities to replace dirty, slow horsecars, became practical after 1887 , when Frank Sprague's new motor proved itself in hilly Richmond, Virginia. By 1890 , two hundred cities had ordered similar systems. By 1902 , two billion dollars had been...
