We are expected to discover new things about ourselves and our morality by using the online simulation titled, “Should You Kill The Fat Man?” By navigating through a scenario involving a runaway train and an evil fat man, the user of the simulation should finish the scenario feeling as if they learned something new about themselves. To begin, the answer four preliminary questions that establish our morality, and the extremes we will go to in order to make the best decision. Next, the simulation describes a scenario in which a runaway train has the potential to kill people. As the user of the situation, we are faced with many questions and options regarding who the train should kill, if we should torture the man who cut the brakes, and how many
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I believe that there always more than just two options for every situation, no matter how complicated and convoluted. This made it frustratingly difficult for me to pick one of the two options presented in the simulation. The website continued to tell me that my choices were somewhat incorrect in that they contradicted my previous views on certain issues that require a certain level of morality. This prevented me from allowing the website to teach me about morality because I realized that morality is never black and white; it’s shades of gray that change as we are placed in different positions. While we may be extremely passionate and rigid on a certain issue, we may find that our decisions involving this issue change as we are no longer placed in a hypothetical and imaginary simulation. There is a large difference between a hypothetical situation and an actual situation. We make decisions that may contrast beliefs that we thought to be unwavering. This simulation did not teach me anything about my integrity or ethics because it was unrealistic for me to hypothetically assess a situation where only two options were presented. This is contrastingly different from real life; there are an unlimited amount of options that we are allowed to chose. Our morality should not be defined based on four abstract questions about a runaway train. We should allow our past, present, and future shape our morality as we continue to make our
I believe that there always more than just two options for every situation, no matter how complicated and convoluted. This made it frustratingly difficult for me to pick one of the two options presented in the simulation. The website continued to tell me that my choices were somewhat incorrect in that they contradicted my previous views on certain issues that require a certain level of morality. This prevented me from allowing the website to teach me about morality because I realized that morality is never black and white; it’s shades of gray that change as we are placed in different positions. While we may be extremely passionate and rigid on a certain issue, we may find that our decisions involving this issue change as we are no longer placed in a hypothetical and imaginary simulation. There is a large difference between a hypothetical situation and an actual situation. We make decisions that may contrast beliefs that we thought to be unwavering. This simulation did not teach me anything about my integrity or ethics because it was unrealistic for me to hypothetically assess a situation where only two options were presented. This is contrastingly different from real life; there are an unlimited amount of options that we are allowed to chose. Our morality should not be defined based on four abstract questions about a runaway train. We should allow our past, present, and future shape our morality as we continue to make our