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James Reilly's avatar

I'd stop at one. This seems like the obvious thing for a non-utilitarian to say, no? If the five people weren't in suitcases, then this would just be the standard footbridge case, where pretty much every deontologist is going to say that you shouldn't push the person. The fact that the people are in suitcases, and that they're willing to play the odds and hope that somebody else will be the one pushed, doesn't seem to change this at all.

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Dominik's avatar

I don't have the intuition that you should push in scenario 1 (and therefore of course also not in scenarios 2-5), the categorical imperative applies even if everyone involved, from a self-interested point of view, doesn't want it to apply - that's just a logical consequence of Kantianism. Although I grant that arguments from a veil of ignorance are the best arguments in favour utilitarianism.

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