Lecture 1 Introduction to the course & to psychological
ethics
Thought experiment 1
You observe a runaway trolley barrelling down the tracks towards five workers. You are unable to
warn them, but you are standing right next to a lever that can switch the trolley to another track. On
that side track, however, is another person. Assuming you have only the following options, what do
you do?
1) Pull the lever, killing the one but saving the five
2) Do nothing, letting the five workers die
Most people choose option 1
Thought experiment 2
Again, a runaway trolley is barrelling down the tracks towards five workers. You are unable to warn
them or divert the trolley, but you are standing on a bridge right behind a very heavy man who, when
pushed onto the tracks, would stop the trolley. Assuming you only have the following options, what
do you do?
1) Push the man, killing him but saving the five
2) Do nothing, letting the five workers die
Most people choose option 2
Difference between thoughts experiments
- In the second one you have to actively push the person in front of the trolley
- In the second one you are involving an innocent person who has nothing to do with the
trolley and the track
- They seem the same scenario’s, but there are differences, but it is hard to pinpoint what
exactly is morally different
What do we learn?
- Illustrates we already have intuitions about morality
- But these might conflict! Compare:
• Surgeon killing healthy patient to save five
• Psychologist harming subject to gain insight
- Indicates conflict of values (helping vs. not harming)
- Controlled environment for inspecting and improving intuitions
- So: simple but rich, triggering philosophical questions
,Content lecture
1. Introduction to ethics
- What is it about?
- Dilemmas
- Metaethics and challenges
2. Ethics and psychology
- Relation
- Acculturation
- Course goals
3. Course overview
Ethics?
What is ethics about?
- How should I act? What makes an action right?
- How should I live? What is the good life?
- But not every action is good or bad in a moral sense:
• Trolley case, helping old lady, lying to a friend, fabricating data for research project,
vs:
• Picking flavour of ice cream, where you put your cutlery, preferring Beyoncé over
Back, acing a math exam, choosing a romantic partner?
- Boundaries of ethics can shift
• E.g. homosexuality vs. age of consent
- Actions that concern others
• But which others? All humans? Animals? Ecosystems? Future people?
• And what about myself?
- Hard to draw precise boundary: good and bad as such
Ethics & morality
, Ethical dilemmas
Three main areas of ethics
Metaethics
Challenges to ethics
- We have no free will, so there is no right or wrong
- There is no God, so anything goes
- Morality is fiction, we are all egotists
- Morality is a lie used to control people
- No action is always right or wrong, so there are no good or bad actions
- What is good differs per individual/culture
- We already know what is right intuitively, so we don’t need ethics
ethics
Thought experiment 1
You observe a runaway trolley barrelling down the tracks towards five workers. You are unable to
warn them, but you are standing right next to a lever that can switch the trolley to another track. On
that side track, however, is another person. Assuming you have only the following options, what do
you do?
1) Pull the lever, killing the one but saving the five
2) Do nothing, letting the five workers die
Most people choose option 1
Thought experiment 2
Again, a runaway trolley is barrelling down the tracks towards five workers. You are unable to warn
them or divert the trolley, but you are standing on a bridge right behind a very heavy man who, when
pushed onto the tracks, would stop the trolley. Assuming you only have the following options, what
do you do?
1) Push the man, killing him but saving the five
2) Do nothing, letting the five workers die
Most people choose option 2
Difference between thoughts experiments
- In the second one you have to actively push the person in front of the trolley
- In the second one you are involving an innocent person who has nothing to do with the
trolley and the track
- They seem the same scenario’s, but there are differences, but it is hard to pinpoint what
exactly is morally different
What do we learn?
- Illustrates we already have intuitions about morality
- But these might conflict! Compare:
• Surgeon killing healthy patient to save five
• Psychologist harming subject to gain insight
- Indicates conflict of values (helping vs. not harming)
- Controlled environment for inspecting and improving intuitions
- So: simple but rich, triggering philosophical questions
,Content lecture
1. Introduction to ethics
- What is it about?
- Dilemmas
- Metaethics and challenges
2. Ethics and psychology
- Relation
- Acculturation
- Course goals
3. Course overview
Ethics?
What is ethics about?
- How should I act? What makes an action right?
- How should I live? What is the good life?
- But not every action is good or bad in a moral sense:
• Trolley case, helping old lady, lying to a friend, fabricating data for research project,
vs:
• Picking flavour of ice cream, where you put your cutlery, preferring Beyoncé over
Back, acing a math exam, choosing a romantic partner?
- Boundaries of ethics can shift
• E.g. homosexuality vs. age of consent
- Actions that concern others
• But which others? All humans? Animals? Ecosystems? Future people?
• And what about myself?
- Hard to draw precise boundary: good and bad as such
Ethics & morality
, Ethical dilemmas
Three main areas of ethics
Metaethics
Challenges to ethics
- We have no free will, so there is no right or wrong
- There is no God, so anything goes
- Morality is fiction, we are all egotists
- Morality is a lie used to control people
- No action is always right or wrong, so there are no good or bad actions
- What is good differs per individual/culture
- We already know what is right intuitively, so we don’t need ethics
