The Trolley Problem's Forgotten Inventor
In 1967, philosopher Philippa Foot dreamed up a runaway trolley to make a narrow point about abortion and intention — not to launch a thousand ethics quizzes. This episode traces how her thought experiment escaped its original purpose and mutated into the most famous puzzle in moral philosophy, and asks what we lost in translation.
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Philippa Foot originally introduced the tram problem in nineteen sixty-seven to discuss the ethics of abortion.
The original scenario featured a tram driver rather than a bystander to test moral responsibility.
Negative duties to avoid harm carry significantly more moral weight than positive duties to provide help.
Judith Jarvis Thomson coined the term trolley problem and introduced the bystander role in nineteen seventy-six.
The fat man variant tests whether physical intervention changes the morality of saving five lives.
Modern internet memes often ignore the original philosophical distinctions between intentions and moral obligations.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02The Tram in the Oxford Review3 min
- 03Negative Duties and the Lever2 min
- 04Thomson and the Birth of a Brand3 min
- 05The Meme and the Machine3 min
- 06Outro1 min
- Trolley problem - Wikipedia
- Trolley problem | Definition, Variations, Arguments, Solutions, & Facts
- Bibliography
- Could There Be A Solution To The Trolley Problem? | Issue 116
- Trolley problem | Religion and Philosophy
- Philippa Foot (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2019 Edition)
- Philippa Foot (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 Edition)
- The Trolley Problem and the Nature of Intention: Implications for ...
- Judith Jarvis Thomson - MIT Philosophy
- Killing, Letting Die, and The Trolley Problem
- Why 2020 Was a Renaissance for the Trolley Problem
- Trolley and the Sorites, The
- Lady behind the trolley problem
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