Would You Kill the Fat Man?

By: David Edmonds

Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong

A train is racing toward five men, tied to the track. Unless the train is stopped, it will inevitably kill all five men.

If a fat man is pushed onto the line, although he will die, his body will stop the train, saving five lives. Would you kill the fat man?

As David Edmonds shows, answering the question is far more complex, and important, than it first appears. In fact, how we answer it tells us a great deal about right and wrong.

©2014 David Edmonds (P)2014 W F Howes Ltd

Excellent intro to Meta-ethics and philosophy

Any additional comments?

I teach a course on ethics to third year medical students. I majored in philosophy as an undergrad before becoming a physician. I try to get them to search for the basic principles on which they base their decisions, especially with regard to such controversial topics as physician assisted suicide, abortion, complex triage choices, and allocation of medical resources. I have used the "Trolley Case" for many years to force them to think at a deeper level.

This book is a splendid introduction to the "Trolley Case" and to the whole question of duty ethics versus utilitarian ethics, with fascinating excursions into the concepts of virtue, the role of neuroscience, and whether morality is learned or innate.

The narrator has just the right amount of whimsey in his voice to capture the humor of the author. Highly recommended to anyone interested in this important topic.

Entertaining Philosophy

Crisp writing and an excellent reading performance make this Audible book a delight to listen to.

Wonderfully Rendered Book...

on the complexity of moral decisions and how rationality--and to a surprising degree--emotion play roles in our everyday ethics. I teach a class based in Theories Of Morality, and my classes discuss such questions on a daily basis, including the one that gives this book its title. Since Kohlberg and Gilligan began their search for a testable rubric for morality (both included gender as a factor in moral decisions), ethics scientists have struggled to define what a "moral act" is and how exactly we arrive at the decisions we make when ethics are at stake. Edmonds does a fine job here of furthering the debate and clarifying many of its ongoing issues. This book would go very well with John Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis (the title has a lot to do with ethics and how we decide, so the title is a bit misleading) & his second book The Righteous Mind--I highly recommend both be take with Would You Kill The Fat Man.

Stick with it.

What did you love best about Would You Kill the Fat Man??

I liked exploring the idea of morality and how varied that can be, even within one culture. Though, I don't feel the book came to any concrete conclusions, nor should it. Morality is both social and personally dictated and hard to predict.

Would you recommend Would You Kill the Fat Man? to your friends? Why or why not?

While I enjoyed Would You Kill The Fat Man, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to others unless, I knew they had a tolerance and understanding of academia. There were times when I felt all the theories were getting just too ridiculous and too convoluted and almost felt like turning it off. But, I stuck with it and, it does end up pulling together a lot of the various aspects and theories.

What about Gareth Armstrong’s performance did you like?

Gareth's performance was expressive and interesting, highlighting the humour.

Any additional comments?

About half to, three quaters through, it was all starting to seem very nonsensical. Like wading through a quagmire. However, if you stick with it, it does get better again.

Good book about the Trolley Problem

I first learned about the trolley problem in law school many years ago, and I've been wanting to know more about it ever since. This book was extremely helpful in that, and it was very engagingly written and narrated.