Ⅰ Judging the Principle of Justice from the Tram Puzzle
来源:COLLECTIONS OF TAIJI EVOLUTIONISM | 作者:YONG DUAN | 发布时间: 2021-11-05 | 4029 次浏览 | 分享到:

Ten world famous paradoxes have caused heated discussions among netizens. These ten paradoxes have touched upon important issues in physics, ethics, epistemology and philosophy, and are of far-reaching significance, enough to cause some important changes in theory.

“The tram problem” is one of the most well-known ideolo- gical experiments in the field of ethics. Its content is roughly as follow: A madman has tied five innocent people to tram tracks. An out of control tram approached them, and they would be crushed after a few moments. Fortunately, you can pull a lever and let the tram go to another track. But there is another problem. The madman has also tied a man on that track. Consider the above situation, should you pull the lever?

People often encounter similar problems in their lives. The principle of justice is necessary to make correct decisions. What are the fundamental principles of justice? There are two perspectives. One is the benefit as the ultimate principle, the other is dogma. We have heard many dogmas and rules, Confucian dogmas, Christian dogmas, Kant's moral principles, communist spirit, socialist core values, and so on. These principles often conflict with each other and make people at a loss. For example, Kant stated that we must not kill anyone. Everyone's humanity is a purpose and cannot be used as a means. According to this principle, it is not allowed to pull the lever, because it is to use that person as a means to save other people.

Every dogma is defined by people. None of them is priori. What is the basis for people to put forward these principles? It is the benefits of the people. Therefore, the benefits of people are the ultimate value standards. This kind of thinking is called humanism or utilitarianism.

The most important principle of humanism is to provide the greatest benefit for the most people. According to this principle, we should sacrifice one person's benefits to save multiple people. This is not like some people saying that they violate the Utilitarian principle and it is just the correct decision precisely based on utilitarian principles.

There are different relations between human benefits, so the standards of justice need concrete analysis. The relationship between people's benefits is divided into two types: one is conflict, one rises as the other fall (up-down); and the other type is non-conflict, one rise with the other rise or remain fixed (up-up). The non-conflict interests exist everywhere, and it is the unification of interests. The unification of interests is also called win-win and harmony. It is the most ideal situation. The act of justice in this relationship is both selfish and good.

Theorem: Benefit of each person is the criterion of justice when benefits of people are in the up-up relation.

When interests are united, they do not cause conflicts between people. They are what all people are willing to accept and are the basis for people's cooperation.

there are two kinds of up-down. (a) the total benefit is not able to rise or avoid to fall; (b) the total benefit is able to rise or avoid to fall.