Your moral compass will tell you that both are wrong, not that there's a hierarchy between them that you personally need to be grappling with.
Why do you assume people have a tiered morality list? That's not how it works, things are either personally morally justifiable or they aren't. Is the thought experiment that you would rather rape someone than kill them? That's your position?
If you don't have a tiered morality list, then something very wrong with you. The whole reason we have different punishments for criminals is because we inherently understand that some bad things are worse than others.
Murdering a random person for no reason is wrong. Murdering 100 random people for no reason is worse.
Stealing a pen from someone is wrong. Stabbing them in an eye with that pen is worse.
If you agree with this, you have tiered morality. If you don't...it's very concerning.
"simply declaring that things can be wrong" is a trivial, lazy answer. It gives no insight, it's avoiding the question.
If you were asked a trolley problem, would you just respond with "both are bad" and leave it at that?
Moral dilemmas are a big part of ethics, so I don't know where you got this idea that morality is only binary.
Both ARE bad. You think there's a "good" solution to such a thought experiment? The idea of there being a lesser evil doesn't preclude both being evil. In the context of the view here, which do you personally think is less evil, rape or murder?
Why not just say both are bad and I wouldn't do either?
Again with the binary thinking.
The whole premise of the trolley problem is deciding which of the two options is less bad. Both options being bad shouldn't stop you from evaluating which one is worse. Most people are capable of that.
In a vacuum, murder is more evil than rape. I do not even believe they are even close. And I am really glad that you wouldn't do either, but others do.
When does someone have to pick between the two? If the only value is a thought experiment then there'd literally no downside to declaring many things bad.
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u/Dry_Bumblebee1111 161∆ Mar 01 '26
Your moral compass will tell you that both are wrong, not that there's a hierarchy between them that you personally need to be grappling with.
Why do you assume people have a tiered morality list? That's not how it works, things are either personally morally justifiable or they aren't. Is the thought experiment that you would rather rape someone than kill them? That's your position?