A review by libra17
Would You Kill the Fat Man?: The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong by David Edmonds

5.0

I was very pleased with Would You Kill the Fat Man? It is a very accessible overview of various principles of moral philosophy as shown by the trolley problem and its subsequent variations. Part of the problem with philosophy is that it's very easy for the discipline to get bogged down with armchair-type distractions that have little or no meaning for everyday people. Edmonds presented various theories of moral philosophy with the trolley problem, explains them simply, and discusses why their implications are important. I also liked how a good chunk of Would You Kill the Fat Man? was spend discussing the move from thought experiments to actual experiments, which I think give extra weight to some of the conclusions supported by the evidence found in the course of research. Overall, I learned a lot from this book, and it is one that I would be happy to recommend.