The Refutation Of St. Thomas Aquinas And Immanuel Kant

Refutation of St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant

“The Trolley Problem” poses different situations that are difficult to answer. Readers question their morality on multiple levels while reading about events that speak of maximum happiness, whether it is a human’s right to “play” God, and intuition. While the original trolley problem was created by philosopher Philippa Foot, the book focused on the case of Daphne Jones who threw a switch and diverted a runaway train onto a siding. She turned the train from hitting five people who were on the originally planned track and instead hit the only person of the siding, Chester Farley. Thomas Cathcart, the author of “The Trolley Problem” compiled other events similar to Jones’ along with the transcripts from the Court of Public Opinion to help the reader create their own verdict before finding what the fate of Daphne Jones really was. Cathcart also added the thoughts of famous philosophers whose moral beliefs could impact a reader’s verdict. Two of those included were St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant. Aquinas and Kant’s beliefs did not align which made reading “The Trolley Problem” even more interesting and difficult to keep the reader’s morality in check.

Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic priest who was considered one of the most significant Medieval philosophers. He argued for the existence of God and the principle of the double effect. When answering the ethical question of whether is it permittable to perform an action that causes both good and bad consequences, he believed it was allowed. He held to four conditions which included; the action has to be morally good or at least indifferent, the person should obtain a good consequence without the bad consequence if able to, the good effect must come directly from the action itself and not by the bad effect, and lastly the good consequence must be so desirable that it can compensate for the bad