Episode
Michael Munger on How Adam Smith Solved the Trolley Problem
EconTalk · Sep 18, 2023 · 1 h 11 min
In the original version of a now classic thought experiment, five people are about to be killed by a runaway trolley. Would you divert the trolley knowing that your choice will kill a single innocent bystander? Listen as Michael Munger of Duke University argues that Adam Smith gave an answer to this challenge a few hundred years before it was proposed by the philosopher Philippa Foot and brought…