Michael Munger on How Adam Smith Solved the Trolley Problem

Published: Sept. 18, 2023, 10:30 a.m.

b"In the original version of a now classic thought experiment, five\\xa0people are about to be killed by a runaway trolley. Would\\xa0you divert the trolley knowing that your choice will kill a single innocent bystander? Listen as\\xa0Michael 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 vividly to life in the miniseries,\\xa0The Good Place. Along the way, Munger and EconTalk's Russ Roberts discuss effective altruism, the moral claims of Peter Singer, what the trolley problem really tells us, if anything, and how our moral choices\\xa0differ\\xa0according to context."