Ethics Commentary. There is a great example for changing principles for different situations; it is named the Trolley Problem

different situations; it is named the Trolley Problem. In this problem we have two situations. In the first situation you have a runaway trolley, you are inside this trolley and the tracks in front of you have four people working on the track, and on the other track you have just one person. You have control over the tracks the trolley is going to continue in. In this situation most people would choose to switch tracks and kill just one person instead of four, this is utilitarianism (doing the best for the majority of the society). In the second situation you also have the runaway trolley and the four people in front of it, however this time you have a bridge over the track and a fat guy which you can push over. You know that if you push him he will stop the train and save the other four people. There is just one problem he is telling you he doesn’t want to do it. In this situation the majority of people would say that they would let the trolley go and kill the four people. If you compare the two the situations are almost the same you kill one person to save four, because in the first situation you are killing one guy because you are changing the tracks and making a decision to kill this person. However, pushing someone over a bridge feels more like you really have to do with the situation and its your fault he died, this is known as self-interest (doing what benefits yourself most).         As one can see, it is easy to change principles dependent on the situation. So is Groucho Marx’s quote really a critique to people who say they have principles? Because it is true, everyone has their different way of dealing with different situations and everyone supposedly have principles, however they are constant changing principles. For instances in the Trolley Problem it is hard to find someone that would switch the tracks and simultaneously push the fat guy in front of the train in both different situations. People’s principles adapt to everyday changing situations, of course this is a generalization, some people may literally follow whatever principles the have in every situation that occurs in their life.