"trolley problem" meaning in All languages combined

See trolley problem on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: trolley problems [plural]
Etymology: Coined by American philosopher Judith Thomson. Etymology templates: {{coin|en|Judith Thomson|nat=American|nocat=1|occ=philosopher|w=Judith Jarvis Thomson}} Coined by American philosopher Judith Thomson Head templates: {{en-noun}} trolley problem (plural trolley problems)
  1. A type of thought experiment in ethics and psychology, involving ethical dilemmas of whether to sacrifice one person to save a larger number. Categories (topical): Ethics Related terms: trolleyology, Heinz dilemma
    Sense id: en-trolley_problem-en-noun-ZNSPlMSn Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Judith Thomson",
        "nat": "American",
        "nocat": "1",
        "occ": "philosopher",
        "w": "Judith Jarvis Thomson"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by American philosopher Judith Thomson",
      "name": "coin"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by American philosopher Judith Thomson.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "trolley problems",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "trolley problem (plural trolley problems)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ethics",
          "orig": "en:Ethics",
          "parents": [
            "Philosophy",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015 October 9, Lauren Cassani Davis, “Would You Pull the Trolley Switch? Does it Matter?”, in The Atlantic:",
          "text": "By the late ‘90s, trolley problems had fallen out of fashion. Many philosophers questioned the value of the conclusions reached by analyzing a situation so bizarre and specific.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A type of thought experiment in ethics and psychology, involving ethical dilemmas of whether to sacrifice one person to save a larger number."
      ],
      "id": "en-trolley_problem-en-noun-ZNSPlMSn",
      "links": [
        [
          "thought experiment",
          "thought experiment"
        ],
        [
          "ethics",
          "ethics"
        ],
        [
          "psychology",
          "psychology"
        ],
        [
          "dilemma",
          "dilemma"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "trolleyology"
        },
        {
          "word": "Heinz dilemma"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "trolley problem"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Judith Thomson",
        "nat": "American",
        "nocat": "1",
        "occ": "philosopher",
        "w": "Judith Jarvis Thomson"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by American philosopher Judith Thomson",
      "name": "coin"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by American philosopher Judith Thomson.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "trolley problems",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "trolley problem (plural trolley problems)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "trolleyology"
    },
    {
      "word": "Heinz dilemma"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Ethics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015 October 9, Lauren Cassani Davis, “Would You Pull the Trolley Switch? Does it Matter?”, in The Atlantic:",
          "text": "By the late ‘90s, trolley problems had fallen out of fashion. Many philosophers questioned the value of the conclusions reached by analyzing a situation so bizarre and specific.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A type of thought experiment in ethics and psychology, involving ethical dilemmas of whether to sacrifice one person to save a larger number."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "thought experiment",
          "thought experiment"
        ],
        [
          "ethics",
          "ethics"
        ],
        [
          "psychology",
          "psychology"
        ],
        [
          "dilemma",
          "dilemma"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "trolley problem"
}

Download raw JSONL data for trolley problem meaning in All languages combined (1.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.