"trolley problem" meaning in English

See trolley problem in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: trolley problems [plural]
Etymology: Coined by American philosopher Judith Thomson. The problems usually involve deciding whom to save from an approaching trolley that can be diverted but not stopped. 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 Translations (Translations): dilemme du tramway [masculine] (French)

Inflected forms

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Download raw JSONL data for trolley problem meaning in English (1.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.

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