Imagine that a trolley whose breaks have stopped working is headed to hit five workers. You see a lever that will change the direction of the trolley, it will save the five workers, but if you turn it, a worker that is on the other track will be hit. What would you do? Don't do nothing and let five people die? Or move the lever and kill one?

 

     There isn't a correct way to live your life or make decisions like this, and you don't have to decide to live your life in the same way forever. Because you believe something is right, it doesn't mean that another way can't be right as well, but understanding their differences is crucial for you to learn more about yourself and to understand why you do what you do, in the particular way you do it. 

To understand their differences, first you need to understand their concepts. So, let's start with deontology. The word deontology comes from Greek. It means the study of duty. Simplifying it, deontology is basically a way of making decisions based on your ethics and your moral values. It focuses on the way you do anything more than what the consequence of that is.The right thing to do is not to pull the lever because it doesn't matter if killing one person will save five, killing is wrong , and you must fulfill your duty to do what is right, so you won't do it.

 

     A famous philosopher who is very influential to Deontology is Immanuel Kant. Kant argues that your moral values are something logical, and that when you make your actions or decisions based on the consequences it won't be logical, it will be emotional. Therefore in no circumstances should our feelings interfere with our actions, which is why Deontology will always try to bring reason and logic to their decisions. So, in the trolley problem a Deontologist wouldn't turn the lever, because they would be killing someone, and going against their ethical duty.

 

     The Utilitarian theory was first published and written by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century, but it was thought about much earlier than that. It was first thought of during the Greek empire by a philosopher named Epicurus, who would say that our decisions should be based on the outcome. In other words, we should focus on why we are doing this instead of how. They would focus on the state things will be in after your decision is taken. To clarify, let's recall the trolley problem. The utilitarian would see that he is killing one, but he is saving 5. Therefore, he is benefiting 4 people; the decision to pull the lever is easy. He decides that as more people are surviving, it doesn't matter what he does. If you have ever watched Avengers, just take Thanos as an example of a very extreme utilitarian. He believes that the way living beings are surviving will destroy the universe, hunger and poverty will only increase and eventually all will die. So he decides to kill off half of each world's population so that hunger and poverty are alleviated, and more people are saved in the long term. 

 

     So, as you can see there is a big difference between these two ideas. There is no way to prove that one way is better than the other. Movies have always tried to imply that Deontology is the correct way. Let's see another example, because Thanos, which is Utilitarian, is considered a villain, so let's look at a hero. Batman is one of the best examples you could possibly have. He has had multiple chances of killing The Joker, but he never does so because it is wrong killing, but The Joker always ends up killing more people because of that, either way, Batman won't kill him, because it is wrong to kill. 

 

     As you can see, it's really not that simple. You will always be judged by the decisions you make, but you should always follow your beliefs: pulling the lever or not, it's up to you.