Preliminary Research On The Dilemma Of Moral Choice

Moral life is complicated, while moral principles are diverse. So there can often be moral dilemmas. In order to study the dilemma moral of moral choice more effectively, the trolley problem was put forward. As a thought experiment, the trolley problem is a point cut to the study of ethical issues. The conflict between deontology and utilitarianism involved in the trolley problem forces people to re-examine our moral principles in moral judgment. Because intuition in moral judgment of the trolley problem is influenced by many factors, so comes out the conflict among moral principles. The complexity of the moral situation encourages people to examine our moral judgment.First of all, we will introduce how the trolley problem was raised, and further we will analyze the conflict of moral principles in moral intuition, that is, the conflict between deontology and utilitarianism. Then, we will introduce the traditional ways of detecting moral principles for the trolley problem and then argue that the traditional ways cannot explain the trolley problem efficiently, which is mainly because of the complexity of the trolley problem. Then we will analyze the main subjective and objective factors which influence the moral judgment of the trolley problem.Secondly, as mentioned above, because of the complexity of the trolley situation, traditional rationalism cannot provide a satisfactory explanation for the trolley problem. So we will try to analyze the trolley problem from the perspective of moral judgment. We will then analyze the moral judgment theories which emphasize intuition and emotion. These theories are built on the basis of the interdisciplinary researches of social psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Our emphases will be on the Social Intuitionist model and the dual-process model theory, and will narrate the origin and structure, and analyze the explanatory power respectively to the trolley problem.Thirdly, Social Intuitionist model changed the focus of moral judgment from rationality to intuition, but it did not explain the content of the intuition in the view of neuroscience, while the dual-process model deemed that emotional and cognitive processes were separately conscious and unconscious, which makes its explanatory power of the trolley problem weak. So in the end, we will integrate the two theories, put forward our own theory of moral judgment——the Social Intuitionist dual-process theory. We attempts to use emotional and cognitive process in the field of intuition to explain the trolley problem, and hope that with the development of cognitive science, the theory could be more comprehensive.The trolley problem is raised in the discussion of abortion in the applied ethics, and the conflict of two main principles of normative ethics in it caused the ongoing discussion. Then it entered the field of cognitive neuroscience and sparked the research for human moral judgment. We expect to follow this line of thinking to offer a reasonable explanation for the trolley problem, and hopefully to help people to have a better understand of our moral life.