
Philosophical Puzzles: Trolley Problem, Heuristics, Ducking vs. Shielding, and Moral Luck
Tamar Gendler, teaching Yale's Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature, closes out the Trolley Problem discussion with Cass Sunstein's proposed resolution before turning to heuristics and biases as they show up in risk regulation. She then introduces two further puzzles: the ducking versus shielding problem devised by Christopher Boorse and Roy Sorensen, and the problem of moral luck. Gendler argues that ducking/shielding can likely be resolved through the same heuristic-based reasoning used earlier, but that moral luck runs deeper, since an action's blameworthiness can shift with consequences the agent never controlled. The lecture ends by pushing that puzzle toward the harder territory of free will and moral responsibility. Chapter markers split the session into the Sunstein discussion, risk regulation and heuristics, ducking versus shielding, and moral luck.