The brakes of the train that Casey Jones is driving have just failed. There are five people on the track ahead of the train. There is no way that they can get off the track before the train hits them. The track has a side track leading off to the right, and Casey can hit a button to direct the train onto it. Unfortunately, there is one person stuck on the side track. Casey can turn the train, killing one person, or he can allow the train to continue onwards, killing five people. What would Kant say to do and why? (Be sure to use his concepts of duty and categorical imperative.)

Kant would say that Casey should not turn the train, because, even if she could save the lives of five people by killing one person, she would be violating that one person´s right to live.

Explanation:

In Kant´s deontological ethical theory, the basic law is the categorical imperative, which dictates that an action should be considered good based on the motive behind it, despite the actual outcome of such action. Right and wrong depend on the duties and obligations people have. For example, our duty is not to kill. However, the inflexibility of this philosophy leads to counterintuitive conclusions, such as the decision to allow five people to die instead of only one.