I find problems 1 and 2 to be slam-dunk easy (can you guess from my other political views how strongly I value the right of self-defense?).
Like everyone who's ever taken a college philosophy class I've had plenty of opportunity to think about (and discuss) the trolley problem and its variants; I tend to be one of the few people in the room (sometimes the only one) who opposes throwing the switch.
The Time quiz doesn't include the "famous violinist" problem (nine months of detaining one man so that another might live: one of the most thinly-veiled allegories in this realm); my answer to that one is consistent with pro-life principles.
(For what it's worth, related to practical sociopolitics rather than abstract philosophy, one of my five biggest regrets in life is having been so vocally anti-abortion over the years. Since I somehow doubt that I personally have talked anyone out of having an abortion, that outspokenness has easily done more harm than good.)
Posted by Matt Bruce at November 24, 2007 09:41 PMUgh, sorry Matt -- I couldn't do it. Various absurd absolutes make it just a needless exercise in my book. I will give them credit for leaving out the famous violinist test-case; I'm taking your word on that, as I didn't make it past, like, #2.
Cooking up crap like this doesn't take a whole lot of effort, and doesn't serve (in my opinion) a whole lot of purpose. "There's only one abortionist in town, and there is only one road that gets to his office. A bus (which nobody can leave until they reach the office) is filled with 100 women (of various stages of pregnancy) looking to 'choose'. They want to travel down the road, but are being blocked by a vociferous PETA/Pride/Kucinich4Prez co-parade..."
Posted by: ZD at November 25, 2007 10:04 AM