When I mentioned the classic trolley problem, that was not to say that it’s analogous. The analogous trolley problem would be a trolley barreling down a track that splits in two and rejoins. On the current course of a trolley there are a number of people drawn from distribution X who will stop the trolley if hit. But if the trolley is diverted to the other side of the fork, it will hit a number of people drawn from distribution Y. The question to ask would be: “What type of difference between X and Y would cause you to not pull the lever and instead work on finding other levers to pull?” Even a Kantian ought to agree that not pulling the lever is good if the mean of Y is greater than the mean of X.
When I mentioned the classic trolley problem, that was not to say that it’s analogous. The analogous trolley problem would be a trolley barreling down a track that splits in two and rejoins. On the current course of a trolley there are a number of people drawn from distribution X who will stop the trolley if hit. But if the trolley is diverted to the other side of the fork, it will hit a number of people drawn from distribution Y. The question to ask would be: “What type of difference between X and Y would cause you to not pull the lever and instead work on finding other levers to pull?” Even a Kantian ought to agree that not pulling the lever is good if the mean of Y is greater than the mean of X.