title: Would You Kill the Fat Man?: The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong
author:  David Edmonds 
description: <b>&quot;Honorable Mention for the 2015 PROSE Award in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers&quot;</b><br /><br /><b>&quot;One of Choice&#39;s Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014&quot;</b><br /><br />"A lucid account of a famous thought experiment in moral philosophy."<b>---Editors' Choice, <i>New York Times Book Review</i></b><br /><br />"[J]aunty, lucid and concise. . . . In <i>Would You Kill the Fat Man?</i> David Edmonds . . . a seasoned philosopher, tells the story . . . with wit and panache."<b>---Sarah Bakewell, <i>New York Times Book Review</i></b><br /><br />"[E]legant, lucid, and frequently funny. . . . Edmonds has written an entertaining, clear-headed, and fair-minded book."<b>---Cass R. Sunstein, <i>New York Review of Books</i></b><br /><br />"[E]legantly written . . . Edmonds's book is especially valuable for the way in which it embeds his introduction to the trolley problem in a story of the social reality that produced it."<b>---Hallvard Lillehammer, <i>Times Literary Supplement</i></b><br /><br />"David Edmonds's vastly more ambitious <i>Would You Kill the Fat Man?</i> has the cartoons--and just about everything else you could want in a thoughtful popular treatment of [the trolley problem]. A marvel of economy and learning worn lightly, Mr. Edmonds's book ranges pleasurably back to Aquinas and forward into the future of robots, who will of course need an ethics just as much as people do. Perhaps best of all, Mr. Edmonds recognizes that the origins of 'trolleyology' are at least as interesting as the many philosophical writings, academic exercises and parlor games that have sprung from the original trolley paper, published in 1967 by an English philosopher named Philippa Foot."<b>---Daniel Akst, <i>Wall Street Journal</i></b><br /><br />"An accessible, humorous examination of how people approach complex ethical dilemmas. . . . Written for general readers, the book captures the complexities underpinning difficult decisions." (<i>Publishers Weekly</i>)<br /><br />"Informative, accessible, engaging and witty, his book is a marvelous introduction to debates about right and wrong in philosophy, psychology, and neuro-science. . . . In the hands of a lucid explicator like David Edmonds, trolleyology is, at once, serious business (relevant, among others things, to preferences for drone strikes) and lots of fun."<b>---Glenn Altschuler, <i>Psychology Today</i></b><br /><br />"This is a rare treat--a serious, thought-provoking book on ethics that is also witty, funny, and entertaining. Not to be missed. . . . David Edmonds has taken the well-known trolley car problem and breathed new life into it, examining it from different perspectives and using it to shed light on the ethical theories of Immanuel Kant, Jeremy Bentham, John Rawls, Aristotle, and others. If you think philosophy has to be ponderous and difficult, you haven't read this book. . . . What's intoxicating about this book is that every time you think you know what you think, Edmonds tosses out a new element. . . . There's lots more to enjoy and learn from this book, a real gem and one of my new favorites."<b>---Mark Willen, <i>TalkingEthics.com</i></b>
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  The Riding-Whip  
    
  
  
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  # The Riding-Whip
  
  
  ### George Gissing
  
  
  
  
  
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  It was not easy for Mr. Daffy to leave his shop for the whole day, but an
  urgent affair called him to London, and he breakfasted early in order to catch
  the 8.30 train. On account of his asthma he had to allow himself plenty of
  time for the walk to the station; and all would have been well, but that, just
  as he was polishing his silk hat and giving final directions to his assistant,
  in stepped a customer, who came to grumble about the fit of a new coat. Ten
  good minutes were thus consumed, and with a painful glance at his watch the
  breathless tailor at length started. The walk was uphill the sun was already
  powerful Mr. Daffy reached the station with dripping forehead and panting as
  if his sides would burst. T