Trolleys, Drones and the Deadly Effects of Scientistic Ethics

Abstract This paper critiques the ‘Trolley Problem’ tradition in moral philosophy as simplistically reductive and dangerous in its applications. Beginning with Philippa Foot’s abortion arguments and evolving through Judith Thomson’s and Robert Nozick’s work, trolleyology abstracts moral decisions from social context, masking a politics of extreme individualism. This decontextualized approach, masquerading as objective moral science, has pernicious real-world consequences. The paper traces how trolleyology has influenced ‘Revisionist’ Just War theory, which reduces collective political conflict to individual self-defense scenarios. This reductive framework has helped justify contemporary drone warfare and targeted killing by treating complex military decisions as simple moral calculations. I argue that genuine ethical thought requires engagement with social context, relationships, and political complexity rather than abstract thought experiments.