A philosophy isn’t a religion. You need to think philosophy by yourself, and not just one school of philosophy, since each of them have a point of view that could help you. I also think each of this school can be monstruous and misleading if you follow blindly its principles ; but each may help you to think each situation by yourself more efficiently.
Let’s take utilitarianism, maximizing the good. In many situations it applies smoothly. For the trolley track problem an utilitarian easily sacrify the one lonely to save the 5. Yet if you change the problem as: you are in an hospital and 5 patients need a different organ for transplantation ; an healthy universal donor kid is in a room waiting for a minor broken leg ; do you kill the kid to save the 5? Utilitarian principles should still say yes, but you may feel that in that case applying them would be wrong.
Those who would have faith in the utilitarianism, and apply it as a religion, may not see the problem. Of course, some may have both faith and some doubts. But I think they would think better if they think by themselves, using different philosophical principles, and without an authority to share the responsability of their decisions.
A philosophy isn’t a religion. You need to think philosophy by yourself, and not just one school of philosophy, since each of them have a point of view that could help you. I also think each of this school can be monstruous and misleading if you follow blindly its principles ; but each may help you to think each situation by yourself more efficiently.
Let’s take utilitarianism, maximizing the good. In many situations it applies smoothly. For the trolley track problem an utilitarian easily sacrify the one lonely to save the 5. Yet if you change the problem as: you are in an hospital and 5 patients need a different organ for transplantation ; an healthy universal donor kid is in a room waiting for a minor broken leg ; do you kill the kid to save the 5? Utilitarian principles should still say yes, but you may feel that in that case applying them would be wrong.
Those who would have faith in the utilitarianism, and apply it as a religion, may not see the problem. Of course, some may have both faith and some doubts. But I think they would think better if they think by themselves, using different philosophical principles, and without an authority to share the responsability of their decisions.