The trolley problem, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the television series “The Good Place”, and allegory and literature as thought experiments

This morning, on my way to teaching a session on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" (1948), I passed a classroom where I spotted a slide from a presentation on "the trolley problem", philosopher Philippa Foot's 1967 thought experiment. In class, then, we discussed "The Lottery" itself as a literary thought experiment akin to the trolley problem and the scientific thought experiments of Albert Einstein or Erwin Schrödinger. But I also referred to the vivid, macabre presentation of the trolley problem in episode 6 of the second season of the television series "The Good Place". Ultimately, we linked "The Lottery" as a thought experiment to allegory in particular and to literature in general. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 13 November 2024)

Screenshot from Season 2, Episode 6 of The Good Place