Philippa Foot is most known for her invention of the Trolley Problem thought experiment in the 1960s. A lesser known variation of hers is as follows:
Suppose that a judge is faced with rioters demanding that a culprit be found for a certain crime. The rioters are threatening to take bloody revenge on a particular section of the community. The real culprit being unknown, the judge sees himself as able to prevent the bloodshed from the riots only by framing some innocent person and having them executed.
These are the only two options: execute an innocent person for a crime they did not commit, or let people riot in the streets knowing that people will die. If you were the judge, what would you do?
Isnβt this just a ripoff of the magical realist story about the utopia being propped up a single boy being tortured in the basement? Or did that story come after?
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas was written in the 70s. So the Trolley Problem came first. But, obviously, consequentialism predates them both
Great story for anyone who's interested btw
Ursula Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf