Philosophy can help us navigate the moral dilemmas of the Covid-19 crisis.

People who ponder morality for a living—moral philosophers—often concoct thought experiments involving wildly improbable scenarios to stress test our theories. Consider the rule that we should take whatever action is necessary to save the most lives, which seems like a no-brainer. But now suppose a healthy young man comes to the hospital for a routine test. As it happens, the hospital is treating six mortally ill patients, each in need of a different vital organ. So the doctors decide that they should euthanize the young man and use his organs to pull six patients from the jaws of death. This scenario is a challenge to utilitarianism—the view that doing right consists of acting to achieve the greatest good of the greatest number. The doctors have done that—but have they done the right thing?

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