The trolley car dilemma solved!

I've never understood why it's even a dilemma. If one course of action leads to less loss of life than another course (and you know that for sure), then you take it.

Most of my students either struggle with this or are certain they would never push him. Part of the problem, as you point out, is that it's hard to be sure it would work. The bigger issue for many people is that you are choosing to use the heavy guy as a means to an end and you are intending his harm. This hypothetical helps people think about whether they look at ethics solely with regard to the consequences of their actions. For many people (including, I think, your namesake), ethics and virtue are about more than just consequences.

I guess I'm one of those people that looks at ethics solely with regard to consequences (or at least, I give consequences a great deal of weight).

In the scenario, it's true that you are intending him harm, but it could also be said that if you are the only free agent there who's aware of the situation and you don't push him (or quickly find another solution at least as viable), you are (at least indirectly) intending the harm of the passengers. In other words, you're counting their lives as less valuable than your ability to stay within your ethical comfort zone, which is extremely selfish.

I haven't thought about it at length though, and there may be variables I'm not considering.

By the way, the fact that I chose socrates as a username doesn't indicate any affinity with his beliefs or even knowledge of them.

I just wanted a username that would be simple for me to remember, since I didn't know how long it would be before I logged into the site again.

Guess what? I saw someone else make a meme about a philosophical issue (about how we know whether anything apart from our mind is reality). Thought you might be interested in having a look:

imgflip.com/i/138aeu