Philippa Ruth Foot

(British moral philosopher, 1920–) is one of the founders of contemporary virtue ethics and a consistent critic of utilitarian and other forms of consequentialist ethics. Foot has been crucial for the reemergence of normative ethics within analytic philosophy, and discussion of her so-called "trolley problem" (i.e., a trolley hurtles along a track threatening to kill five people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher; the only way to save them is by pulling a lever that will divert the trolley onto a different track to which only one person has been tied--should you pull the lever saving five but killing one?) is ongoing. Foot's major publications include Virtues and Vices and Other Essays in Moral Philosophy (1978), Natural Goodness (2001), and Moral Dilemmas: And Other Topics in Moral Philosophy (2002).