Today’s dilemma

Every day, one moral dilemma. No right answers. Only your uncertain choice.

Play today’s dilemmaInstall Torn

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I · Today’s dilemma

One question. Take your time.

No. 001 · SamplePrivacy

The App

Your daughter is 16. Lately she comes home late, is vague about where she’s been and has stopped talking to you. She’s never been in trouble. You could secretly switch on location sharing on her phone, and she’d almost certainly never find out. She has told you that being trusted matters more to her than anything.

Do you switch it on?

Press and hold your answer for two seconds.

Committed. In Torn, you’d now predict whether most people chose as you did, and then see the world’s split.

Get Torn on your phone

A sample to try: nothing on this page is saved or sent.

II · How it works

Choose. Predict. See the world’s split.

  1. I

    Choose

    Read the dilemma, then press and hold your answer to commit. The hold is short, but long enough to mean it.

  2. II

    Predict

    Guess whether the majority chose as you did. It’s a quiet test of how well you read other people.

  3. III

    See the world’s split

    The scales tip toward the side most people chose. A close split isn’t a failure; it’s the interesting part.

The split shown is an example. Percentages appear once 100 people have answered.

III · Get Torn

Nothing to download.

Torn runs in your browser. Add it to your home screen and it opens like any other app. App Store and Google Play versions come later.

IV · The story

A crossroads, and the order of things.

Prodicus · fifth century BC

The Choice of Heracles

The teacher Prodicus told of the young Heracles at a fork in the road, met by two figures who each offered him a different life. Xenophon kept the story for us in his Memorabilia. It is one of the oldest moral dilemmas in Western writing.

Aristotle · Metaphysics B

First the difficulty, then the judgment

Aristotle says you can’t judge well until you have worked through the difficulties, like a juror who has heard both sides. Torn keeps that order. First the impasse, then the choice.

Why “Torn”?

Read the story

V · The Library Coming later

Moral philosophy, read slowly.

Torn will grow into a library: the thinkers, the ideas and the classic dilemmas behind each day’s choice, written for curious people rather than for exams.

Thinkers

From Prodicus and Aristotle to Philippa Foot: who they were, and what they would ask you.

Concepts

Aporia, akrasia, moral luck. The ideas in plain English, with the Greek where it helps.

Classic dilemmas

The trolley, Sartre’s student, the Choice of Heracles. Read the history, then answer them yourself.