Moral Dilemma
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A Moral Dilemma is a moral choice that is a dilemma (between conflicting moral imperatives).
- AKA: Ethical Paradox.
- Context:
- It can arise in various situations where multiple Moral Requirements conflict and none takes precedence.
- It can also refer to situations where all available choices are morally unacceptable.
- ...
- Example(s):
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Moral Imperative, Ethical Theory, Ethical Paradox.
References
2023
- (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ethical_dilemma Retrieved:2023-9-4.
- In philosophy, ethical dilemmas, also called ethical paradoxes or moral dilemmas, are situations in which an agent stands under two (or more) conflicting moral requirements, none of which overrides the other. A closely related definition characterizes ethical dilemmas as situations in which every available choice is wrong. The term is also used in a wider sense in everyday language to refer to ethical conflicts that may be resolvable, to psychologically difficult choices or to other types of difficult ethical problems. This article is about ethical dilemmas in the strict philosophical sense, often referred to as genuine ethical dilemmas. Various examples have been proposed but there is disagreement as to whether these constitute genuine or merely apparent ethical dilemmas. The central debate around ethical dilemmas concerns the question of whether there are any. Defenders often point to apparent examples while their opponents usually aim to show their existence contradicts very fundamental ethical principles. Ethical dilemmas come in various types. An important distinction concerns the difference between epistemic dilemmas, which give a possibly false impression to the agent of an unresolvable conflict, and actual or ontological dilemmas. There is broad agreement that there are epistemic dilemmas but the main interest in ethical dilemmas takes place on the ontological level. Traditionally, philosophers held that it is a requirement for good moral theories to be free from ethical dilemmas. But this assumption has been questioned in contemporary philosophy.