Ethical dilemmas

Definition

Ethical dilemmas are situations where a person faces conflicting moral principles, making it challenging to choose the right course of action. These conflicts often arise when obligations or values clash, leaving individuals uncertain about what decision to make. Understanding ethical dilemmas is crucial as they require not only problem-solving skills but also an awareness of various ethical theories and character traits that influence decision-making.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. Ethical dilemmas often involve situations where multiple ethical principles conflict, such as honesty versus loyalty or individual rights versus the greater good.
2. Resolving ethical dilemmas typically requires critical thinking and a systematic approach to analyze potential outcomes and consequences of different choices.
3. Different ethical theories, such as virtue ethics, consequentialism, and deontology, provide unique frameworks for understanding and resolving ethical dilemmas.
4. The ability to navigate ethical dilemmas is essential for professionals in fields like medicine, law, and business, where they often face tough choices that impact lives and communities.
5. Key virtues like courage, integrity, and empathy play a significant role in how individuals respond to ethical dilemmas, influencing their decision-making process.

Review Questions

• How can understanding various ethical theories help in resolving ethical dilemmas?
  • Understanding different ethical theories provides frameworks that can guide individuals through the complexities of ethical dilemmas. For instance, virtue ethics emphasizes the character traits necessary for making sound decisions, while consequentialism focuses on the potential outcomes of actions. This knowledge allows individuals to weigh their options based on different principles, leading to more informed and balanced choices.
• Discuss how key virtues influence decision-making in ethical dilemmas.
  • Key virtues such as courage, integrity, and empathy significantly shape how individuals approach ethical dilemmas. For example, courage may encourage someone to take a stand for what is right even when faced with backlash, while integrity ensures that one's actions align with their moral values. Empathy can help individuals understand the perspectives of those affected by their decisions, leading to choices that consider the well-being of others.
• Evaluate the implications of ethical relativism on how people perceive and resolve ethical dilemmas in diverse cultures.
  • Ethical relativism suggests that moral judgments vary across cultures and contexts, which can complicate how ethical dilemmas are perceived and resolved. In diverse societies, what one culture views as acceptable may be considered wrong by another. This perspective encourages a broader understanding of moral issues but also raises challenges when trying to establish common ground or shared values in resolving conflicts arising from ethical dilemmas.

Related terms

Moral Absolutism:

The belief that there are absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged, and that certain actions are inherently right or wrong.

Ethical Relativism: The view that moral judgments are valid only relative to a specific cultural context or individual perspective, meaning that there is no universal moral truth.

Consequentialism:

An ethical theory that judges whether an action is right or wrong based on the outcomes it produces, emphasizing the importance of the results rather than the intentions behind the action.