Moral Dilemma’s

I have done some research on moral dilemma’s and the different categories a dilemma could fall in to.

What is a moral dilemma?

I dilemma is a situation where a person is forced to choose between two or more conflicting options, and neither of them are considered morally “Good”. When dilemmas involve human actions which have moral implications, they are called ethical or moral dilemmas.

Types of moral dilemmas:

The most common moral dilemmas are categorized into the following:

• Epistemistic and ontological dilemmas.
• Self imposed and world imposed dilemmas.
• Obligation dilemmas and prohibition dilemmas.
• Single agent and multi person dilemmas.

Epistemic moral dilemmas:

These involve situations where two or more moral requirements conflict with each other and that the moral agent hardly knows which of the conflicting morals are more significant over the other.

Ontological moral dilemmas:

These dilemmas involve situations where two or more moral requirements conflict with each other, but neither of these morals override each other. This means that the moral agent can hardly choose between the conflicting moral requirements.

A self-imposed moral dilemma:

These dilemmas are caused by the moral agents wrongdoings.

A world-imposed moral dilemma:

This means that certain events in the world place the moral agent in a situation of moral conflict.

Obligation dilemmas:

They are situations in which more than one feasible action is obligatory.

Prohibition dilemmas:

Involve cases in which all feasible actions are forbidden.

Here are some examples of moral dilemma’s:

• Shopping at a company that is known for sweat-shop use.
• Assaulting a paedophile.
• Going hunting.
• Eating meat/ animal produce.- between two people.
• Refusing to give change to a homeless person.
• Helping someone who is being mugged.
• Drug use.
• Jumping in front of someone in a line.
• Media giving people false information.
• Vandalism.
• Stealing from companies/ stealing from an individual.
• Taking a burger that somebody accidentally left on the side.
• Giving up your seat on the bus for an old person if you’re tired.
• Killing a spider or catching it throwing it outside.
• Getting undercharged at a restaurant.
• Error at self serving till/ putting things in your bag straight from shelf.