moral dilemmas

• Morality


  Involves what we ought to do, right and wrong, good and bad, values, justice, and virtues
• Moral actions


  Praise and Rewards; Blame and Punishment
• Not everything is morally right or wrong
• What we morally or non-morally ought to do

  • Moral instrumental value - we ought to do what is necessary to attain moral goals
  • Non-moral instrumental value - personal goals that have nothing to do with morality; some could even be immoral
• Etiquette


  It tells us how to be polite and show respect within a culture. Not serious enough to be morally relevant.
• Law


  It tells use what we are or are not allowed to do. Legality and morality are not identical.
• What distinguishes moral standards from non-moral standards

  • Moral standards deal with matters that can seriously injure or benefit human beings
  • The validity of moral standards rests on the adequacy of reasons to support and justify them, not on decisions of majority or authoritative bodies
  • Moral standards are to be preferred to other values, including self-interest
  • Moral standards are based on impartial considerations
  • Moral standards are associated with special emotions such as "guilt", "shame", "remorse", "praise", "indignation"
• Non-compliance with moral standards seriously injure us as human beings
• Individual responsibility cannot be taken in isolation from social responsibility
• There is no standard definition of what morality is
• Moral dilemma


  An experience where an agent is confused about the right decision to make because there are several competing values that are seemingly equally important and urgent
• The existence of rival theories concerning morality expounds different conceptions on what it means to live morally
• There is a "minimum conception of morality"
• Morality is, at the very least, the effort to guide one's conduct by reason—that is, to do what there are the best reasons for doing—while giving equal weight to the interests of each individual affected by one's decision