MORAL DILLEMA AND MORAL AGENT

WHAT ARE DILEMMAS???

Refers in a situation which a though choice has to be made between two or more options, especially more or less equally
undesirable ones.

Yet not all dilemmas are moral dilemmas.

Moral dilemmas are situations in which a difficult choice has to be made between two courses of action, either it entails
transgressing a moral principle.

 AT THE VERY LEAST, A MORAL DILEMMA INVOLVED CONFLICTS BETWEEN MORAL

REQUIREMENTS

WHAT ARE DILEMMAS???

Plato’s Book I in his republic discusses moral dilemmas, to which he gave this example:
 “Cephalus defines ‘justice’ as speaking the truth and paying one’s debt. Socrates quickly refutes this account by
suggesting that it would be wrong to repay certain debts, -
- for example, to return a borrowed weapon to a friend who is not in his right mind. Socrates’ point is not that
repaying debts is without moral import, rather, he wants to show that it is not always right to repay one’s
debts, at least not exactly when the one to whom the debt is owed demands repayment.
- What we have here is a conflict between two moral norms: repaying one’s debt and protecting others from
harm…”
-
WHAT ARE DILEMMAS???

 The presence of conflicts make dilemmas common to each other

 In a moral dilemmas, the agent, which is you, regards himself as having moral reasons to do each of two actions,
but doing both actions seems to be ethically impossible.

Key features of a moral dilemma:

 The agent is required to do each of the two (or more) actions;

 The agent can do each of the actions; but the agent cannot do both (or all) of the actions; and

 *In order to have a genuine moral dilemma, neither of the conflicting moral requirements are overridden.

LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMAS

There are three levels of moral dilemmas, namely: (a) personal, (b) organizational, and (c) structural.

Personal Dilemmas

Experienced and resolved on a personal level. Since many ethical decisions are personally made, many, if not most of,
moral dilemmas fall into this level.

There are many other personal moral dilemmas. If a person makes conflicting promises, he faces moral conflict. When
an individual has to choose between the life of a child who is about to be delivered and the child’s mother, the person
faces an ethical dilemma.

Organizational Dilemmas
These are ethical cases encountered and resolved by social organizations. This category includes moral dilemmas in
business, medical field, and public sector.

These can be present in our professional work. It could be in the issues of corporate practices. Policies, business
behaviors, and conducts and relationships of individuals in the organizations.
- It could be also other business-related dilemmas such as the social responsibility of business, employee
rights, harassments, labor unions, misleading advertising, job discrimination, and whistleblowing.

 Public officials and employees have a moral duty to act and serve in a manner that is fair and unbiased. In
fulfilling their responsibilities, public officials may encounter foreseeable moral dilemmas and knows how to
resolve such.

Structural Dilemmas

These involves network of institutions and operative theoretical paradigms. As they usually encompass multi-sectoral
institutions and organizations, they may be larger on scope and extent than organizational dilemmas.

For example, the price of medicine in our country is far higher than of other countries in Asia with the same economic
state. Factors affecting the price includes;
- The cost of research, presence of competition in the market, government regulations, and patent protection.
Lowering the prices may be good especially for the Filipino public yet it can ruin the interests or legal rights
of the involved researchers, inventors/scientists, and the pharmaceutical companies which own the patent and
technologies involved.

o Also, the Health sector is in a great concern today. The gov’t should set aside a bigger budget for the said sector
for the implementation of this provision but it would mean cutting down allocations to other sectors… which is
seem questionable in this very time of COVID 19 pandemic.

THE MORAL AGENT

We, as human persons, are truly ethical beings. And there are reasons for that namely;
(a) Only human beings are rational, autonomous, and self-conscious,

 Every people have reason, free, and also aware of oneself

 Each are believed to confer a full and equal moral status to those that possess them as beings are the ones
capable of achieving certain values and goods.

(b) Only human beings can act morally or immorally, and;

 Since having reason, which is a distinct characteristic from the rest of the animals, we are also capable of
sacrificing our interests for the sake of others.

(c) Only human beings are part of the moral community.

 We are social beings and we possess and practice the values such as love, honor, relationships, forgiveness,
compassion, and altruism.

 We are social and relational beings and it is possible due to our communication and connections to each one.

 We, being social beings, can have a collective knowledge and participation to things at hand affecting everyone

FREEDOM AS A FOUNDATION OF MORALITY.

 This is possible due to our reason, autonomy, and self-consciousness

 Morality is a question of choice. It is choosing ethical codes, values, or standards to guide our day to day
lives.

 Philosophically, choosing is impossible without freedom.

 Morality requires and allows choice, which means the right to choose even differently to say no.

 As they say, the “sum” of one’s choices can be said to be the specific “morality” of the person.

 Our freedom also entails responsibility not to oneself but for others.