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Ethical
reasoning
An overview

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Structure Master Reasoning
of Ethical title style

• To be able to reason well in ethics you need to understand

something about ethical arguments and argumentation, not in
the sense of understanding why people get into arguments but
rather in the sense of what constitutes a good argument.
• Example:
• Suppose you are standing on the shore and a person in the water calls
out for help. What should you do:
• Should you try to rescue that person?
• Do you know how to swim? If not what should you do/
• Are you sure you can rescue the person?

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Structure Master
of an title style
argument

• One can recognize the reasons in an argument by their introduction

through key words such as since, because, and given that.
• The conclusion often contains terms such as thus and therefore.
The reasons supporting the conclusion are called premises
• In a sound argument, the premises are true and the conclusion
follows from them.

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Structure Master
of an title style
argument

• A good argument is a sound argument:

• It has a valid form in which the conclusion
actually follows from the premises, and the
premises or reasons given for the conclusion
are true.
• An argument is poorly constructed when it is
fallacious or when the reasons on which it is
based are not true or are uncertain.
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• Ethical arguments also involve :

• conceptual –
• Conceptual matters are those that relate to the meaning of terms or
concepts.
• For example, in a case of lying, we would want to know what lying actually is.
• factual matters
• Example:
• If you adhere to ethical relativism, evaluate whether police brutality is acceptable or
not..

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In to edit Master title style
summary:

• It is important to be clear about the distinction between facts and

values.
• It is especially helpful when dealing with moral conflict and
disagreement.
• We need to ask whether we disagree about the values involved,
about the concepts and terms we are employing, or about the facts
connected to the case.

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Ethical Dilemma
Moral dilemma

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Definition: Master
Ethical title style
dilemma

• Ethical dilemma (ethical paradox or moral dilemma)

is a problem in the decision-making process between
two possible options, neither of which is absolutely
acceptable from an ethical perspective.
• an agent regards herself as having moral reasons to
do each of the two actions, but doing both actions is
not possible

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Features Master
of moral title style
dilemma

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

• the agent can do each of the actions;
• but the agent cannot do both (or all) of the actions.
• The agent thus seems condemned to moral failure;
 no matter what she does, she will do something wrong
(or fail to do something that she ought to do)
in order to have a genuine moral dilemma it must also be
true that neither of the conflicting requirements is
overridden (Sinnott-Armstrong 1988, Chapter 1).
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Think of edit
this Master
case: title style
• What would you do if you borrowed a weapon,
say a gun from a neighbor. One day, you had
an altercation with him, and demands that you
return immediately the weapon you borrowed.
• Will you return the weapon or not?

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case?toNot
edita Master title style
moral dilemma…Why
the agent’s solution in the case is clear;
• What would you do if you it is more important to protect oneself
borrowed a weapon, say from harm than to return a borrowed
a gun from a neighbor. weapon.
One day, you had an And in any case, the borrowed item can
altercation with him, and be returned later, when the owner no
demands that you return longer poses a threat to you.
immediately the weapon Thus in this case we can say that the
you borrowed. requirement to protect yourself( and
• Will you return the maybe others) from serious harm
overrides the requirement to repay
weapon or not?
one’s debts by returning a borrowed item
when its owner so demands.

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Difference Master conflict
between title style
and dilemma
In Book I of Plato’s Republic, Cephalus too easy to be characterized as
defines ‘justice’ as speaking the truth and a genuine moral dilemma
paying one’s debts. 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 agent’s solution in that case 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
? clear; it is more important to
protect people from harm than
to return a borrowed weapon. 

the one to whom the debt is owed demands

repayment. What we have here is a conflict
between two moral norms: repaying one’s the requirement to protect
debts and protecting others from harm. And in others from serious harm
this case, Socrates maintains that protecting overrides the requirement to
others from harm is the norm that takes repay one’s debts by returning
priority. a borrowed item when its
owner so demands
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When one of the

conflicting in order to have
requirements a genuine moral dilemma it
overrides the other, must also be true that neither
we have a conflict but of the conflicting
not a genuine moral
requirements is overridden
dilemma.

Moral dilemma is a problem in the decision-making

process between two possible options, neither of
which is absolutely acceptable from an ethical
perspective.

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Hypothetical vs real title style
ethical dilemma

• In ethics, it is helpful to consider hypothetical( pseudo-

dilemma) and real scenarios of moral dilemmas.
• A dilemma is a situation where there is no clear “best
choice” between two or more alternatives.
• Dilemmas help us to focus our moral intuitions and
test our moral theories.

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Crucial edit Master title style
of moral dilemma

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

• the agent can do each of the actions; but the agent cannot do both
(or all) of the actions.
• The agent thus seems condemned to moral failure; no matter what
she does, she will do something wrong (or fail to do something that
she ought to do).
• in order to have a genuine moral dilemma it must also be true that
neither of the conflicting requirements is overridden

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The to editdilemma
Master title style

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The to editdilemma
Master title style

• Imagine that you are an employee working for the train company as
a switch operator. One day you see a train speeding down the track,
its driver is in obvious distress. You realize that the train has had a
malfunction and is unable to stop.
• You look ahead of the train and see five workers working on the
track. If you allow the train to go ahead, it will surely kill all five.
• However, you could divert the train by switching tracks. On the
alternate track, there is one worker, working alone.
• If you switch the train, you cause the death of one worker; if you do
nothing, five will die.
• What will you do?
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Sophie’s Master title style
choice

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Dxx3_iF14

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Phenomenological title style

• appeals to the emotions that agents face during conflicting experience

and the viewers assessment of those emotions.
• In Sophie’s Choice- four things are true:
• (1) when the agent acts, she experiences remorse or guilt;
• (2) that she experiences these emotions is appropriate and called
for;
• (3) had the agent acted on the other of the conflicting requirements,
she would also have experienced remorse or guilt or regret
• (4) these emotions would have been equally appropriate and called for

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Types of moral
dilemma

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Epistemic Master title style
dilemma

• involves conflicts between two (or more) moral

requirements and the agent does not know which of
the conflicting requirements takes precedence in her
situation.
• Everyone concedes that there can be situations where
one requirement does take priority over the other with
which it conflicts, though at the time of the action is
called for, it is difficult for the agent to tell which
requirement prevails.
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Example:
• Prof. Cruz is the Commencement Speaker in his Alma Mater
that day, at 3:00PM. At 12:00 noon, he is already on his way to
the school and needs to drive fast in order not to be late in his
speaking engagement. But while on his way, he saw a bleeding
man on the street and will surely die if not brought to the
nearest hospital. It is almost 3:00PM and he does not want to be
late in the affair, however, he also wants to help the bleeding man
by bringing him to the nearest hospital which is out-of-way to his
destination. What should he do?

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Click to editdilemmas
Ontological Master title style

• are conflicts between two (or more) moral

requirements, and neither is overridden.
• This is not simply because the agent does not know
which requirement is stronger; neither is.
• Genuine moral dilemmas, if there are any, are
ontological.

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Example:

• Three of David’s closest friends and

classmates have created an offensive website
that attacks students and teachers in their
school. The principal wants to know who did it
and David is the only one who knows.
Should he lie to the principal or betray his
friends?
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Click to edit Master title moral
self-imposed style dilemmas

• Self- imposed conflicts - arise because of the agent’s own

wrongdoing .
• If an agent made two promises that he knew conflicted, then through his
own actions, he created a situation in which it is not possible for him to
discharge both of his requirements.
• Example:
• You promised your parents to treat them a dinner date at 8:00PM on
January 9, during their 75th wedding anniversary and out of the blue,
you set a dinner date with your girlfriend on the same day and the same
time.

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dilemmas titleonstyle
imposed an agent by the world

• Dilemmas imposed on an agent by the world do not arise

because of the agent’s wrongdoing.
• Examples:
• You abhor corruption, but it is rampant in your country.
• The COVID 19 pandemic has brought millions of people to stay home. But
you need to work for your family in order to survive. Will you expose yourself
to the danger of being infected or see your family starve?

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obligation Master title style
dilemmas

• Obligation dilemmas are situations in which

more than one feasible action is obligatory.
• example:
• Noah sees the same bully torment the same
victim every day on the schoolyard, and nobody
tells the teacher about it. Should Noah speak up and
risk being labeled “tattletail,” or should he ignore it
and mind his own business?
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prohibition Master title style

• Prohibition dilemmas involve cases in which

all feasible actions are forbidden.
• Example:
• Stephanie was supposed to tell a certain guy that her good
friend had a crush on him. Instead, Stephanie ended up
liking the guy, herself. And to make matters worse, she lied
to her friend about it . Now things are spinning out of control.
What’s she supposed to do?
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How to you
edit resolve
Master a
title style
moral dilemma?

• What sorts of duties, preferences, or values do you appeal to?

• Is it always a matter of the consequences or results?
• Does it matter which choice is more virtuous? Is that always the
same thing as the one that produces the best consequences?
• Are there any actions that have intrinsic value
• Actions with intrinsic value should be followed above others that produce the
same results.
• There may even be some actions that are either so intrinsically good or so
intrinsically bad that they should or should not be done at all cost.

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How tosolve
edit Master titledilemma
an ethical style

• Refute the paradox (dilemma):

• The situation must be carefully analyzed. In some cases, the existence of
the dilemma can be logically refuted.
• Value theory approach:
• Choose the alternative that offers the greater good and the lesser evil.
• Find alternative solutions:
• In some cases, the problem can be reconsidered, and the new alternative
solutions may arise.

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