ToK: Moral Dilemmas

 

What follows is an introduction and then an assignment that we will carry out on Friday, in class, and you will complete for homework over the long weekend.  Be prepared to discuss and defend your answers and thoughts on Wednesday, February 9.  Below you will find:

 

1.      An introduction describing what moral dilemmas are from a philosophical perspective.  Read it before Friday’s class.

2.      An outline of what we will be doing in Friday’s class with questions to answer.  Have it all printed off for Friday, but I will give you time to read and do them then.

3.      A reading (“Roots of a moral dilemma”) which I will supplement with others for Friday.  Have it all printed off for Friday, but I will give you time to read it then.

Introduction

From The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

A moral dilemma involves a situation in which the agent has only two courses of action available, and each requires performing a morally impermissible action. Plato presents the classic example of a moral dilemma. A man borrows a weapon from his neighbor promising to return it at his neighbor's request. One day the neighbor, in a fit of rage, asks for the weapon back apparently with the intention to kill someone. The man is faced with a dilemma: if he keeps his promise, then he will be an accessory to a murder; if he refuses to hand over the weapon, then he violates his promise. A moral dilemma, then, is a situation involving a choice between two opposing courses of action, where there are moral considerations in support of each course of action. Few would doubt whether we are in fact faced with difficult moral choices. The question raised by philosophers, though, is whether such dilemmas can be systematically resolved, or whether no systematic solution is available.

 

Defenders of dilemma resolution argue that only one of the courses of action can be our true obligation. For, it is not possible for an agent to perform both actions at the same time, and, hence, the agent cannot be obligated by both. Therefore, if the notion of obligation is to make sense, there must be a systematic way of determining which of the two courses of action represents our true obligation. Strictly speaking, then, genuine moral dilemmas do not exist, since all apparent moral conflicts can be systematically resolved. W.D. Ross argues for this view in The Right and the Good. For Ross, Each of our obligations is prima facie, that is, valid on face value until overridden by a stronger obligation. Once overridden, it is no longer obligatory.

 

From the other camp, critics of dilemma resolution argue that either choice may be acceptable and may represent our obligation. Our actual moral experience suggests that many conflicting moral choices simply are not capable of systematic resolution. Our moral decisions are often only a toss up between two courses of action. Strictly speaking, then, genuine moral dilemmas do exist because either choice could be the agent's true duty (depending on her decision).

 

There are important implications to the stand one takes on the possibility of systematically resolving moral dilemmas. First, if one denies that dilemmas can be resolved (the second option above), then the notion of absolute obligation is brought into question. For, in each particular dilemma, neither obligation will be absolute since neither will have priority. Further, it is theoretically possible that any obligation could conflict with at least one other obligation. Hence, none of our obligations would be absolute. This also suggests moral relativism, since the choice of action will be based on individual preference, and not on objective considerations. Second, if one argues the opposite view that conflicting obligations can be systematically resolved, then it must show how such resolution would be done. That is, a given normative moral theory must be designed to demonstrate that one course of action is objectively preferable to another. But many normative theories cannot live up to this task.

 

The most commonly suggested method of resolving conflicts between obligations is to appeal to the highest intrinsic good. A thing is intrinsically good when it is valued for itself, and not merely as an instrument or means to some further end. Money is instrumentally good since it only provides a means to some further good, such as the purchase of a sports car. Music, on the other hand, is thought to be intrinsically good since it is valued for itself, and not as a means to something else. Moral philosophers are concerned with uncovering the highest intrinsic good -- that which is at the apex of everything that is valued. Human happiness is a common candidate for the highest intrinsic good since everyone strives for happiness, and happiness appears to be final goal of all our actions. Other nominees for the highest intrinsic good are pleasure, human rationality, God's will, free human choice, and highly evolved conduct.

 

Theoretically, if we can determine that pleasure, for example, is the highest intrinsic good, then conflicts between moral obligations would be resolved by determining which course of action produces the most pleasure. Similarly, if God's will is determined to be the highest intrinsic good, priority would be given to those actions which are most in accord with God's will. Thus, by locating the highest intrinsic good, moral dilemmas are resolved by appealing to that concept.

 

Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them:

the starry heavens above me
and the moral law within me.

 

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason
(Kritik der praktischen Vernunft) [A 289, Lewis White Beck trans.]

 

Assignment for Friday and the weekend

 

 

1)      Watch the clip from the movie “Vertical Limit” and do the following:

a)      Decide what the options are.

b)      Decide what the moral questions involved are.

c)      Decide which you feel is the most moral option and why.

d)      Find someone who disagrees with your choice and spend five or ten minutes trying to convince the other person of your viewpoint.

e)      Write some brief notes describing what the best arguments are in favor of your option.

f)       Did either of you change your minds?  Did anyone on the class?

2)      Watch the clip from the movie “Sophie’s Choice” and do a-f above.

3)      Read either the articles following this assignment or the one I provide photocopied (or both if you are really keen) and do a-f in question 1.

4)      Come up with your own moral dilemma to share with the class.  Identify the circumstances and be prepared to identify what the competing moral questions are.

5)      This last one is not really a moral dilemma exactly but I found it on the web and thought you might like to try it out for fun.  It comes under the category of “lifeboat ethics” a nasty but sometimes realistic area of ethics made particularly famous (infamous) by a biologist/ethicist named Garrett Hardin.  He used arguments similar to this argue against helping, for example, those who were starving in the Third World.  The whole lifeboat image is similar to what you saw if you were unfortunate enough to watch the movie “Titanic.”  Here it is:

 

Consider this situation. You are driving alone on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, where you see three people waiting:

 

1. An elderly woman who is about to die.

2. An old friend who once saved your life.

3. The perfect mate you've been dreaming about.

 

Who would you choose, knowing there could only be one passenger in your car? Should you save the elderly woman or take the old friend because he/she once saved your life? You may never find your perfect dream lover again!

 

This quiz was given to 200 applicants for a single job. The one who was hired responded.....

 

Roots of a moral dilemma...

 

Man Accused Of Kidnapping Girl On Tape Captured

04/02/2004

Authorities in Sarasota, Florida, say a suspect is being questioned in the disappearance of an eleven-year-old girl. But there's no information yet on the whereabouts of Carlie Brucia.

 

Officials say 37-year-old Joseph P. Smith is being held on unrelated charges. Sheriff Bill Balkwill says police were led to Smith by a phone tip. Captain Jeff Bell, the lead Sarasota County sheriff's investigator on the case, says they have strong evidence that Smith is in fact the perpetrator.  Investigators are searching Smith's car, a Buick Century station wagon, looking for clues in the disappearance.

 

The girl's apparent abduction was captured by a car wash surveillance camera on Sunday. Authorities say she was walking home from a friend's house at the time.

 

 

Suspect Not Cooperating in Video Kidnap
05/02/2004

The suspect in the kidnapping of an eleven-year-old Florida girl is not cooperating with authorities.

 

In brief remarks to reporters this morning, Sarasota County Sheriff Bill Balkwill says authorities have made it clear to Joseph Smith they want to know where Carlie Brucia is.

 

Smith is currently being held on unrelated charges -- and Balkwill says authorities aren't about to let him go. He says formal charges in the abduction will be filed at an appropriate time as the case builds.

Balkwill says investigators are sure Smith's '92 Buick is the vehicle used in the abduction. The abduction was captured on a car wash surveillance camera.

 

Florida girl in videotaped kidnapping found dead

11/02/2004

The authorities in Florida have charged a man with murder after finding the body of a girl whose kidnapping last Sunday was caught on videotape.

 

'The body of a beautiful 11-year-old girl, Carlie Brucia, has been found,' an emotional Sarasota County Sheriff William Balkwill told reporters yesterday.

 

Mechanic Joseph Smith, 37, suspected in the kidnapping of Carlie, was being held by police in Sarasota, Florida, 'for the abduction and murder of Carlie', he said.  A car-wash security camera had captured the abduction, which has gripped Americans all week. It showed an 11-year-old girl being led away by a tattooed man.

 

In the videotape, recorded just after 6.20pm last Sunday, a man in a work uniform is seen approaching Carlie.  He speaks to her briefly as she hesitates, then takes her by the forearm and leads her away.  The man in the video had tattoos on his forearms and Nasa experts and FBI scientists in Washington were called in to enhance the image of the man's face, tattoos and an apparent name tag on his shirt.

 

Carlie's mother, Ms Susan Schorpen, pleaded at a news conference during the week for more information from the public, saying: 'Please help me bring my baby home.'  But yesterday her daughter's body was identified. Sheriff Balkwill refused to say where Carlie had been found overnight on Thursday, saying it was an active crime scene. CNN reported her body had been found behind a church, off a major freeway.

 

FBI special agent Carl Whitehead told a press conference yesterday: 'We had hoped that we could have brought her safely back home, but unfortunately the circumstances did not allow that to be.'

 

According to state records, Smith has been arrested at least 13 times in Florida since 1993 and convicted of drug possession and other charges.  He was arrested in 1997 in Manatee County on charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment but was acquitted a year later.

 

 

The above articles touch on the same themes as those being discussed around the world today with regards to terrorism.  There are those who argue that if you catch a known terrorist you have the moral right to torture them to get information that may save human lives.