Major ethical dilemmas ask students to decide what should be done when important values conflict. This cheat sheet helps compare different ways philosophers reason about difficult choices such as lying, punishment, fairness, and harm. It gives students a structured reference for class discussions, essays, debates, and case analysis.
Clear decision rules make it easier to explain not only what you believe, but why you believe it.
The core ideas include consequences, duties, rights, justice, care, and character. Consequentialist reasoning asks which action produces the best overall result, while deontological reasoning asks which duties or rules must be respected. Virtue ethics focuses on the kind of person an action helps someone become.
Strong ethical analysis usually identifies the stakeholders, the values in conflict, the possible actions, and the reasons supporting each choice.
Key Facts
- A moral dilemma occurs when two or more ethical values, duties, or rights conflict and no option is completely free of harm.
- Consequentialism uses the rule choose the action that creates the greatest overall good and the least overall harm.
- Utilitarianism can be summarized as right action = greatest happiness for the greatest number.
- Deontology uses the rule act according to duties, rights, and principles that should apply consistently to everyone.
- Kant's categorical imperative can be stated as act only on a rule that you could will everyone to follow.
- Virtue ethics asks whether an action shows good character traits such as honesty, courage, fairness, and compassion.
- Justice-based reasoning asks whether benefits, burdens, rights, and punishments are distributed fairly.
- A strong ethical argument includes a claim, a framework, evidence from the case, and an explanation of why that framework supports the claim.
Vocabulary
- Moral Dilemma
- A situation in which a person must choose between actions that involve conflicting ethical values or duties.
- Consequentialism
- An ethical theory that judges an action by its outcomes or consequences.
- Deontology
- An ethical theory that judges an action by whether it follows duties, rules, or moral principles.
- Utilitarianism
- A form of consequentialism that says the best action is the one that produces the greatest overall happiness or well-being.
- Virtue Ethics
- An ethical theory that focuses on moral character and asks what a good or wise person would do.
- Stakeholder
- A person or group affected by a decision, action, policy, or outcome.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Treating a dilemma as only personal opinion is wrong because ethical reasoning requires reasons, principles, and attention to affected people.
- Using only outcomes and ignoring rights is wrong because a beneficial result may still violate a person's dignity, consent, or basic freedoms.
- Assuming a rule has no exceptions is wrong because ethical duties can conflict, and a strong analysis must explain which duty has priority.
- Forgetting stakeholders is wrong because an action may affect people who are not immediately visible in the situation.
- Confusing legality with morality is wrong because some legal actions can be unethical, and some ethical actions may challenge an unjust law.
Practice Questions
- 1 A doctor has one dose of medicine and two patients who need it. Patient A has a 90% chance of recovery with the dose, while Patient B has a 40% chance. Using utilitarian reasoning, which patient should receive it and why?
- 2 A student can lie to protect a friend from a minor punishment. Identify one deontological reason against lying and one consequentialist reason that might support lying.
- 3 A city has $100,000 to spend and must choose between feeding 500 families for one month or funding a park used by 2,000 residents. Explain which choice a justice-based framework might support.
- 4 Why might virtue ethics give a different answer from utilitarianism in a case where telling the truth causes short-term harm but builds trust over time?