Cal State Northridge Ethical Dilemma or Ethical Paradox Discussion
An ethical dilemma or ethical paradox is a decision-making problem between two possible moral imperatives, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable. The complexity arises out of the situational conflict in which obeying would result in transgressing another. Sometimes called ethical paradoxes in moral philosophy, ethical dilemmas may be invoked to refute an ethical system or moral code, or to improve it so as to resolve the paradox.
A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward 5 workmen who will be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. You are on a footbridge over the tracks that is in between the approaching trolley and the five workmen. Next to you on this footbridge is a stranger who happens to be very fat. If you do nothing the trolley will proceed, causing the deaths of the five workmen. The only way to save the lives of these workmen is to push this stranger off the bridge and onto the tracks below, where his fat body will stop the trolley, causing his death. Should you push the stranger onto the tracks in order to save the five workmen?
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Collapse SubdiscussionLuciain Kamel
Luciain Kamel
SundayFeb 16 at 2:21pm
1.Trolley
The key ethical dilemma in the case is about saving 2 old lives or 4 young lives. In this case, I would choose option 1 The driver should pick the right fork killing 2 older people instead of 5 young. The lesser of two evils is always better. I will choose this option because I feel the objective should be to minimize the inevitable damage. However, Throwing another person into the track will make me a killer and the idea of driver jumping out of the car will simply rule out the possibility of the car being stopped at the last moment and the lives might be saved. Hence I will go for option 1.
2. Stealing:
The ethical dilemma here is to decide whether the ends justify the means. In the given case, I would choose option 2 Crime can never be justified no matter what the result may be because I believe taking the lives of innocent people can never be justified, whatsoever the reason may be. Michael is and will always be a killer.
3. Motive:
The ethical dilemma here is whether morality is a function of intentions or the results achieved. I believe morality is a function of intentions and hence I would vote for option 2 Kathy is more moral because she did it not for show or selfish reasons, but out of compassion. Mr. Hopkins is a greedy person. He donated because of the greed to save more of his money while Kathy is a selfless giver. Now she is a student and so she had less money, in the future, this might not be the case. She might also be a millionaire. Then also assuming she will be a selfless giver, imagine the positive impact she will make on society So, society needs more of Kathy’s rather than Hopkins. Thus, a good heart will always be beneficial to society in the long run and so, Kathy’s actions are more moral.
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Collapse SubdiscussionYelena Stepanyan
Yelena Stepanyan
SundayFeb 16 at 5:01pm
1. Trolley
The ethical dilemma in this case is about whether or not it is for the best to kill 2 older people in the car accident or 5 young people. However, there is a third option which was pushing a comparably large man in front of the car to stop the car with his body. I chose option 3. I would push the big man in front of the car in hopes for his body to stop the car from killing any of those 7 people. Another reason for my choice is that there is no guarantee that the man would die in the accident.
2. Stealing The ethical dilemma in this case was weather or not Michael’s action of killing the old lady and stealing her money to pay for his tuition was justified because in the future he became a great doctor and created cure for cancer. I chose both options because the actions tat he took were not ethical whatsoever; however, that one life lost did save millions of others lives and that is a reasonable loophole to justify his crime.
3.Motive
In this case the Ethical dilemma was between Katy giving $20 out of the only $50 that she had to and orphanage out of compassion and a rich man giving $2 million to save $10 million in taxes. I chose Kathy being more morally right than the rich man. Even though the orphanage profited a lot from the $2 million, that was money given for selfish reasons. However, Kathy donated her money from her hard and not for show.
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Collapse SubdiscussionChau Ton
Chau Ton
SundayFeb 16 at 8:13pm
An ethical situation is a situation with a purpose and fair basis for right or wrong judgments or actions. It is understood as an act evaluating it ethically, not only about judging by moral standards.
Ethic is a theoretical or external rule, usually considered by universal outlook, and stand for the survival of society. The moral is more about a personal principle that relates to social or culture and stands for the survival of the individual. Therefore, ethics and morals are different.
I base on ethical situations to give a judgment of right or wrong for those situations below.
Trolley
I chose: “The driver should jump out of the car and let destiny take its course.
The driver and I had no right to choose who lived and who died. If I or someone pushed a big man to stop the trolley, we would commit murder. We save some people’s life by killing other people, it is not an ethical action in my opinion.
The same thing for 2 old people and 5 young people, their lives are not in people’s controls. The driver task is trying his best tries to control and stop the trolley as well as observe the situation in the most sensitive way. If I read correctly, the 5 young people are not stuck so they can run off the track and the driver can drive the trolley to the left. However, if 5 young people still can’t escape, the driver should jump out of the car and let destiny take its course so the driver will not commit murder. The worst scenario can happen is someone dies, but that situation is an unfortunate accident.
Stealing
I chose: Crime can never be justified no matter what the result may be.
Michael kills the lady for his good, he might save more people in the future, but he has never paid the charge for his crimes yet.
He committed murder and appropriation of property at the time of his crime. He was utterly wrong in every aspect of ethics and morals.
Even though in the future, he saved many people, he has not to get charge for his crime in the past yet. People can grateful for his dedication, but it doesn’t mean he is not guilty. Crime can never be justified no matter what the result may be, it is fulfilling the social-ethical standard, not only about the individual-moral view at present.
Motive
I chose: Kathy is more moral because she did it not for show, or selfish reasons, but out of compassion.
Mr. Hopkins is a billionaire with an unkind heart. Donation/ Charity should stem from compassion, it’s not for personal gain.
As far as we can see, Mr. Hopkins wants to save $ 10 million in taxes by donates $ 2 million income, which is legal tax evasion. He indirectly caused the failure of the US economy for personal gain. That $10 million in taxes could contribute to social construction, roads, education, medicate and hundreds of millions of poor children, unemployed people, it’s might also including the orphanage which he contributed $ 2 million. He committed a serious moral sin.
About Kathy, she is a compassionate girl who spends 40% of her existing money for donation. What she does comes from an honest heart and morality.
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Collapse SubdiscussionShahnavaz Zandianhasanabadi
Shahnavaz Zandianhasanabadi
MondayFeb 17 at 10:21am
Trolley:
The ethical dilemma is whether we kill one person to save more lives. None of the situation were morally right, but I choose to push the one man to stop the trolley and save all the 7 lives. The reason I chose this was because if I were the driver and jumped off the trolley, there was a chance that it would kill either the 5 on the left or the 2 on the right and I would carry a bigger guilty conscious.
Stealing:
The ethical decision of stealing is whether it is right to steal in order to help others. A student who kills and steals in order to get money for their school fees in a medical school is a perfect example of situational ethic. Upon graduation, the doctor will save many lives, but is it justified that they stole to get their fees? I suppose it is not right, stealing cause hurt and suffering and even death. It is not ethical to hurt even if the intention will be to help others with the product of stealing.
Motivate:
The ethical dilemma, in this case is morality is a function of intentions. I choose option 2 Kathy is more moral because she did it not for show, or selfish reason, but out of compassion. Mr. Hopkins is a stingy and selfish person. He donated because of saving more money while Kathy is a selfless giver that is the point. Now she is a student and so she has less money. Maybe in the future, she will rich. She will donate more money if she became a millionaire because in the past, she practiced that when she did not have enough money. So, Kathy’s actions are more moral.
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Collapse SubdiscussionAudrey Covian
Audrey Covian
YesterdayFeb 18 at 9:55am
Trolley
The trolley dilemma is about making a decision to save the lives of either the two elderly people or five young people that are on the tracks. There is another option; to throw another person onto the tracks (and kill him) in order to save all seven of those already on the tracks. The option I chose is for the driver to pick the right fork, killing the two older people instead of five young. A casualty is unavoidable in this circumstance, and it is not up to me to choose to end the life of the man I could have pushed– which would make me a murderer. Instead, it is best to let one of the two inevitable options happen, and it is better to end two lives than five.
Stealing
The stealing dilemma is about if it’s okay to murder and steal from someone if it will lead to saving millions of lives in the future. The dilemma itself is that if a medical student were to kill and rob an old lady, he could use the money to attend medical school and eventually invent a miracle drug that could cure an immense amount of people. Yet, the option that I chose was that this crime could never be justified no matter what the result may be. While it would be a good deed to study medicine and save lives, it does not make up for the life involuntarily lost when if he murders an innocent old woman.
Motive
The motive dilemma gives two examples of people giving donations to the same orphanage, with one being a billionaire looking to save money on taxes and the second being a CSUN student without much money who donated out of compassion for the orphans. The billionaire would save $10 million on taxes by donating $2 million, which shows that he is donating only with the selfish motive of having more money in his pocket. The billionaire would not have donated if it would not have benefited him, whereas the CSUN student did not benefit at all and truly donated out of the goodness of her heart. So, for this dilemma I voted that Kathy is more moral, because she did it not for show, or selfish reasons, but out of compassion.
Cal State Northridge Ethical Dilemma or Ethical Paradox Discussion
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