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rs of dilemmas such as ruth marcus argue that moral dilemmas must exist because there is a moral duty to act in such a way as to prevent moral conflicts the point to be made is that although dilemmas are not settled without residue the recognition of their reality has a dynamic force it motivates us to arrange our lives and institutions with a view to avoiding such conflicts it is the underpinning for a second order regulative principle that as rational agents with some control of our lives and institutions we ought to conduct our lives and arrange our institutions so as to minimize moral conflicts 9 marcus argument which is a form of what has been referred to as the moral residue argument can be stated in the following modus ponens form if one ought to desire to not knowingly act in such a way as to bring about a moral conflict then moral conflicts are dilemmatic one ought to desire to not knowingly act in such a way as to bring about a moral conflict therefore moral conflicts are dilemmatic the above argument is valid so opponents of dilemmas must focus on the truth of the premises and the second premise a restatement of p3 seems plainly true indeed terrance mcconnell a noted opponent of moral dilemmas acknowledges the truth of the second premise when he states one cannot plausibly deny that it is morally desirable for agents to minimize the conflicts they face 10 mcconnell as well as other foes of dilemmas does take issue with the first premise and argues that there is an alternate explanation that accounts for the moral force of the second premise mcconnell gives the example of making a promise to two individuals juan and helga that you will meet them at a given time however the time at which you promised to meet juan and helga is the same so that you cannot fulfill both promises mcconnell agrees with marcus that making such a promise is wrong in that leads to inevitable moral conflict either juan or helga are going to be frustrated because of your decision the point at which mcconnell disagrees with marcus is whether or not you must engage in yet another wrongdoing because of the moral conflict in which you find yourself marcus who would argue that the moral conflict in question is a moral dilemma would say that another wrong is inevitable mcconnell on the other hand denies that another wrong must take place indeed mcconnell argues that the moral conflict in which one wrongly placed oneself is an entirely new situation which requires a new decision that is based upon which choice is morally superior the moral ledger has been reset as it were initially the position may seem to be incorrect indeed the alarm bells of intuition begin to ring when one considers the inevitable frustration and disappointment that will be brought about by failing to keep your promise to one of your friends mcconnell acknowledges this intuition but points out the friend s disappointment and frustration are not the result of an additional wrongdoing which stems from the neglected horn of a moral dilemma but that her frustrations are the result of the original wrongdoing of placing oneself in a moral conflict furthermore mcconnell correctly points out that the friend s future frustration cannot be what made the original decision of placing oneself in a moral conflict wrong since your friend could very well die before the time of the promised rendezvous but your earlier conflicting promises would still be wrong since making such conflicting promises shows disrespect for the individuals to whom they are made thus the wrongness of placing oneself in a moral conflict contrary to the second premise of marcus argument is not based upon a moral conflict presupposing a moral dilemma therefore marcus argument is unsound furthermore mcconnell points out that the duty to be careful to not place oneself in a moral conflict still holds even if the conflict in question is easily resolved he uses the example of breaking a trivial promise to save an accident victim s life while nearly everyone would agree the aforementioned action is morally correct if the agent in question had made the trivial promise with knowledge of the future conflict she would have been wrong in doing so due to the disrespect shown to the individual to whom the false promise was made since one commonly held aspect of moral dilemmas is that they are irresolvable it is clear that the duty to be careful to avoid moral conflicts cannot be based upon the existence of moral dilemmas since it is wrong to knowingly place oneself in a moral conflict even when the said conflict can be easily resolved 11 p5 making sense of moral emotions it is naturally desirable that a good moral theory be able to make sense of moral emotions and many supporters of moral dilemmas actually consider p5 to strengthen their case this phenomenological argument in favor of moral dilemmas argues that since one feels guilt after making a difficult choice in a situation of moral conflict then one must indeed be guilty there have been various illustrations of the above argument but the one thing that they all have in common is the insistence that perceived guilt or remorse indicates actual guilt 12 opponents of dilemmas agree that remorse is only appropriate when an agent has actually done wrong however they are apt to point out that just because one experiences remorse does not mean that one has done something worthy of remorse there are many cases in which an individual may experience incredible feelings of guilt yet according to outside observers has done nothing wrong consider the example of matthew an amateur golfer who is enjoying a game on a weekday afternoon after a particularly wild swing matthew s shot slices in the direction of a nearby street and strikes the windshield of a school bus filled with children the distraction from the impact causes the driver to lose control and the bus runs off the road eventually rolling into a ditch many of the children are seriously injured and a few are killed of course no one should legally or morally fault matthew for the accident and the consequent deaths and injuries of the children however few would find it unsurprising that matthew after discovering that it was his ball that caused the accident should be filled with grief and experience feelings of guilt over what had taken place indeed it would seem strange if matthew did not experience such emotional pain since we know how we would ourselves would feel in such a situation nevertheless while matthew s grief and regret over the tragic accident may and should be considered appropriate the same cannot be said for his feelings of remorse indeed one could even say that matthew s experience of guilt is although understandable irrational supporters of dilemma are not the only ones who appeal to p5 in favor of their position opponents of dilemmas have their own phenomenological arguments against the existence of moral dilemmas one of these arguments appeals to the practice of seeking moral advice in an apparent dilemma another points out the phenomenon of moral doubt that often occurs after a decision has been made in an apparent dilemma 13 in situations of moral conflict and especially when the alternatives appear to be symmetric it is a common practice for an agent to seek moral counsel concerning which decision to make however if a moral conflict is genuinely dilemmatic it would be irrational or dishonest to advise an individual to choose one alternative over the other indeed the only sound advice in such cases would be to simply instruct the individual that they will fail in their duty no matter which choice they make but this is not how we perceive the nature of seeking and giving advice to be thus the opponent of dilemmas argues if an agent feels the need to seek advice for a solution to her problem and the advisor feels the need to give advice because there is a solution to the problem this must be because moral conflicts are not genuinely dilemmatic the second phenomenological argument against dilemmas focuses on the doubt that an agent is apt to experience after making a difficult decision involving moral conflict according to this argument if one is in a genuine dilemma there is no reason for doubting one s decision after the fact since doubt implies that the agent is concerned over whether or not she made the right choice in a genuine dilemma there can be no right choice thus the existence of moral doubt disproves the reality of moral dilemmas objections offered by supporters of dilemmas against the above two arguments are very similar in character to the objections given by the opponents of dilemmas one may say that it is irrational for an agent to seek advice or have moral doubts in certain situations however the burden of proof rests upon the supporters of dilemmas as to how one may determine these situations furthermore the arguments given above clearly demonstrate that the position of supporters of dilemmas is not significantly strengthened by p5 and that opponents of dilemmas can construct similar arguments conclusion the debate concerning moral dilemmas will probably continue for a long time to come and there are many other arguments and considerations to be examined about the matter however it seems apparent that those who argue that an adequate moral theory must allow for moral dilemmas find themselves in a troublesome situation in regards to other conditions of adequacy for moral theories until the supporters of moral dilemmas can account for these apparent weaknesses it seems that only moral theories that exclude dilemmas should be considered adequate 1 plato the republic book i trans g m a grube in plato complete works john m cooper and d s hutchinson eds indianapolis hackett publishing company 2 styron william 1980 sophie s choice new york bantam books 3 see terrance mcconnell metaethical principles meta prescriptions and moral theories american philosophical quarterly volume 22 number 4 1985 4 ross w d foundations of ethics oxford university press 1939 p 60 5 marcus ruth moral dilemmas and consistency the journal of philosophy 87 3 1980 p 129 6 ibid pp 128 129 7 sinnott armstrong walter 1988 moral dilemmas oxford basil blackwell 8 ibid pp 116 121 9 marcus ruth moral dilemmas and consistency the journal of philosophy 87 3 1980 p 121 10 see terrance mcconnell moral residue and dilemmas moral dilemmas and moral theory ed h e mason oxford oxford university press 1996 p 44 11 marcus incidentally avoids this criticism by holding the position that all moral conflicts constitute moral dilemmas one must question however if the benefits that marcus theory gains from exempting itself from this objection outweigh the very unpalatable position that all moral conflicts lead to inevitable wrongdoing 13 see terrance mcconnell moral dilemmas and consistency in ethics moral dilemmas ed christopher gowans oxford oxford university press 1987 pp 163 169 https quadri wordpress com 2008 12 12 metaethical principles and moral dilemmas feed 1 268 josh hmmm https quadri wordpress com 2008 09 08 hmmm https quadri wordpress com 2008 09 08 hmmm comments mon 08 sep 2008 14 09 07 0000 http quadri wordpress com p 264 https quadri wordpress com 2008 09 08 hmmm feed 5 264 josh onionmagazine_archive_116a_web freedom responsibility dorian gray and oscar wilde https quadri wordpress com 2008 09 02 freedom responsibility dorian gray and oscar wilde https quadri wordpress com 2008 09 02 freedom responsibility dorian gray and oscar wilde comments wed 03 sep 2008 03 36 19 0000 http quadri wordpress com p 258 are we always free to change it was argued in my existentialism class today that no matter our past we can always reinvent ourselves and pursue a different life i disagreed however and i have the famous irish playwright oscar wilde in my corner wilde was blessed with an extraordinary story telling ability the characters from his plays and novels leap from the page in vivid plot and description oscar wilde was known for his gits to be sure but he was also known for his lecherous behavior which eventually led to imprisonment and disgrace before his death wilde gave both personal and literary testimoy to his destructive behavior shortly before his death he wrote the following words i let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease tired of being on the heights i deliberately went to the depths in search for new sensation i grew careless of the lives of others i took pleasure where it pleased me and passed on i forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud from the housetop i ceased to be lord over myself i was no longer the captain of my soul and did not know it i allowed pleasure to dominate me i ended in horrible disgrace wilde witnesses the effect that behavior has on character here the choices that we make today will determine what options we have in the future if i make bad choices i damage my soul and distort my character if i continue down the wrong path long enough i rob myself of the very freedom that i had once treasured i will indeed cease to be the captain of my soul wilde wasn t the first to discover this truth of course aristotle stated much the same thing and the principle of moral sowing and reaping is clearly taught in scripture galatians 6 7 every decision we may effectively limits our future decisions for good or evil wilde s literary autobiography is contained in the novella the picture of dorian gray which relates the story of an innocent young man s descent into debauchery and self destruction throughout the story gray learns that he is able to take part in the vilest of behavior yet suffer no consequences to his body or appearance the eponymous picture suffers all of the damage however dorian eventually discovers that the picture is a representation of his own twisted soul and at the climax of the narrative when he reveals the ruined painting to the artist who created it just before murdering him it is the face of my soul christ what a thing i must have worshipped it has the eyes of a devil each of us has heaven and hell in him basil cried dorian with a wild gesture of despair hallward turned again to the portrait and gazed at it my god if it is true he exclaimed and this is what you have done with your life why you must be worse even than those who talk against you fancy you to be he held the light up again to the canvas and examined it the surface seemed to be quite undisturbed and as he had left it it was from within apparently that the foulness and horror had come through some strange quickening of inner life the leprosies of sin were slowly eating the thing away the rotting of a corpse in a watery grave was not so fearful his hand shook and the candle fell from its socket on the floor and lay there sputtering he placed his foot on it and put it out then he flung himself...