Abstract
Moral dilemmas are situations where two or more moral values or duties make demands on the decision-maker, who can only honour one of them, and thus will violate at least one important moral concern, no matter what he or she decides to do. This chapter draws a distinction between real and false dilemmas. It defines the former as situations where there is tension between moral values and duties that are more or less on equal footing. The decision-maker has to choose between a wrong and another wrong. It defines the latter as situations where the decision-maker has a moral duty to do one thing, but is tempted or under pressure to do something else. A false dilemma is a choice between a right and a wrong.
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© 2015 Øyvind Kvalnes
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Kvalnes, Ø. (2015). Moral Dilemmas. In: Moral Reasoning at Work: Rethinking Ethics in Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137532619_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137532619_2
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