3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Moral Dilemmas
Four Types of Dilemmas, Moral Dumbfounding & Volunteer's Dilemma
I. Four Types of Dilemmas
True moral conundrums aren’t about good vs. evil. They’re about doing the right thing vs. doing the other right thing. Ethicist Rushworth M. Kidder has defined four common paradigms of such dilemmas:
Truth(telling) vs. loyalty: “I look amazing in this dress, don’t I?”
Good for the individual vs. good for the community: Should you fire a lovely and dedicated employee who is no longer up to the job?
Good for the short term vs. good for the long term: How much of your money should you spend on food versus education?
Justice vs. mercy: Should you discipline your kids or show mercy after they turned your house into a nightclub while you were on holiday?
It’s important to note that there are no default solutions to these dilemmas. They need to be figured out anew over and over again.
Source: SAIS Rush Kidder: 4 Paradigms of Dilemmas
II. Moral Dumbfounding
Would you sell your soul for $2? Imagine — as part of an experiment — you’re being asked to sign a contract to sell your soul after your death. You earn $2 on the spot, can tear apart the finished contract and keep the pieces. But is this moral? And what do you base your judgement on? Intuition, emotions or reasoning?
This and other “moral intuition” scenarios were part of a psychology experiment to test how we come to moral judgements. Many participants had a gut feeling about the ethics of similar situations. But they were unable to provide reasons to support their judgement. Hence the term Moral Dumbfounding:
Moral dumbfounding occurs when people stubbornly maintain a moral judgement, even though they can provide no reason to support their judgements.
—Jonathan Haidt et al.
The origins of the term can be traced back to the 2000 paper Moral Dumbfounding: When Intuition Finds No Reason by psychologists Jonathan Haidt, Fredrik Björklund and Scott Murphy.
III. Volunteer's Dilemma
Suppose there‘s a party happening in your neighbourhood. Except you’re in bed trying to get some sleep because it’s 3 am on a Tuesday and you have to work tomorrow. Will you volunteer to ask to have the music turned down? The Volunteer’s Dilemma pretty much summarises your situation:
In a volunteer’s dilemma, one individual is sought to make a sacrifice; it is understood that if no one does, everyone will suffer. The dilemma can be dramatic or mundane. The image of soldiers in trench warfare captures the dramatic version. A grenade falls into the trench, and the soldiers know that all will die if they freeze. At best, one will make the sacrifice and smother the grenade. However, and this is the essential characteristic of the dilemma, a sacrifice by any additional volunteer is a tragic waste.
—Joachim I. Krueger, The Vexing Volunteer’s Dilemma
So in our mundane party scenario, will you be the one to have an uncomfortable conversation with your neighbours’ kids? Even if it leaves you “better off than if no one had volunteered but worse off than if someone else had volunteered”?
Here’s my personal moral dilemma. I want my essays and newsletters to be as accessible as possible; that is not hidden behind paywalls. At the same time, I rely on reader support to pay the bills and keep writing in the first place.
Long story short, I chose to do the one right thing over the other right thing. Starting next week, every second 3 Ideas in 2 Minutes newsletter will be exclusive to paid subscribers and Patrons. Everything else will remain unchanged.
If you want to support my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. I’ll donate 5% of my revenue to Save the Elephants. If you can’t, that’s fine. I hope you continue to enjoy my freely accessible essays and newsletters. 🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com