Critical Thinking Worksheet Moral Dilemmas

PHI 100 – Worksheet Wilmington University

Students: Save this worksheet to your computer. Then, type directly into this worksheet. Save to your computer again, then upload into Blackboard, using the link for this assignment (in the Week 10 folder).

Name:

Moral Dilemmas: Moral Theories in Practice

Due: Thursday, March 24, 1:29 p.m. (Upload submission in Blackboard)

Total Value: 50 Points

Instructions: Each of your answers are worth up to ten points. Be sure to follow the instructions exactly, including the recommended number of sentences (no more, no less).

Chapter 9 of the text outlines several major schools of thought regarding moral reasoning. In this exercise, you are to:

1. Read the scenario provided.

2. Then, in 3-5 sentences, trace the thinking to a solution that reflects each of the three types of moral reasoning provided under the scenario.

a. You are simply theorizing, in order to show that you understand the moral reasoning behind each category.*

3. In addition to suggesting the solution that would be presented in each case, also suggest any strengths and/or weaknesses you see with each approach.

[*Remember: Do not necessarily write what YOU would do – but rather, what a person who follows each of the designated belief systems would do in each scenario.]

The answer to 1-a, in Scenario #1, is provided as an example:

1) Scenario: You are celebrating with a number of families on a yacht that begins to sink. There are only enough lifeboats to save half of the people on the yacht. What should you do?

a. Rights-based ethics: (Free Sample Answer) This person would have to decide which “right” is most valued. Unfortunately, this is not always clear; perhaps the “right” to make one’s own decision is a place to start – allowing people to opt not to take a lifeboat spot. Of course, if everyone still wants a spot, then the “rights-based” person would have started ranking people, according to who has the greatest “right” to the lifeboat. Clearly, rights-based ethics would stumble in this scenario, showing a major weakness to the system by having to devise a basis for deciding which “legitimate interests” create certain “rights”?

b. Utilitarianism:

c. Virtue ethics:

2) Scenario: A friend of a married couple, Megan and Tim, is at a club one weekend when the friend sees Megan there with another man. Megan also sees the friend, and begs him/her not to tell Tim that she has been having an affair, insisting that she will break it off right away. What would the friend do (according to each of the belief systems, below)? a. Relativism:

b. Utilitarianism:

c. Deontology: