Talking about an ethical dilemma necessarily implies making reference to three fundamental aspects of human existence: first, the symbolic dimension of behavior -or of our being- understood as the set of meanings, valuations and expectations, with a notion of 'meaning ', as something beyond all achievement and all limits, that guide our actions; second, a variable and complex interaction of controlling, driving, repulsive and attractive forces, made up of the set of interests, preferences, drives and instincts -on one side- that make up our existential environment, which is more symbolic than physical; and third, our guiding reasons or moral arguments.An ethical dilemma consists of a crucial dilemma faced by a person in a certain situation due to the need to decide and act before a contradictory intersection of options, drives, reasons and values.
Intuition about the probable consequences of each possible action, then evaluated by the intellect and according to the criteria of convenience suggested by the guiding arguments of our morality, provides us with lights that illuminate the understanding to choose one or the other action. However, and this is the drama of the human, many times we act moved by our drives -or driven-, rather than guided by reasons or arguments.
Faced with an ethical dilemma - do I or do I not ?; Do I accept or reject ?; Do I affirm or deny? - each responds from his own existential position, which is perhaps what determines the difference in the responses of two or more people to the same situation or ethical dilemma. All existential posture is symbolic in nature, since it refers to meanings, to valuations derived from such meanings, and to expectations or response habits that arise from such valuations. The existential posture -sometimes- determines and other times it only influences a little on what we think, feel, say and do, in the face of the diverse situations of life.
What aspects make up our existential stance? There are five aspects, which we indicate below:
Our general appreciation of life and the world: it is born in early childhood and fully develops before the end of adolescence; It derives from the treatment and attention received by those who made up our social environment. Based on such appreciation, qualifiers such as 'very good', 'good', 'acceptable', 'bad' or 'very bad' are generated.
Our attitude towards life and the world: it is derived from the previous one. This attitude can be favorable / friendly; unfavorable / unfriendly; unfavorable / rejection.
Our learned responses or response habits to the situations that life and the world present to us: derive from experiences and learning by trial and error. They represent our menu of response options, and condition the balance or imbalance between drives and reasons or moral arguments.
Our updated knowledge about life and the world: it is the product of formal education and learning, and also includes the advice of our elders. It provides us with criteria to choose and act one way or the other depending on the case. It is our referential framework for interpretation and reinterpretation.
Our values: they constitute everything to which we give greater importance in our lives, as a result of social learning, our personal preferences, and the behavior modeling of our elders.
Education helps to nuances favorably our general appreciation and attitude towards life and the world, as well as supports the development and improvement of our response habits, enriches the referential framework of interpretation and reinterpretation, and strengthens our values.
Our life unfolds in a constant search for meaning, for something that we always perceive beyond all achievement and all limits. We never stop being like children, because we always want to try, experiment and play with the possibilities that life offers us, or that are presented to us along the way.
Every personal response to an ethical dilemma is always a symbolic response, because it is framed within meanings, valuations and expectations, but it will inevitably be subject - to a greater or lesser degree - to the unpredictable variability of our will, as an expression of our free being, and within a set of tensions generated by the controlling, driving, repulsive and attractive forces derived from interests, drives and instincts.
An ethical dilemma can mean a major break in a personal or individual story - or that of a family group - thus tracing the border area between before and after. Indeed, from the answer to the ethical dilemma a harmonic continuity of the personal or family history can be derived, or a rupture of the same with a dramatic situation of deep discomfort. Faced with the ethical dilemma, we are alone with our personal equipment - framed in our existential posture -, before competing internal and external forces, and within a context characterized by uncertainty, either due to the tedium or routine of a dark or inattractive person present or before the almost blinding flashes of a supposedly happy future,and a complex fabric of sensations in which curiosity or desire triggered in a variety of ways can be highlighted. The backdrop to the situation where the decision is made - rationally or drivenly - is often very confusing, dissolving a crucial ethical dilemma.
Even when we are well equipped to choose, decide and act in the best sense, there is always the possibility that we will get out of the healthy channel of moral reasons or social conveniences, and opt for lightness or deceptive triviality, or for what more attractive and tempting. Aristotle highlights the weakness of the will -which he refers to as akrasia- as a key aspect to understand the subject's performance before the moral decision; That weakness, as Savater points out, "leads the subject to actually prefer the bad even knowing that there is a better option that, despite being it, leaves aside." Certainly, power, pleasure, comfort or comfort, or the desire to escape routine, can be decisive risk factors in the face of the ethical dilemma, which can lead us to the passionate outburst that arises, according to Savater,of "the passionate urgency of the moment".
It is the fragility of good that Martha Nussbaum talks about, the trivialization of evil to which Hannah Arendt referred… and the drama of freedom that Rüdiger Safranski emphasizes. But continuing education, the constant practice of critical reflection, the conscious and enthusiastic practice of the virtues, especially dedication to inspiring and beneficial work, good social relations, harmonious community sharing and always being alert to risk factors. They will help us maintain our ethical commitment.
Bibliography
- Savater, Fernando: "The Value of Choosing", editorial Ariel, 2004.
