Inescapable Wrongdoing and the Coherence of Morality: An Examination of Moral Dilemmas

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dc.contributor.authorJackson, Vincent Patricken
dc.contributor.committeechairFitzPatrick, William J.en
dc.contributor.committeememberDaskal, Steven J.en
dc.contributor.committeememberMay, Simonen
dc.contributor.departmentPhilosophyen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:37:12Zen
dc.date.adate2009-07-01en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:37:12Zen
dc.date.issued2009-05-04en
dc.date.rdate2009-07-01en
dc.date.sdate2009-05-16en
dc.description.abstractIn this thesis, I propose an argument against the possibility of moral dilemmas, which I construe as situations in which moral wrongdoing is inescapable. The first chapter addresses some terminological matters and attempts to sort out the main issues of contention between proponents and opponents of moral dilemmas. The second chapter lays out my argument, which I dub the "Argument from Action-Guidingness," against proponents of moral dilemmas. Negative moral judgments of the sort "X is wrong" typically carry with them the implication that X ought not to be done. If judgments of wrongness always have this action-guiding force, then moral dilemmas, which say that all courses of action available to the agent are morally wrong, threaten morality with incoherence. To avoid this problem, proponents of dilemmas will be forced to abandon the action-guiding implications of negative moral judgments when dilemmas arise. But this move is not without its own difficulties, which I elucidate. The final chapter identifies flaws in two prominent arguments in favor of dilemmas: the argument from moral distress and the argument from incommensurable values. The latter half of the chapter examines Sayre-McCord's "fairness argument" against dilemmas, and contrasts it with the argument from action-guidingness.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Artsen
dc.identifier.otheretd-05162009-222557en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05162009-222557/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/32871en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartjacksonthesisfinal.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectmoral dilemmasen
dc.subjectinescapable moral wrongdoingen
dc.subjectmoral distressen
dc.subjectincommensurable valuesen
dc.titleInescapable Wrongdoing and the Coherence of Morality: An Examination of Moral Dilemmasen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplinePhilosophyen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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