What is a moral dilemma?
A moral dilemma is situation that requires a choice between two equal alternatives. A moral is a lesson that is learnt from something. A moral dilemma can therefore be defined as a situation that will often involve an apparent mental conflict in which each in possible course of action will breach some binding moral principle.My moral dilemma
I am taking an important math test on a topic I've been find difficult all term, and I know that this test will affect the next report greatly. I feel that I am doing well until on the test until I get to the last question. It is worth 10 marks and I can't remember how to solve it. I can cheat by looking at the person next to me's paper without the teacher seeing me cheat.What do I do?
Currently, the issues of cheating are a problem in all schools. High achieving students state that everyone does it and it is necessary to do so if they are to succeed and get into universities. Personally, I felt that if I cheated, I would have gotten a good grade and therefore been able to get a good final grade for my report. I felt that cheating might be the only way I could keep afloat in the stressful time I was going through with all my IB work. On the other hand, by cheating I would have lost self respect and loyalty to myself.I considered my ethics of justice and acted with a sense of duty by not cheating, but having a talk with the teacher about having a re-test. Also, by looking at what could have happened, the consequences if the teacher had found out and confronted me, I used utilitarianism and looked at the greater good. I would not have known what to say if I was confronted and did not want to put myself in that situation. In addition, i considered the ethics of virtue and looked at the character of other people I respected, and asked myself...would they have cheated? What would they have done in this position?
Whenever I've seen someone cheat in class, I felt that it was unfair to all of us who actually studied and worked hard to get a good grade. When one person cheats off another student, it could affect the person who got cheated from, the student who actually studied. It wouldn't be morally correct to put them in such a situation. Finally, I looked at past experiences where I have cheated in a test, and I did not like the feeling of guilt that came with it.
Therefore to conclude, I didn't cheat on the test but went and talked with the teacher about having a re-test since I didn't understand the topic. This helped me in several ways, one being I learned the topic properly and another being that I used my moral ethics.
