ethical conflict
Values in tension
An ethical conflict arises when moral principles or duties pull in opposite directions, making it impossible to honor all of them simultaneously.
A doctor may face an ethical conflict between patient confidentiality and the duty to warn others of danger.
Unlike simple moral choices between right and wrong, ethical conflicts pit competing goods or obligations against each other: The journalist faced an ethical conflict between protecting her source and preventing harm.
- moral dilemmaChoice testing one's values
- lesser of two evilsPreferable among bad options
- values clarificationProcess of identifying core beliefs
- do the right thingBehave with moral integrity
- whistleblowingExposing hidden wrongdoing internally
guilt · justice · consequentialism · inner turmoil · soul searching · integrity · line in the sand · categorical imperative · moral injury · trolley problem · greater good · fiduciary duty · professional boundaries · deontology · conscience · accountability · confidentiality breach · slippery slope
- guiltguilty, guilt trip, guilty conscience, remorseful, contrition
- conscience in literatureguilt, inner voice, moral dilemma, remorse, moral ambiguity
- Deep themesexistential crisis, moral dilemma, meaning of life, free will, fate
- Literary Moralsmoral lessons, moral lesson, moral fables, morality tales, moral narrative
- thinking errorsad hominem, straw man, slippery slope, confirmation bias, sunk cost fallacy
- value pluralismcompeting values, moral complexity