Knowing the etymological origin of the two words that shape the term moral dilemma is the first thing we are going to do:
-Dilemma, first of all, it is a word that derives from the Greek, exactly from "dilemma", which is the result of the sum with two different parts: the prefix "dis-", which means "two", and the noun "lemma", which can be translated as "premise" or "theme".
-Moral, secondly, comes from Latin. In his case, it comes from "moralis".
A dilemma is a situation that forces an individual to choose between two alternatives. The moral, on the other hand, is something that adapts or adjusts to what is considered positive or good, as opposed to the reprehensible or bad.
The idea of a moral dilemma, in this framework, appears when a person must choose between different possibilities that, in one way or another, can produce a reprehensible situation from the ethical point of view. Sometimes, the moral dilemma occurs when it is necessary to choose the lesser evil or when it is an ethically punishable means but that pursues an altruistic or kind objective.
Moral dilemmas are also known in colloquial language as ethical dilemmas. This is because ethics is the philosophical discipline that is responsible for systematizing the concepts of evil and good, defining in a rational way which are the bad actions and which are the good ones. Morality, for its part, is formed by those norms that govern the conduct of individuals in a specific community. Ultimately, ethics concerns general principles, while morality focuses on a specific context, always in relation to good and evil.
An example of a moral dilemma appears when, in a secondary school, a young man decides to set fire to a desk. The directors, when noticing the situation, inform the students that, if the person responsible for the fact does not appear, all the students will be punished. This produces a moral dilemma among the guilty's friends, who know what happened: should they betray and betray their friend to prevent everyone from being punished, or should they privilege trust and friendship and allow massive and unjust punishment?
There are several types of moral dilemmas that exist. However, there are two that are especially significant: the solution dilemma and the analysis dilemma.
In the first one, what is done is to establish the problem that exists and for that both this and the circumstances that surround it are exposed without showing any kind of possible solution. From there, the person who is asked is the one who must decide what action to take because they consider it to be the correct one.
In the dilemma of analysis, on the other hand, what happens is that the protagonist of the situation or problem has already made his decision about it and that has led him to carry out a certain behavior. All this is what is posed to another person who must issue his judgment of value on the position and action that he has carried out in order to solve the aforementioned problem.