Ethical Dilemmas: The Egoism Theory

In the case dilemma presented, there is no right thing to do but we are morally compelled to act upon the situation that confronts us. Putting this dilemma in a real life situation the panic of the dilemma would most likely allow us to let the first people who come to the lifeboat on board. This choice could be the lesser evil; it would be hard to imagine anyone throwing someone back overboard just because someone else's life could be thought as more valuable. The main problem with this dilemma is the insufficiency information provided. We do not know anything about these people except their one-sentence descriptors, hardly enough to judge their worth at life. We could say that there is definitely a double effect in this dilemma. We cannot

Egoism theory is full of self interest and self motivated moral decisions. If we allow ourselves to use the Egoism theory then we would most likely choose ten people who we believe are the best, for example a doctor because they might be able to help if we were hurt, any famous artist or director in spite of hopefully getting a news story with us involved and being recognized for our decision. We could believe that choosing these ten people who we think are the best may be the best choice, but as soon as we show any kind of self interest or recognize that this decision was made could help oneself in any shape or form then we are making the decision of allowing these ten people under what the Egoism theory implies. Ethical egoism choice could be a moral choice that is understood as a consequentialist theory according to which the consequences for us who are already on the lifeboat will take to matter more than any other result. Egoism theory will prescribe actions that may be beneficial, detrimental, or neutral to the welfare of certain individuals. Another view we could have under the Egoism theory would be to simply not let anyone else on board, we could try to justify that we are putting our lives at risk already with having fifty people on the lifeboat and allowing even just ten more would compromise our safety. For example, if we don't leave room for excess capacity as a safety factor in our

The Kantian Ethics is a duty-based theory, meaning we will choose who we should choose because it is what we should do and is morally right action in accordance with the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative is extremely important when it comes to deciding what choice is morally correct and deciding what our duty is to do. The Kantian Ethics expresses that we should treat every single person with dignity and worth and as if it they were ourselves. Our choice of which ten we should choose under Kantian ethics influence would be very difficult because if we put ourselves in their positions and try to see every single person with dignity and the same worth it would be impossible to make a decision of whom to save. It is clear that duty plays an important and central part in Kantian ethics because without it our choice may otherwise not be justified. While this last solution clearly offers the only means of our survival, it is morally abhorrent to many people. Some say they feel guilty about their good