Mastering the Ethical Decision-Making Cycle: A Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding the Ethical Cycle in Decision-Making

In the realm of ethical decision-making, navigating complex moral dilemmas requires a structured approach. The ethical cycle, developed by experts in the field, offers a systematic process to address moral issues, ensuring repeatability and consistency in ethical decisions.

The Essence of the Ethical Cycle

The ethical cycle is not the sole method for making ethical decisions but serves as a robust framework for this lecture. It starts with identifying a moral problem, which is a bite-sized action that requires a decision, avoiding nebulous concepts like making the world a better place. The ultimate goal is to determine a morally acceptable action.

Key Steps of the Ethical Cycle

1. Moral Sensibility: Recognizing the moral issues in everyday problems and identifying the real moral dilemmas behind them.

2. Problem Analysis: Conducting due diligence to understand all aspects of the problem, including collecting relevant facts.

3. Options for Action: Using creative and synthetic reasoning to explore various actions beyond simple yes/no decisions.

4. Ethical Judgment: Consulting ethical ideals and personal intuition to evaluate the options for action.

5. Reflection: Considering advice from various ethical perspectives and personal intuition to make a consistent and defensible decision.

Delving Deeper into the Cycle

• Moral Sensibility involves mapping day-to-day issues to underlying moral problems. It's about understanding what you're really being asked to do in ethical terms.

• Problem Analysis requires gathering all necessary information to fully understand the problem, identifying stakeholders, and recognizing missing information.

• Options for Action encourages looking beyond binary choices and exploring creative solutions, including considering when it might be necessary to blow the whistle.

• Ethical Judgment involves consulting with the ideas of renowned philosophers like Kant, Bentham, and Aristotle, as well as relying on one's intuition and common sense to appraise the options for action.

• Reflection is about critiquing and filtering standard ethical theories based on the situation at hand, leading to a decision that is both morally relevant and defensible.

Practical Application and Benefits

Applying the ethical cycle, especially in complex situations, may seem time-consuming. However, with practice, it enables quicker, more reliable decision-making. By following this structured approach, individuals can navigate moral dilemmas with confidence, ensuring decisions are both ethical and defensible.

In conclusion, the ethical cycle is a comprehensive framework that aids in the systematic resolution of moral problems. By understanding and applying this cycle, one can achieve consistent, morally acceptable actions that stand the test of reflection and critique.

For more insights into ethical decision-making and a deeper dive into the ethical cycle, watch the full lecture here.