What does one do if there's no right choice?

Question

If you can choose A or B, and both have tremendous upsides, but both have equally devastating downsides, how do you evaluate?

Answer 1

a speeding train carrying a bomb is headed towards a populated area and the train cant be stopped. let it continue and the fall out from the crash will be ten thousand. destroy it before it hits the area and you willingly kill forty people. what do you do??

in short you have to make the best decision based on the least fall out and live with it. both options have great upsides and just as equally downsides but you have to choose the option with the LEAST fallout and trust your decision was right.

Answer 2

this is what is known as a double approach avoidance conflict.

you still can evaluate the level of upside versus downside,

what has the most upside, least downside. or justfigure out what choice will give you worst case scenario. then drop that one.

Answer 3

Avoid choosing. The set up says "if you CAN choose".

But if that is not truly what you meant, then I say consider the ethics of the 2 choices. Which one would you be unashamed about if the whole thing were published on the front page? Then go with that choice.

Find an option 3 that is less cumbersome????

Answer 4

1) If you have only these two choices, you choose the lesser of two evils or what you perceive to be the lesser of two evils.

2) You find a third alternative.

You evaluate each specific instance by using your intelligence and life experience.

Answer 5

What we have to do is apply various moral weights to the action as applicable to the different individuals or groups with interests in the issue at hand.

This much good for one individual or group add this much weight to the individuals’ “good side” on our moral balancing scale. This much bad add this much weight to the individuals’ “bad side” on our moral scale.

We have to do this for every individual or group with interests in the issue at hand. And then do a total to make our decision. However…

Things get really complicated once we add the concept of moral principals.

A moral principal is some thing like “it is wrong to kill”. The idea been it is so bad for that individual to kill them (adds a huge amount of weight to the bad side of our moral balancing scale) that no amount of good as a result of killing them will make it up.

Things get even more complicated when we start getting into direct and indirect consequences of our actions.

And then there is the matter of authority, and responsibility. Which adds importance to these decisions. Glade we’re not a doctor who has lives depending on our decisions regularly.

Our advice is try not to break any basic moral principals. If you want more specific advice give us the details of your dilemma. We love moral dilemmas. Like brain candy.

One that has been chewing at us of late is.. how long to wait and hold the door for some one fallowing you into a building?

Answer 6

That's where you have weigh the pros and cons and choose the lesser of two evils basically and make a decision - if you must make a decision. Sometimes a decision doesn't have to be made at all.

Answer 7

If all choices are equal for me, then I consider the impact of each choice on the others who matter to me. If they seem to same to me, then I ask for a second opinion. If need be, I could toss a coin.

Answer 8

Have to choose which would be better for you and what downsides would be the worse for you.

Answer 9

Choose the most correct wrong choice.

Answer 10

That is when you have to evaluate the end result that you can live with in this Hobson's Choice.