Dilemas morais, erros inevitáveis e trauma

Abstract

This doctoral thesis addresses the issue of moral dilemmas, specifically dilemmas of serious severity. These specific dilemmas are analyzed in an attempt to connect them to the thesis of Inescapable Moral Wrongdoing and the psychological trauma situation experienced by the agent in these situations. At first, examples of literature and philosophy that illustrate and explain each situation are presented. Such examples are Sophie s Choice, by William Styron, the dialogue between Socrates and Cephalus, in Book I of The Republic by Plato, and the case of the student of Sartre, in Existentialism is a Humanism. In a second moment, the study aims to carry out some important distinctions between types of moral dilemmas, namely: soluble, insoluble and symmetrical dilemmas. The main theories that deal with solution of moral dilemmas are exposed, divided in rationalist theories and "experientialist" theories. The former are analyzed so that it is shown that they do not accept genuine moral dilemmas, neither the thesis of the Inescapable Moral Wrongdoing, providing solutions for difficult moral dilemmas and even symmetrical, making use of principles of deontic logic, as the Kant Principle and the Agglomeration Principle. On the other hand, the theories of experientialist nature, which most interest this work, are those that accept the genuineness of moral dilemmas and admit the existence of the Inescapable Moral Wrongdoing. Therefore, some make use of the Remainder Thesis (TR), to which this work is affiliated. This theory states that in some specific moral dilemmas, even though the rational moral deliberation has been followed, the agent will suffer from feelings of regret, due to an emotional remainder concerning the duty that was not fulfilled or a violated value. Thus, according to the Remainder Thesis, the best explanation for this remainder and feelings of regret is the Inescapable Moral Wrongdoing theory. Therefore, the term "wrongdoing" is used in the sense of violating important moral values for the agent, and not in the sense of violating correct moral deliberation conclusions. To systematize the discussion, in a third moment, this study focuses on providing a definition capable of including the specific cases of moral dilemmas with inescapable moral wrongdoings (Definition of Moral Dilemmas with Inescapable Moral Wrongdoings - MDIMW). Moral dilemmas of serious severity are included in this definition, ones with a high moral cost to the agent, which are able to hurt the agent s moral sensibility and generate strong feelings of grief, which can lead to serious psychological trauma. The example of Sophie s Choice plays a crucial role in this discussion, while it fits the MDIMW. Finally, it is brought to the discussion the concept of "moral injury", recent term used in psychiatry to refer to situations of difficult moral choices usually faced by former war combatants. Certain serious moral choices faced by these agents would be able to generate "moral injury" to their moral codes, become risk factors for the manifestation of traumas and, in more serious cases, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Thus, analyzing the relationships between moral choices of serious severity, inescapable moral wrongdoings, trauma and the possibility of its overcoming, are the main objectives of this study.