Ethical dilemma staging

Work a case where principles genuinely conflict, practising reasoned choice under tradeoffs instead of hunting for a hidden "correct" virtue.

When to use this: When you want to go deeper
Learning impact: Reliable gain
Learning evidence: Credible with caveats
Where you are with the topic: Building understanding
How often to use it: Worth repeating often

When to use it

A case has two principles that cannot both be fully satisfied.
You want practice choosing under conflict, not finding a hidden loophole that makes everyone happy.
Professional ethics, law, medicine, or politics cases are on the syllabus.

What to ask AI

Type something like: “Stage an ethical dilemma: scarce ventilator, two patients. No magic third option that dissolves the conflict. Force me to name principles, generate options including doing nothing, choose, and face the strongest objection.”

Forbid tidy resolutions that erase the dilemma.

How it helps

Ethical dilemma staging trains judgement where principles genuinely conflict.

The learning is naming the conflict and owning a choice, not discovering a secret win-win.

How to run it

State the conflicting principles in your own words.
Generate options including doing nothing.
Choose and justify.
Hear the strongest objection and respond.
Note what your choice sacrifices.

Example exchange

You

Dilemma: report a teammate’s data fabrication, but doing so risks a collaborator’s visa. Stage it with real pressure,no magical easy out.

Which principles are in play, named plainly?

You

Research integrity versus loyalty, plus harm-minimisation for a real person who’d take the fallout.

List options including doing nothing, then choose. I won’t invent a dean who magically fixes both sides.

Copyable prompt

Stage an ethical dilemma in [DOMAIN] at [LEVEL]. Principles must genuinely
conflict, no secret win-win. Ask me to name principles first. Then options.
Then my choice + remainder. Then force the strongest objection. Do not moralise
me toward your preferred answer; do call out if I pretend there's no tradeoff.

The Tell

You know this method has flipped when the AI offered a clever escape hatch and you took it with relief.

If nobody loses, it was not a dilemma.

Keep the sacrifice visible in your write-up.

Principle evidence

Strength of the underlying learning idea, not a claim about AI products.

The underlying learning idea is rated moderate. Ethical dilemma cases are standard in professional ethics education (case method). Mechanism: principled conflict forces articulation of values and trade-offs. Principle moderate; AI framing of dilemmas can smuggle bias, speculative.

AI delivery evidence

Whether an AI tutor delivers this method well is a separate question.

The learning principle may be moderate, but that does not prove an AI session delivers it well. Treat AI delivery as speculative unless a study of tutoring with this method is named, and none is claimed here.