ABSTRACT
Everyone loves to talk about the hot button issues: immigration, wealth inequality, gun rights, terrorism, and health care reform. Yet going straight to the big social issues is like going straight from 2 + 2 = 4 to integral calculus. It is more useful to start with everyday dilemmas that build our ethical reasoning skills. This chapter analyzes several skills: boarding the plane by zone, using the ambulance siren, taking a shortcut through a residential neighborhood, trading in a damaged car, correcting a cashier’s error in your favor, finding money, telling a fib for a surprise birthday party, reporting the boss’s illegitimate travel expenses, driving around the queue in a blocked traffic lane, writing a last will and testament, and reclining an airline seat. Some of these little dilemmas are not as simple as they appear and provide good practice for taking on larger issues.
