Violating an Ambiguous Confidence? An Ethical Dilemma
In a September 7, 2016 publication of “The Ethicist” in The New York Times Magazine,
Kwame Anthony Appiah responds to an ethical dilemma posed by a widow. The widow states that her husband of fifteen years had passed away. It had been a second marriage for both her and her husband. Upon his death, she found many journals he had kept over the years before they had met, which he seemed to have stopped writing shortly after their marriage. He left no instructions for the journals, but she notes they are marked private and confidential. The husband had children from his first marriage, and so the widow’s dilemma was whether or not to share these journals with her step-children, dispose of them …show more content…
If it can be assumed that any of the negative consequences mentioned before could occur if the children read the journals, it is reasonable to think that those same consequences could occur once the journals are discovered upon the widow’s death.
Since these are potential consequences of the different actions she could take, perhaps the best moral frame to determine the morally correct action is one based on consequence; in this case, Utilitarianism. As Appiah noted, without an agreement between the spouses or implicit instructions for the journals, there is no clear duty of the widow here, only the use of best judgment—so applying a deontological theory would not result in a clear answer. Applying
Mill’s Greatest Happiness Principle would have us consider the total happiness derived from the potential actions, which basically break down into sharing or not sharing the journals. Since they would be found and shared with her step-children upon the widow’s death, it essentially moves this third option into the category of sharing. Sharing the journals has the most likely chance of resulting in a decrease of happiness for all involved, including the widow equally. If the
In a September 7, 2016 publication of “The Ethicist” in The New York Times Magazine,
Kwame Anthony Appiah responds to an ethical dilemma posed by a widow. The widow states that her husband of fifteen years had passed away. It had been a second marriage for both her and her husband. Upon his death, she found many journals he had kept over the years before they had met, which he seemed to have stopped writing shortly after their marriage. He left no instructions for the journals, but she notes they are marked private and confidential. The husband had children from his first marriage, and so the widow’s dilemma was whether or not to share these journals with her step-children, dispose of them …show more content…
If it can be assumed that any of the negative consequences mentioned before could occur if the children read the journals, it is reasonable to think that those same consequences could occur once the journals are discovered upon the widow’s death.
Since these are potential consequences of the different actions she could take, perhaps the best moral frame to determine the morally correct action is one based on consequence; in this case, Utilitarianism. As Appiah noted, without an agreement between the spouses or implicit instructions for the journals, there is no clear duty of the widow here, only the use of best judgment—so applying a deontological theory would not result in a clear answer. Applying
Mill’s Greatest Happiness Principle would have us consider the total happiness derived from the potential actions, which basically break down into sharing or not sharing the journals. Since they would be found and shared with her step-children upon the widow’s death, it essentially moves this third option into the category of sharing. Sharing the journals has the most likely chance of resulting in a decrease of happiness for all involved, including the widow equally. If the