dilema

A dilemma is a situation that requires choosing between two or more alternatives, each of which may be undesirable or mutually exclusive. Dilemmas often involve conflicts between duties, values, or practical constraints, and they can be personal, professional, or theoretical.

Etymology: The term derives from the Greek dilemma, from di- meaning "two" and lemma meaning "premise" or proposition, indicating a choice between two premises. In English usage, it denotes any hard choice in which all options have negative or problematic aspects.

Types: Moral or ethical dilemmas involve competing duties or values, such as saving lives versus respecting autonomy. Practical dilemmas arise from constraints or trade-offs in policy, business, or technology. In philosophy and logic, a dilemma may be formulated as two conditional propositions that lead to a difficult conclusion or paradox, sometimes framed as a choice between two unfavorable outcomes.

Examples: The trolley problem is a famous moral dilemma exploring the ethics of action versus inaction. The prisoner’s dilemma is a game-theoretic model illustrating how individual rationality can yield a worse outcome for all participants. Real-world dilemmas include decisions about resource allocation, risk management, and conflicts of interest where trade-offs are unavoidable.

In discourse, dilemmas are used to examine decision making, ethics, and argumentative reasoning. They illuminate how different principles, consequences, and contexts influence choices, and they are common in philosophy, law, psychology, and public policy.