dilemmadega

Dilemmadega is a neologism used in ethics and narrative theory to describe a multi-layered moral dilemma in which resolving one obligation creates new conflicts within the same decision context. The term acts as a heuristic for analyzing cascading duties, constraints, and information limits that shape moral choice. It is not yet standard in formal ethics literature but appears in teaching materials and speculative writing.

The term emerged in online philosophy and game design discussions in the early 2020s as a pedagogical device for illustrating cascading duties. Because it is a recent coinage, it has limited formal citation and is primarily encountered in classrooms and informal essays.

Dilemmadega involves successive dilemmas. A decision at level one affects values or agents at level two, which in turn generates level three, creating an escalation of ethical stakes. The framework highlights how competing duties (truth-telling, harm minimization, justice) interact with constraints (resources, time, norms) to determine which duty prevails. For example, saving one person in a hypothetical setting may worsen outcomes for others, prompting a sequence of allocation and oversight decisions.

Applications include ethics education, thought experiments, policy analysis, and narrative design to test moral reasoning in complex environments. The model helps illuminate interdependencies among duties and the effects of policy or design choices.

Criticism and related terms: Critics warn that the term can be vague or overstate interdependencies beyond established theories. Proponents argue it offers a practical lens for examining how decisions unfold in layers. Related topics include dilemma, moral philosophy, decision theory, and ethical AI.