A difficult choice between equally undesirable alternatives In a disadvantageous rhetorical position, one is said to be impaled on the horns of a dilemma, but logicians employ Constructive Dilemma as a rule of inference Recommended Reading: Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric (Wadsworth, 1997) {at Amazon com} and Douglas N Walton, Informal Logic: A Handbook for Critical Argumentation (Cambridge, 1989) {at Amazon com} Also see OCP, SEP on moral dilemmas and the prisoner dilemma, IEP, and noesis
* A forced choice between courses of action (usually two) which are equally unacceptable Sometimes people will call any challenging "moral problem" a dilemma, but this is a misleading use of the term Only a few moral problems are dilemmas in the true meaning of the term Calling moral problems "dilemmas" is confusing because it implies that the only possible responses are the two obvious (and unacceptable) ones, and tends to discourage real problem solving
A dilemma is a difficult situation in which you have to choose between two or more alternatives. He was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to return to his country on the horns of a dilemma: see horn. a situation in which it is very difficult to decide what to do, because all the choices seem equally good or equally bad (from lemma )
the Greek word "lemma" translates as "assumption"; a "di-lemma" then is an argument presenting two or more equally conclusive and (in our case) morally justifiable and desirable alternatives, i e the principle of self-determination and that of the sanctity of life are equally desirable, but in a dilemma situation you are seemingly forced to choose one to the exclusion of the other
A forced choice between courses of action (usually two) which are equally unacceptable Sometimes people will call any challenging "moral problem" a dilemma, but this is a misleading use of the term Only a few moral problems are dilemmas in the true meaning of the term Calling moral problems "dilemmas" is confusing because it implies that the only possible responses are the two obvious (and unacceptable) ones, and tends to discourage real problem solving
In popular use a dilemma can be almost any sort of difficult choice, but in logic a dilemma is a choice in which there are only two options, attractive or not One can refute a dilemma, that is, show that is not a real dilemma, by finding a third possibility
A state of things in which evils or obstacles present themselves on every side, and it is difficult to determine what course to pursue; a vexatious alternative or predicament; a difficult choice or position
Turkish - English
Definition of dilemmas in Turkish English dictionary