Concept
Moral reasoning
Overview
Moral reasoning is the study of how people think about right and wrong and how they acquire and apply moral rules. It is a subdiscipline of moral psychology that overlaps with moral philosophy, and is the foundation of descriptive ethics.
An influential psychological theory of moral reasoning was proposed by Lawrence Kohlberg of the University of Chicago, who expanded Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Lawrence described three levels of moral reasoning: pre-conventional (governed by self-interest), conventional (motivated to maintain social order, rules and laws), and post-conventional (motivated by universal ethical principles and shared ideals including the social contract).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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1. Moral philosophy, or the science of human nature, may be treated after two different manners; each of which has its peculiar merit, and may contribute to the entertainment, instruction, and reformation of mankind. The one considers man chiefly as born for action; and as influenced in his measures by taste and sentiment; pursuing one object, and avoiding another, according to the value which these objects seem to…
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
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But though this question, concerning the general principles of morals, be curious and important, it is needless for us, at present, to employ farther care in our researches concerning it. For if we can be so happy, in the course of this enquiry, as to discover the true origin of morals, it will then easily appear how far either sentiment or reason enters into all determinations of this nature [Footnote: See Appendix…
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
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But all philosophy is either cognition on the basis of pure reason, or the cognition of reason on the basis of empirical principles. The former is termed pure, the latter empirical philosophy. The philosophy of pure reason is either propædeutic, that is, an inquiry into the powers of reason in regard to pure à priori cognition, and is termed critical philosophy; or it is, secondly, the system of pure reason—a…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
States what Moral reasoning is; the author is tied to Moral reasoning in the knowledge graph.
Related ideas
- Analogy
- Jonathan Haidt
- Immanuel Kant
- Intentionality
- Trolley problem
- University of Chicago
- Paul Thagard
- Inductive reasoning
- Social order
- Social contract
- Moral character
- Theory of mind
- Common law
- Kantian ethics
- Deductive reasoning
- David Hume
- Ethics
- Jean Piaget
- Self-interest
- Descriptive ethics
- Keith Holyoak
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Metaethics.