moral justification
Defense of rightness
Moral justification is the reasoning offered to defend an action as ethically right or acceptable.
People seek moral justification when their behavior might otherwise appear wrong: He found moral justification for the lie in the harm it prevented.
The term often carries skepticism—suggesting the reasoning serves to excuse rather than genuinely validate: Terrorists always have some moral justification for violence.
- ethical dilemmaSituation with competing values
- doing the right thingMoral conduct despite difficulty
- social normsShared behavioral expectations
- utilitarianismGreatest-happiness moral theory
- deontologyMorality based on obligations
clear conscience · cognitive dissonance · legal defense · consequentialism · greater good · guilt · exculpation · cultural relativism · corporate ethics · empathy · societal values · public accountability · whistleblowing · social contracts · lesser evil · necessary evil · slippery slope · playing God
moral justificationexcuse
Offered reason for wrongdoing
rationalization · pretext · moral bankruptcy · self-deception · sophistry
moral justificationethical violation
Breach of moral standards
immorality · moral outrage · moral transgression · sin · wrongdoing
moral justificationexcuse
Offered reason for wrongdoing
alibi · cover story · deflection · blame-shifting · fig leaf
moral, morals, morality, morally, immoral, immorally, immorality, amoral, amorally