moral reasoning
Judging right wrong
Moral reasoning is the process of thinking through ethical questions—weighing principles, consequences, and competing values to reach judgments about right and wrong.
It involves applying ethical frameworks to specific situations: Her moral reasoning led her to conclude that the lie was justified.
The term appears frequently in philosophy, psychology, and education, where researchers study how people develop and apply ethical thinking.
- deontologyMorality based on obligations
- empathySharing another's emotions
- utilitarianismGreatest-happiness moral theory
- consequentialismEthics judging by results
- greater goodCollective benefit over personal
lesser evil · integrity · social norms · fairness · ethical dilemmas · bioethics · conscience · justice · right and wrong · doing the right thing · ethical decision-making · trolley · slippery slope · gray area · playing God · whistleblowing · cognitive dissonance · duty
- moralityimmoral, ethics, morals, right and wrong, conscience
- child developmentbaby, toddler, newborn, infancy, milestones
- cognitionthinking, thought, cognition, remembering, memory retrieval
- mental processesthinking, think, cognition, pondering, attention
- social developmentsocialization, social skills, friendship, social behavior, belonging
- ethical educationvalues, morals, ethics, character, integrity
moral reasoningimpulse
Sudden urge to act
instinct · gut reaction · knee-jerk reaction · automatic response · snap judgment
moral reasoningmoral intuition
Immediate ethical judgment
gut feeling · emotional reaction · visceral response · intuition · feeling