Are Moral Judgments Based on Reasoning or Rationalization?
Are Moral Judgments Based on Reasoning or Rationalization? Wednesday January 26, 2011 #spacer{clear:left}#abc #sidebar{margin-top:1.5em}zSB(3,3) Most people probably want to believe that decisions they make about moral issues are based on sound reasoning — that they start from basic moral principles and work through the particulars of a situation to a sound moral conclusion. But it may not be the case that moral judgements are based on sound reasoning — indeed, they may not be based on what we would normally call “reasoning” at all. Instead, what we see as our moral “reasoning” may only be a set of rationalizations created by our brains to explain whatever our unconscious minds worked out without our realizing it. Michael Gazzaniga writes in the May 1, 2010 issue of New Scientist: What if most humans, regardless of their culture or religious beliefs or age or sex, chose the same option when faced with a moral conflict? What if those same people gave wildly different reasons for why t
