Mistakes in Moral Reasoning

1
Mistakes in Moral Reasoning

• Arbitrariness
• Relying on gut feeling
• Selfishness and Partisanship
• Appealing to Moral Authorities
• Religion
• Culture

2
Selfishness and partisanship

• Appealing solely to self interest or interests of
  ones group when you should appeal to moral
  standards.
• Problem
• becomes habitual
• results in war of all against all.

3
Morality and Religion

• Morality depends on religion.
• Motivational claim Religion motivates people to
  do the right thing and is the only motivation for
  right action.
• Problem Some people do the wrong thing for
  religious reasons, some people do the right thing
  for reasons which are independent of religion.
• Justification Religion provides the only
  justification for morality.

4
Religion as a justification for morality

• Practical problem people with differing
  religions will not be able to share moral
  reasons.
• Theoretical problem Right and wrong cannot just
  be a matter of Gods will.

5
Cultural Relativism

• Definition You morally ought to do whatever your
  society thinks is right.
• Problems
• How do I know the rules?
• Suppose I disagree with my society?
• What about moral reformers?
• How can we criticize other societies?

6
Good Moral Reasoning

• Moral judgments are not mere preferences, but
  must be
• based on facts,
• defended in terms of objective reasons,
• which can be articulated.

7
Characteristics of Leaders with Integrity

• Awareness
• of own values, of other values
• Ability to communicate and build consensus about
  values
• Ability to assess consequences
• Respect for others
• Care for others, and ability to foster
  relationships
• Virtues
• courage, honesty, humility
• Fairness
• Professional Ethics