07/10 Methods of Moral Reasoning Free Online FlashCards

What is moral reasoning?

Moral reasoning is practical reasoning about what a person or group ought to do, connecting facts to values, principles, duties, rights, consequences, or character.

What does consequentialism evaluate?

Consequentialism evaluates actions by their outcomes. An action is right when its outcome is at least as good as the outcomes of available alternatives.

What is the focus of deontology?

Deontology evaluates actions through duties, rules, permissions, and prohibitions rather than solely through outcomes.

What question guides virtue ethics?

Virtue ethics focuses on moral character and asks what a practically wise and morally good person would do in the circumstances.

What is a stakeholder?

A stakeholder is a person or group significantly affected by a decision or capable of affecting its implementation.

What is the first step in ethical analysis?

Step 1 is to gather relevant facts, separating what is known from assumptions, opinions, predictions, disputed claims, and missing information.

Why generate more than two options?

Realistic options include delaying, gathering evidence, limiting scope, adding safeguards, consulting affected groups, or conducting a reversible pilot—not merely accepting or rejecting a proposal.

What does the justice lens examine?

Justice and fairness ask how benefits, risks, opportunities, and burdens are distributed, including whether discrimination or unequal error rates occur.

What do care and common good examine?

The care lens considers dependence, vulnerability, and concrete relationships; the common-good lens considers conditions supporting shared safety, trust, cooperation, and institutions.

How should an ethical conclusion be tested?

Testing objections asks for the strongest opposing argument, affected stakeholders’ concerns, questionable assumptions, role reversals, precedents, and facts that could change the conclusion.

What is the publicity test?

The publicity test asks whether a decision remains defensible when explained honestly to affected people, a trusted moral critic, or the wider public.

Why review an ethical decision?

Ethical reasoning is iterative: after implementation, review actual benefits, harms, overlooked stakeholders, and needed changes, then revise the decision or repair harms.