Normative Ethics
Moral Reasoning Guidelines
Making good moral decisions is difficult and part of the difficulty is that we do not live in a vacuum. Making moral decisions are complex and are connected to different contexts. You are being asked to do an ethical analysis as compared to a political, religious, or economic one. Your research topic or case study focuses on a moral dilemma and probably has several different proposals or solutions to your dilemma.. For our purposes, it is not so important which moral judgment or moral rule you draw, (Discovery essay) but on how well you justify, defend, and argue for your moral position (Justification essay) and that you demonstrate clear and consistent reasoning as well as critical thinking skills. In making good moral judgment, you must argue for your position (the Discovery essay) using a normative ethical theory (the Justification essay). The key to recognizing an ethical issue is to be able to conceptualize the moral problem correctly in the first place and this is what our Moral Reasoning Strategy attempts to help you do; it is a template which organizes considerations to generate a decision.
Prelude. A good moral reasoner pays close attention to certain rules of thought and has good critical thinking skills. Critical thinking involves certain intellectual traits which people must have in order to think clearly and accurately and thus to make solid moral decisions. While this booklet cannot cover these rules or traits in any detail, let it suffice to say that these traits involve characteristics like clarity, relevance, consistency, depth, logic, and preciseness.
Paper A. The Moral Dilemma Essay: a statement of the issue.
In this essay you are asked to objectively lay out for your reader a moral dilemma you have encountered in your place of employment, in your personal life, or through your scholarly research. In some classes, the dilemma my be assigned to you or is the outcome of scholarly research of your own.
After
Making good moral decisions is difficult and part of the difficulty is that we do not live in a vacuum. Making moral decisions are complex and are connected to different contexts. You are being asked to do an ethical analysis as compared to a political, religious, or economic one. Your research topic or case study focuses on a moral dilemma and probably has several different proposals or solutions to your dilemma.. For our purposes, it is not so important which moral judgment or moral rule you draw, (Discovery essay) but on how well you justify, defend, and argue for your moral position (Justification essay) and that you demonstrate clear and consistent reasoning as well as critical thinking skills. In making good moral judgment, you must argue for your position (the Discovery essay) using a normative ethical theory (the Justification essay). The key to recognizing an ethical issue is to be able to conceptualize the moral problem correctly in the first place and this is what our Moral Reasoning Strategy attempts to help you do; it is a template which organizes considerations to generate a decision.
Prelude. A good moral reasoner pays close attention to certain rules of thought and has good critical thinking skills. Critical thinking involves certain intellectual traits which people must have in order to think clearly and accurately and thus to make solid moral decisions. While this booklet cannot cover these rules or traits in any detail, let it suffice to say that these traits involve characteristics like clarity, relevance, consistency, depth, logic, and preciseness.
Paper A. The Moral Dilemma Essay: a statement of the issue.
In this essay you are asked to objectively lay out for your reader a moral dilemma you have encountered in your place of employment, in your personal life, or through your scholarly research. In some classes, the dilemma my be assigned to you or is the outcome of scholarly research of your own.
After