We explain what a moral judgment is, what elements it comprises and various examples. Also, differences with a moral judgment.
What is a moral judgment?
A moral judgment consists of the mental evaluation of an action, behavior or decision in moral terms that is, according to a social and cultural system of valuation that differentiates between good and bad.
Thus, a moral judgment serves to affirm or deny that some action constitutes moral (acceptable) or immoral (unacceptable) behavior, guiding us by certain innate considerations of the human being (empathy, feelings, for example) and also by considerations of type social, historical, cultural, religious, etc.
A moral judgment is a conscious act, in which certain elements of the situation are taken into account, such as the motivation for an act, the ends and means used and the short, medium and long-term consequences it produces. All of this oriented towards a rational and emotional reflection on what is good and bad which is never simple to determine and can lead to dilemmas and contradictions.
Simply put, our capacity for moral judgment consists of distinguishing between good and evil as more or less absolute categories. Therefore it depends on our moral conscience, which is instilled in us at home when we are children and later at school, and often through religion and philosophy.
See also: Moral values
Elements of a moral judgment
Every moral judgment involves three different elements, which are:
- The object which is the behavior, decision or action that is being judged morally, and therefore must be considered moral or immoral.
- The circumstances which are the context in which the judged act takes place and the conditions that accompany and condition it.
- The intention which is the motivation behind the judged action and the specific desire that is specifically sought to be satisfied.
Examples of moral judgment
Some examples of moral judgment can be seen in the following situations:
- A judge must decide whether the action that a doctor carried out when helping a quadriplegic man who was admitted to his hospital die is moral or immoral, that is, good or bad, taking into account the man's explicit desire to die. and the doctor's Hippocratic oath. Was it right to help him die or did you have to prolong his painful existence against his wishes?
- Voters of a political party that, once in power, unleashed a ferocious dictatorship and massacred its opponents, must decide, in their hearts, whether it was right or wrong to have voted as they did. To do this, they must evaluate if they knew that this would happen, if there were clear indications in this regard, and if it was in their power to prevent the murderers from coming to power.
- A man finds out that his son has hit a pedestrian while returning home drunk. Fearing for his son's fate, he offers his gardener to take the blame and confess to the crime in his place, in exchange for paying for his children's university studies and supporting his family during the time he spends in prison. The gardener accepts, but the son must decide if it is okay for an innocent man to go to prison in his place, or if he should confess his crime and ruin his bright future.
Difference between moral judgment and ethical judgment
The difference between moral judgment and ethical judgment is simple: in the first case we try to decide whether a behavior, decision or action is acceptable or unacceptable, that is, good or bad; while An ethical judgment evaluates the options available to decide what is the moral, acceptable or correct way to face a dilemma and solve it.
Thus, for example, a moral judgment can tell us whether it was right or wrong to have voted in favor of the death penalty in our State, but only an ethical judgment can tell us what would be the correct, ideal, most humane way to implement it. practice.
References
- “Ethics” on Wikipedia.
- “Morals” on Wikipedia.
- “Moral judgment and ethical judgment” in ITESCAM (Mexico).
