Moral and Social Reasoning: The Role of Inequalities,
Injustices, and Social Opposition

 

My presentation is based on the proposition that moral judgments, as
connected with positive emotions, are central in moral decisions. Moral
decisions, however, involve the coordination of different types of
social judgments - moral and non-moral - with a weighing and balancing
of varying and sometimes conflicting considerations and goals. The
viewpoint I present is not in accord with the idea that morality is
mainly due to unconscious and non-rational processes driven by negative
emotions. One focus of the presentation is on how people respond to
social inequalities and injustices embedded in social organizations and
cultural practices. Data is presented showing that people often oppose
such inequalities, indicating that there is a fair amount of critical
scrutiny of cultural practices.