Chris MacDonald, Ph.D.
Revised June 6, 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1.0 What is Morality?
1.1 Where Does Morality Come From?
1.1.1 "Shared" Values
1.1.2 Points of Agreement
1.1.3 Room for Disagreement
1.2 The Meaning of Moral "Justification"
1.3 The Importance of Context
1.3.1 The Importance of Relationships
1.4 Moral Questions are not Distinct
1.5 The Importance and Place of Moral Theory
2.0 Moral Decision Making
2.1 Getting the Facts Straight
2.2 The Importance of Moral Sensitivity
2.2.1 Sensitivity to Moral Aspects of Decisions
2.2.2 Sensitivity to a Range of Considerations
2.3 The Role of Discussion in Morality
2.3.1 Discussion as a Means of Consensus-Building
2.3.2 Discussion as a Way of Learning from Others
3.0 A Guide to Moral Decision Making
1.0 What is Morality?
Generally, morality is a system of rules thatmodifies our behaviour in social situations. It's about the doing of goodinstead of harm, and it sets some standard of virtuous conduct.
1.1 Where Does Morality Come From?
When asked about morality, many people respondlike this: "Oh, that's all just a matter of personal opinion anyway,right?" But if you look at the way in which moral values actually work inour everyday lives, you'll see that this is not the case. Personal intuitionsare important, of course. But morality generally comes into play when peopleinteract with each other. This suggests that morality is a system of"shared" values which "justify" actions. As such, moralityis about deciding on best courses of action in all situations. As you'll see,there are quotation marks around the words "shared" and"justify" for a reason.
1.1.1 "Shared" Values
Moral values are generally shared values. If wedid not have an values in common, it would be exceedingly difficult to agree onany one course of action. But since there is often disagreement as to what isthe right thing to do in any situation, we can see that in fact, various valuesare shared to a greater or lesser extent. On some values there will be nearlyunanimous agreement. On others, there may be considerable disagreement.
1.1.2 Points of Agreement
There are a number of moral values on which thereis extremely wide agreement. For example, all cultures that I know of placevalue on truth-telling, and place strong restrictions on lying. As anotherexample, all cultures of which I am aware have rules against doing unnecessaryharm to other people (although they vary regarding what constitutes"unnecessary harm"). Other such shared values include (among manyothers) loyalty, justice, and promise- keeping.
1.1.3 Room for Disagreement
Of course, if everyone agreed on the importanceof these values, there would be no problem. However, even if we all agree onwhich values are important, we may still disagree over the relative importanceof the various values. For example, you and I may both agree that telling thetruth and avoiding harming others are important. But which is more important,when these conflict? For example, if faced with lying to protect someone'sfeelings, which value should take priority? It is on questions like this that weare most likely to differ. Why not just agree to differ, then? Well, assuggested above, morality is in some sense social. As a result, we aregoing to need to justify our actions to each other.
1.2 The Meaning of Moral "Justification"
The word "justification" is commonlyused in two different senses, one positive and the other negative.
The negative sense is the one which is typicallyaccompanied by an accusation that the justifier is being insincere. It is inthis sense that fast-talkers are sometimes accused of being able to"justify" anything and everything. This use is typified by statementslike, "Justify your behaviour however you want...it's still wrong!" Itsuggests that the "justifier" is merely coming up with excuses for herbehaviour, excuses that even she doesn't believe.
The positive sense of justification, on the otherhand, involves bringing others to see our actions as reasonable. In this sense,a course of action is justified if there are better reasons in favour of it thanthere are against it. Preferably, these reasons should be ones that other peoplecould agree are good ones. It is this sense of justification that is importantfor morality. Moral justification, then, means showing that there are more orbetter moral reasons weighing for a course of action than against it.
1.3 The Importance of Context
There probably is no generally correct answer toquestions like, "Which is more important, telling the truth or preventingharm?" A lot depends on context. In some cases, it is probably moreimportant to tell the truth. In others, it is probably more important to preventharm. A number of factors make up the context, including factors of time andplace, the type and nature of the relationships involved, other people'sreasonable expectations, and the relevant history of the situation. A standardexample of a context in which it seems right to lie is this: you are a citizenof Nazi Germany, 1940. You are hiding a family of Jews in your attic. The Germanpolice come to your door and ask whether you know the whereabouts of thatparticular family of Jews. This seems a clear case in which preventing harmseems more important than telling the truth.
A contrary case might be the following: Imaginethat an acquaintance of yours reveals that she has committed manslaughter andthat she's very remorseful about it. You are called into court to testify. Youknow that if you tell the truth, she will go to jail (i.e. suffer a harm). Theremorse she shows suggests that she will never commit another crime if she isnot sent to jail. Our instincts probably tell us that you shouldnonetheless tell the truth in such a case, even if it seems likely to do moreliteral harm than good. This decision might be made on the grounds that truthtelling is part of supporting a system of justice that we think overall fair andvery valuable.
1.3.1 The Importance of Relationships
To a large extent, morality is aboutrelationships. Our rights and obligations spring largely from the relationshipswhich we have with people and institutions. These include (among others) ourrelationships to our family, friends, clients or patients, our students, ourworkplace, our profession, our religious or cultural traditions, our fellowcitizens, and our nation. These relationships can give us important moralreasons for certain kinds of actions. For example, your relationship withcertain children -- your own children -- means that you have moral duties tothem (namely to feed, cloth, and nurture them) that you don't have to otherpeople's children. Another example might be the obligations one has to othermembers of one's professional group. It is important in this respect to thinknot just of the fact that a given relationship exists, but also about the natureand history of that relationship, and about the legitimate moral expectationsthat go along with it.
1.4 Moral Questions are not Distinct
Moral problems are not limited to any particularkind of situation. Morality is not a separate, special domain which needs to beconsulted only on rare occasions. Moral issues surround us all the time. Manydecisions we make have moral importance: often, the challenge is just a matterof recognizing that fact. Morality is best seen as involving the 'best choiceoverall,' once matters of prudence, economics, and technical (e.g., medical)appropriateness have been taken into consideration, and balanced against othersorts of values.
1.5 The Importance and Place of Moral Theory
If morality is about 'shared values,' then why dowe need moral theory? Why should we care what philosophers and ethicists have tosay? Why not just take an opinion poll and figure out exactly what our sharedvalues are?
Moral theory seeks to introduce a degree of rationality and rigour into ourmoral deliberations. Our moral sentiments on any given topic will be lessconvincing to others if they are based on poor reasoning or factualinaccuracies. Moral philosophers also attempt to single out moral beliefs whichare either self-contradictory or mutually exclusive. This is not to say that allour moral beliefs must be strictly rational, but rather that our beliefs arebetter for being considered beliefs, rather than knee-jerk reactions toindividual issues.
There is also something to be said for the veryprocess of theory-building. Sitting down to work out a coherent theory thatexplains our moral beliefs can illuminate existing contradictions, and can helpus to find patterns of moral thought that are more stable and which will beeasier to learn and teach.
2.0 Moral Decision Making
There is no formula or algorithm for moraldecision making. It is not a process which can easily be based on a determinateset of rules. It is also important to see that good moral decision makinginvolves more than just acting on hunches or intuitions, though these, too, areimportant. Good moral decision making involves a) knowing the facts of thesituation, and b) careful consideration of the moral values (some call theseprinciples) that are relevant to a given situation.
Importantly, it involves sensitivity to the moral dimensions of everydaysituations, and an awareness of the range of interests involved in specificdecisions.
2.1 Getting the Facts Straight
Any attempt to make a good decision has to beginwith getting the facts of the situation straight. In some cases which seem atfirst quite difficult, additional facts are enough to make the correct course ofaction apparent. If, for example, we wish to decide how much of our forestsshould be cut down now, and how much left for future generations, we need firstto establish some facts about the rate at which forests regenerate. These factsmight be ascertained through science, or just through the experiences of peoplewho have observed forests over long periods of time.
2.2 The Importance of Moral Sensitivity
The primary skill involved in making good moraldecisions is sensitivity to the moral issues involved in so many of our everydayactivities. Quite often we may act in an morally questionable manner justbecause we were insensitive to the moral nature of the situation. Of course,sometimes we may do the right thing just by instinct, without reflecting at allon what we are doing. For any number of trivial decisions, this is entirelyappropriate. For example, most of us do not require intensive moral deliberationto avoid lying in most cases. But that is not always the case. Often, making theright decision requires a real sensitivity to the moral dimension of asituation, as well as to the range of interests involved.
2.2.1 Sensitivity to Moral Aspects of Decisions
As was suggested above, moral issues surround usall the time. Many decisions we make have moral importance: often, its just amatter of recognizing that fact. This is crucial, since the first step inproblem solving is always identifying the problem.
Sometimes, due to the technical nature of aproblem, we fail to recognize that it also has an moral dimension. We may thinkthat the decision can be made based on purely technical criteria, and thereforewe may be blind to the moral significance of the situation. It is crucial to besensitive to the fact that many technical questions have important moralcomponents. The decision of which medicine to prescribe for a particularcondition, for example, involves making not just a technical decision aboutefficacy, but also a value judgment concerning the relative acceptabilityof various side effects and various risks.
Sometimes the moral importance of a situation mayalso be covered up by statements like, "There's nothing immoral about it:it's just a matter of economics." As suggested above, the morally bestcourse of action in any situation takes matters of economics and technicalappropriateness into account, but is not overridden by these.
2.2.2 Sensitivity to a Range of Considerations
Once a problem has been identified as havingmoral importance, the first and perhaps most important step in resolving theproblem lies in identifying the range of considerations which should be takeninto account. This includes an awareness of the various parties who will beaffected by the decision taken, sensitivity to the range of values or principleswhich might be applied to the question at hand, as well as sensitivity to othercontextual or historical factors which might justifiably influence the decision.Sometimes, just laying all of these factors out explicitly can help to define orclarify the issue.
2.3 The Role of Discussion in Morality
If, as suggested above, morality is primarilyabout shared values, then discussion takes a central place in moral decisionmaking. We seldom make decisions in a vacuum. Other parties are generallyinvolved, and there are a number of reasons to include others in our decisionmaking processes.
2.3.1 Discussion as a Means of Consensus-Building
One good reason for giving discussion a centralplace in moral decision making is that it is often important that others aroundus agree with -- or at least understand -- our decisions. Professionals, inparticular, are often part of a team. Also, it is often the case that otherswill have to carry out, or help to carry out, the decisions we make. If allinterested parties play a role in decision making, they will feel better abouttheir involvement in carrying out that decision. It is often important to us --both psychologically and morally important -- that others "buy-into"our moral decisions.
2.3.2 Discussion as a Way of Learning from Others
There are at least two ways in which we can learnfrom discussing moral questions with others. The first is a short-term gain interms of the range of considerations brought to bear on the question. As thesaying goes, "two heads are better than one." Involving others in ourmoral decision making means that these others can provide insight or experiencewhich is different from our own.
The second way in which we can learn fromdiscussing moral questions with others is a long-term gain in moralunderstanding. We can come to understand a general class of problems better byseeing other people's points of view. As in any other kind of reasoning, we canimprove the quality of our moral decision making by listening to the sorts ofreasons provided by others. We can often learn much from persons who we see asbeing particularly wise, or as making particularly good moral decisions withsome consistency.
It should be noted, of course, that issues ofprivacy and confidentiality will sometimes limit possibilities for discussingparticular problems with others.
3.0 A Guide to Moral Decision Making
As stated above in Section 2.0, there is noformula for moral decision making. This should not be surprising: neither arethere formulae for making good medical diagnoses, or for giving good legaladvice. All of these involve significant elements of experience and sensitivity.However, it is possible to establish helpful guidelines that will aid us in theprocess. One such set of guidelines is presented in my "Guide to MoralDecision Making" (see below). These steps absolutely will not guaranteethat a good decision is made, but they should at least help assure thatdecisions are not made in an overly hasty manner, or without sufficientconsideration of the subtleties of the problem.
Next go to A Guide to Moral DecisionMaking
© by Chris MacDonald
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How to reach me:
Chris MacDonald
Department of Philosophy,
Saint Mary's University,
Halifax N.S.
Canada B3H 3C3
e-mail: chrismac@ethicsweb.ca
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