The Role Of Moral Reasoning In Moral Judgment

Moral judgment has always been the focus of moral research.In the 1980 s,there were traditional rationalist models represented by Piaget and Kohlberg,who argued that moral judgment was a rational reasoning process,even if emotional emotions were involved and did not play a major role.In the late twentieth century,many researchers began to recognize the important role of emotions in human cognitive processes.Haidt’s theory of social intuition,Greene’s dual-processing theory,emerged in this context.Haidt argues that moral judgments are made quickly,effortlessly,and intuitively.And rational reasoning is relying on logic to make judgments,and reasoning post-hoc.The results of some neuropsychological studies have also provided proof of social intuition theory.However,the theory of social intuition is not a simple denial of the traditional theory.Besides in favoring of the influence of moral reasoning to moral judgments,Haidt more emphasis on social relation interaction on moral judgment.Thus,moral judgment is seen as the result of intuition and reasoning in the interaction of social dynamics.This theory breaks through the traditional research model,but this does not form a prescriptive claim that can only stay in a descriptive explanation.On the basis of the traditional rational model and social intuition theory,Greene proposed a dual-processing model.According to dual-process model,moral judgments are driven by both intuitive emotional responses and controlled cognitive responses.On one hand,it is influenced by emotional intuition system,and on the other,by targeting the system for controlled cognition,the former is a parallel automated process,while the latter is relying on individual regulation and control,the result of moral judgments are the formation of two systems interaction.When the two are consistent,moral judgment follows both intuition and rational reasoning.When the two conflict,if the emotions overcome the cognition,then the individual judgments tend to deontological judgments;when cognition overcome emotions,then the individual will tend to utilitarianism judgments.Although Haidt’s social intuition model and Greene’s dual-processing model are in favor of the important role of emotion in moral judgment,the role of moral reasoning in moral judgment has been controversial.Therefore,this paper is different from the philosophical conceptual analysis.Many of the controversy about moral judgment in philosophy is not discussed in detail in this paper.On the basis of moral psychology,this paper systematically studies the psychological model of moral judgment,and carries on the theoretical analysis and reflection to this,so as to explore what role the moral reasoning plays in the moral judgment.The study of moral psychology has had a great impact on the study of traditional ethics.Some ethicists question the distinction between scientific "is" and "ought to be" of ethics.they also arguing that science and normative ethics are continuous and that ethics might someday be regarded as a natural social science.Greene agree that there is a sharp and crucial distinction between the ‘is’ of science and the ‘ought’ of ethics.He believes that normative ethics can not become a branch of the natural sciences.And the "is and ought" gradually integrated together,the scientific facts may have a profound impact on our moral thinking.