Moral judgments are largely intuitive from "summary" of The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Moral judgments, as I argue, arise from our intuitions rather than from a process of rational deliberation. When faced with a moral dilemma, people don't typically weigh the pros and cons of each option and come to a reasoned conclusion. Instead, they rely on their gut feelings - their immediate emotional responses to the situation at hand. These gut feelings are shaped by a complex interplay of factors, including our upbringing, cultural background, and personal experiences. Our intuitions about right and wrong are deeply ingrained within us, often stemming from our evolutionary history as social animals. This means that our moral judgments are not purely individualistic but are influenced by the norms and values of the groups to which we belong. In a sense, our moral intuitions act as a sort of moral compass, guiding us towards behaviors that are deemed acceptable by our society. This reliance on intuition in moral decision-making can be seen in various psychological experiments that I discuss in my book. For example, in the famous trolley problem, participants are asked to make a moral choice about whether to sacrifice one person to save five others. Rather than carefully weighing the consequences of each option, participants often make a gut decision based on their immediate emotional reaction to the scenario. Furthermore, recent research in neuroscience has shown that our moral judgments are closely tied to emotional centers in the brain. When we encounter a morally charged situation, our emotional responses kick in before our rational faculties have a chance to process the information. This suggests that our moral intuitions are deeply rooted in our emotional responses to the world around us.- The idea that moral judgments are largely intuitive challenges traditional notions of moral reasoning as a purely rational process. Instead, I argue that our gut feelings play a crucial role in shaping our moral beliefs and guiding our behavior. By understanding the role of intuition in moral decision-making, we can gain a deeper insight into the complexities of human morality.
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