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Moral Reasoning

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Encyclopedia of Global Justice

Reasoning is a cognitive process where one piece of information (usually expressed in a sentence, statement, or proposition) is drawn from another piece or pieces of information, following the rules that preserve the truth in the newly derived information. That is, in a non-fallacious reasoning, if the original information is true then, with a right reasoning process, the newly generated information should be true too. In a broad sense of the term, moral reasoning refers to the reasoning on moral issues, the issues related to moral values and normative standards. It is used in the construction, explanation, justification, and application of moral principles, rules, regulations, and decisions.

There are three different views on the nature of moral reasoning. The first view regards moral reasoning as a special application of the general reasoning ability to the issues of morality (the issues regarding values, norms, and good life). According to this view, moral reasoning does not refer...

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Seok, B. (2011). Moral Reasoning. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_142

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_142

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