Parker H. answered • 02/10/23
Ph.D., Experienced Humanities, Latin, and Writing Tutor
Ethical reasoning involves various features, and I will outline several of them here. One of the first things to consider is who and what are involved. Are there only human beings? Are there non-human animals? And are there non-animals? It is important to determine who and what are involved because this data will affect your reasoning in different ways. The way one ought to act can change based on who or what is involved.
Once you determine who and what are involved, you need to consider the respective value of these things. For example, are non-human animals, such as dogs and rabbits, to be valued as much as humans? Do dogs or rabbits feel, and are they able to suffer? And is the ability to suffer a relevant criterion for determining whether an object is morally relevant to one's reasoning? I have given this list of example questions to show that it is no simple task to ethically reason through a situation. Ethical reasoning often involves philosophical questions about the value and status of various objects, such as animals. It is a contested issue about whether animals suffer, and it is a contested issue about whether suffering is a sufficient criterion for treating animals as morally relevant. Nevertheless, one might default and show caution in ethical reasoning, which would be a type of 'giving the moral benefit of the doubt'.
Another concept to keep in mind is the concept of obligations. Obligations are often referred to as 'duties', and this involves the idea that you ought to act it a particular way towards something or someone. Another way of putting this is that you owe it to that person or object to act in such a way. For example, a parent might have special obligations to her children to feed, educate, nurture, and grow the children. While this parent might have these obligations to her children, it is not clear that she has this obligation to another child or another adult. This example illustrates that there may be special obligations, as opposed to general obligation. A general obligation to human beings would be, for example, to not kill. When reasoning ethically, special and general obligations are important to consider and might affect the way that one should act.
While there are additional aspects to consider in ethical reasoning, the few I have outlined above should provide a good start to thinking through situation ethically. Keep in mind that ethical reasoning is not only exercised to know the right answer to a question, but moreover, to lead a good and ethical life.
