Ethics and Moral Reasoning: Key Concepts and Definitions

Motivated reasoning

Reasoning in which the desire to reach a particular conclusion, rather than the aim of getting things right, shapes how evidence is sought, weighed, and interpreted, typically without the reasoner's awareness.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek out, interpret, and remember information in ways that support what one already believes or expects, while overlooking or discounting information that challenges it.

Moral blind spots:

A wrong that people fail to recognize as wrong, not because they lack the relevant facts or reject the relevant principles, but because the practice is so normalized within their community that it never comes up for moral scrutiny.

Ethics:

The study of (1) right and wrong action and (2) how to live a good life

Permissible action:

An act that is not wrong to perform

Impermissible action:

An act that is wrong to perform

Obligatory action:

an act that is required from the moral pov; you'd be doing something wrong if you didn't perform it

Thought experiment:

an imagined hypothetical scenario designed to elicit intuitions, test/develop theories, and explore complex questions

Moral Intuition:

Immediate, spontaneous, judgements about ethical matters that serve as the starting points of moral inquiry

Euthanasia

intentionally taking the life of a presumably hopeless person

Active euthanasia

intentional termination of life that involves a direct action intended and designed to cause death; "mercy killing" (e.g. injecting patient with lethal drug)

Passive euthanasia:

intentionally withholding treatment which predictably leads to death (e.g. withholding life sustaining treatment); (some think: passive euthanasia is a way of merely "letting die" rather than killing)