The trials they are reasonings that derive in opinions on a subject, a situation, a thing or a person. The moral judgments are those opinions that estimate whether something is good or bad, from a point of view of moral values.
Making a moral judgment means evaluate if a certain situation or behavior is good or bad. That is, it is a positive or negative assessment.
The moral values of each person are developed from their own experience and education, but also in a specific social context, that is why we can share the same values and moral judgments with other people.
Besides the society to which it belongs, other groups shape the moral of each individual. For example, family, friends, school, and religion are various institutions that affect the moral principles of their members.
The moral of a society is usually transmitted through its laws (which penalize what they consider wrong) and its expressive and communication means.
All moral judgment is thought or issued on the basis of certain moral values. If two people have two opposite moral judgments about the same fact or behavior, it is because their judgments are formed from different values.
When the moral principles of a majority part of society change, it becomes necessary that the laws also change the way they regulate.
For example, him divorce It was illegal when most of society considered it immoral, but it is now legal in most societies.
Nor for individuals are moral principles immovable. Every time a person makes a moral judgment they put their moral values into practice and confirm whether they are still relevant to the situations they face.
Examples of moral judgments
- The robberies they are considered negatively in general. However, if a person steals because he cannot find work and cannot feed himself or his family, the moral judgment on his actions may not be so rigid or his behavior may even be considered acceptable.
- The religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses prohibits blood transfusion. From a religious point of view, it is immoral to receive a transfusion. From the point of view of someone who does not belong to religion, it can be considered morally reprehensible that parents do not allow their children to receive transfusions when they need it.
- In many societies, the prostitution they were considered immoral as an activity, and may even be punishable by law. Currently, many groups consider that immorality is not found in the exercise of prostitution but in the exploitation suffered by people who are forced to exercise it.
- The death penalty it is considered immoral by many people, while allowing certain criminals to stay alive is considered immoral by other people.
- There are currently many debates about the morality of the abortion. These debates are held between competing moral judgments about the right of a pregnant woman to terminate her pregnancy. Those judgments are based on different moral values regarding when human life begins.
- Live off the Profits obtained from the work of others can be considered immoral in an abstract sense. However, every investor obtains profits from the work of others, and that is not considered immoral, since it is provided for by the rules of our economic systems.
- With the exception of some religions, there are usually no negative moral judgments about the alcohol consumption in adults. However, there will be negative moral judgments if someone who consumed alcohol drives a car, since it endangers the lives of other people.
- The violence it is often judged negatively. However, in certain circumstances it can be judged positively: that is why many societies defend wars. Violence is also valued in sports like boxing. One of the few situations in which violence is almost unanimously accepted is in cases in which one’s physical integrity or that of someone defenseless is defended.
- The mistreatment of other people is always judged negatively. However, in other times negative judgments about the mistreatment of women or children were not common. Currently, the mistreatment of other people is more severely judged if someone who is defenseless is mistreated, such as a child, an elderly person or a person with a disability.
- exist certain words or expressions that are judged as morally wrong. Any word that has been used in a derogatory way towards a group or social sector will continue to carry a certain negative moral weight.
- Some moral judgments are hasty and must be corrected later. For example, a woman can be observed insulting someone on the street and judge her negatively, and later discover that she was reacting to the mistreatment of another person, defending her.
- People who gain prestige through outside work or the ideas of others do not want it to be discovered that they benefit from the merit of others since their actions will be judged negatively.
- If a child does not have the means necessary to dress well or the necessary supplies to educate themselves, their parents will be judged negatively. However, if the circumstances are considered, it may be found that the parents suffer further deficiencies to ensure that the child has the bare minimum.
- Usually the sacrifice for others it is judged positively from a moral sense. However, currently our morality points to self-benefit and individualism, so that people who sacrifice for another, even if they are praised from a moral point of view, can be reproached in other ways.
- The ethical obligations of a doctor may simply be offering the patient the appropriate treatment. However, it is morally valued if a doctor observes that the patient is alone or scared and also offers his company.