Moral reasoning in social context

Abstract

Scholarly thinking about morality has been deeply affected by the confrontation with practical moral problems epitomized by bioethics. Attention to social context is increasingly seen as vital to sound moral reasoning. The dominant model in bioethics assumes that moral reasoning proceeds downward, from fundamental principles to specific cases. This top-down model, deductivism, is flawed both as a description of moral reasoning, and as a prescription for how moral reasoning should be done. In recent years, another model known as casuistry and based on case-centered moral reasoning has emerged to challenge deductivism. Casuistry suggests new lines of empirical and conceptual research into the history of moral disputes and the practice of moral reasoning and debate.