Moral Theory and Its Role in Everyday Moral Thought and Action

This paper begins by trying to explicate what moral thought and moral theory are. Then the paper contends that, at the point of decision of what to do, everyday moral thought focuses on what seem to be the morally relevant differences among available alternative acts. Moral principles might well come into play when we try to tease out whether a moral concept applies. Moral principles might also come into play in thinking about cases in which moral reasons conflict. Moral principles and moral theorizing even more obviously come into play when thought experiments are conducted on imaginary cases. A very common example of imaginary cases figuring in moral decision-making is the role-reversal thought experiment in which we contemplate how we would react if others did to us what we are considering doing to them. Sometimes, when one person asserts that an action is morally required, someone else asks why. Pressed far enough, this question can be answered only by “I don’t know” or by pointing to whatever ultimately makes acts morally required, permissible, or prohibited. Views about what ultimately makes acts morally required, permissible, or prohibited are moral theories. The final section of the paper outlines the leading moral theories and proposes that, although they differ at the level of fundamental principle, they largely agree about how everyday moral thought should be conducted