Principles and consequences have an important place in moral deliberation but care theorists seek a more robust and complex sense of morality that cannot ignore the context and people involved.
On what grounds does one decide that objects deserve to be considered in moral deliberation?
If a moral system justifies awful acts consistently, it can't be a basis for moral deliberation.
"The goal is to advance a society characterised by more moral deliberation over how we order our life".
Rather, moral deliberation is more like sitting before a mixing desk and adjusting all the levels until you get the balance right.
'Playing God' implicitly appeals to an underlying moral principle, but if that principle is not explicitly stated, then the phrase merely serves as a rhetorical device that obfuscates rather than illuminates moral deliberation.
In fact, one discovery of contemporary research in social psychology and social neuroscience is the powerful emotional underpinning of what we once thought of as cool, untroubled, mature moral deliberation.
Deresiewicz's most valuable point is that our hyper-marketed consumer society is perilously shallow, often confusing purchased identities with more mindful outlooks, and excusatory rationales with genuine moral deliberation.
This, said Dr. Dietz, showed that Mr. Hinckley "was making a moral deliberation," conscious that it would be wrong to shoot the President, and that he was making a rational choice.
Moral agents are those who, like us, possess the capacity for moral deliberation and action, whereas moral patients, while lacking the cognitive equipment necessary for ethical reasoning, nevertheless are sentient and thus ought to be treated with great care and consideration.
Second, if we hold that religion is essentially concerned with ethical issues it is hard to avoid the conclusion that religious believers are at a moral advantage; and that atheists and others who are not religious are missing the moral teaching that churchgoers get so are likely to be less knowledgeable about ethical issues, less skilled in moral deliberation and less virtuous.
