Moral Intuitions

In reading this week’s assignment in The Ethics of Teaching, the material discussed about reflective equilibrium was interesting to me. The part that really sparked thought for me was the idea of moral intuition. I believe that is what the majority of us base our ethical decisions on because we try to determine what is right and what is wrong with the particular situations. As with the case that we read regarding Ms. Jones and Mr. Pugnacious, she reacted in a way that was sparked by her moral intuition. As it states at the bottom of p. 97, we can not always react with exactly what pops into our hearts or minds. Sometimes we need to identify the moral concepts that cause us to react in the manner that we do and be able to back up our decision that we make. The reading continues about where do we get this moral intuition from? I agree with the authors’ point in that it is an innate feeling of what seems right just as it is with in formulating our language. This type of reaction is problematic is cases such as Ms. Andrews with Tim and Paul. In her mind, what is right is to not “punish” one by putting them in the lower reading group, but their behavior problems are not fair to the rest of the class’s learning. In this situation, it would be hard to act with a moral intuition because there are too many factors weighing into her decision. I still don’t know what I would do if I was put into her situation. It is sometimes easy for us to read the cases that are in the book and criticize the teachers for their decisions; however, we don’t know how we would act with our moral intuition and ethical decisions until with are put on the spot with these decisions ourselves.