CONCEPTUAL AND INFORMATIONAL FEATURES IN MORAL DECISION-MAKING

The issues of moral education and proposed teaching methods are related to processes of the acquisition of morality. An explanation of the acquisition processes is, in turn, connected with the features of moral decision making. We consider a set of distinctions between conceptual and informational features that are central to moral and social decisions and discuss research findings relevant to such multifaceted distinctions. Informed by such research findings, methods of education must account for the complexities of moral decision making, stimulate the development of moral concepts, highlight the distinctions and relations (sometimes conflicts) between moral and social concepts, and promote an understanding of how informational assumptions intersect with moral decisions.