Moral Foundations and Dilemmas

Moral foundations refer to the fundamental principles or values that underlie and shape people's moral judgments and ethical reasoning. Moral Foundation Theory is often associated with the work of psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Jesse Graham who identified six basic moral foundations: Care/Harm, Fairness/Cheating, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, Sanctity/Degradation and Liberty/Oppression.

Moral dilemmas are situations in which a person is faced with two (or more) conflicting moral requirements, none of which overrides the other, thus the dilemma is between right vs. right and wrong vs. wrong. The four main moral dilemmas are considered to be truth vs. loyalty, justice vs. mercy, short term vs long term, individual vs community.

For the second discussion of our “Skill Building Mixed Media Club”, we will come together to discuss moral foundations & dilemmas, and answer questions such as:

1. Which moral foundation(s) hold the most weight in your life? And why?
2. Is there a moral dilemma that you grapple with & can share, either with regards to a personal issue or a political one?
3. Have you asked anyone in your life about their moral foundations? Who would you want to ask and why?
4. What, if any, new insights did learning about the Moral Foundation Theory provide you?
5. Did any insights that you gleaned about your group or another group surprise you?
6. How, if at all, has learning about moral foundations & dilemmas impacted your way of seeing our political polarization?

It would be helpful to have read / watched something from the resource library (link below) to fully participate in the discussion.
https://bit.ly/cplcac-mixedmediaclub

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