Moral Literacy Involves three elements:
- Ethical Sensitivity
- Ethical Decision-Making Skills
- Ethical Motivation
Before we can make good ethical decisions, we have to be able to identify situations that present us with ethical issues, determine what specific moral values and principles are relevant to those situations, and properly assess the intensity of the situation (Ethical Sensitivity).
Only then can we begin to determine what should be done in a given case. We’ll need to weigh considerations about duties, about virtuous character traits, about outcomes, and the effects of possible courses of action on others. We will also need to determine what facts and values are relevant to making our assessments. We may even need to work to overcome unconscious habits of thought and feeling that can get in the way of proper ethical decision-making. Finally, we need to be creative in coming up with several realistic possibilities concerning action and in assessing each of these critically from as many relevant standpoints as we can.(Ethical Decision-Making Skills).
Being sensitive to the situation and thinking carefully about what ought to be done may be import in their own right, but they don’t always lead us to act in accordance with what we have determined it is best to do. Unless we are also motivated by our recognition of the rightness of a course of action, any number of factors can prevent us from taking it. The transition from feelings and thoughts to real agency in the world around us requires us to practice and to establish specific habits of willing or desiring. (Ethical Motivation)
Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these elements, and get some practice exercising the skills they involve.