What Is a Moral Decision

Female Speaker: Dr. Welsh, thank you so much for coming today with us. Dr. Welsh: Oh! It's my pleasure. Thank you. Female Speaker: I want to start at the very beginning, so we don't miss anything. Do you mind defining exactly what a moral decision is? Dr. Welsh: Oh! No, that's fine. A moral decision is a species of practical decision. We make a lot of practical decisions. Well, should we buy a car, should we buy a book, whatever? Things that precipitate actions in our life, but some of these have moral impact on other people. When I have moral impact on other people, they are a moral decision, anything that affects another person. Now obviously, somethings are going to affect other people much more than others. So I could do something like, I have an evening free and want to read a detective story, and I might go out and buy a detective story and enjoy it. That would affect, very probably, my dispositions. I would be a happier person and I would probably be nicer the next day, when I meet people. On the other hand, there are things where the moral decision impact is very, very great. If you are a careless driver, if you are drinking when you drive, if you are not doing your preparation properly for a serious surgery or whatever, then you have really serious impact. So it's a greater thing. But I like to think that -- it has impressed me over the years -- is that it's almost impossible for you to do anything that doesn't affect your own dispositions. Therefore, to some extent every practical decision turns out to be more or less a moral decision. It infects in some way the people you know, you meet and you deal with. Female Speaker: I had never thought of a moral decision being something that would affect people because of how I affected my disposition. That's a, kind of, interesting twist for me. Dr. Welsh: Yeah. Well, it's just like, you are saying hello. There is about 15 ways of saying hello and some of them are very cordial, some of them are very brisk, some of them are insincere. So you either look down on people or you elevate them to your level or whatever, just deny to you say hello. Female Speaker: Style. Dr. Welsh: Style. Female Speaker: Yeah, interesting.