The Rationalist Delusion? a post hoc investigation

What is a moral judgment? Jonathan Haidt and others who adopt a dual-process model of cognition see moral judgment as largely automatic and regard explicit reasoning as directed to the task of ex post facto justification and persuasion. This chapter argues that a capacity for diachronic agency is essential to moral deliberation and that once we focus on the full range of processes involved in moral decision-making it is not so clear that rationalism is undermined. In particular, initial, quick, affective moral judgments are just one input to moral decision-making, subject to moderation by social and rational pressures consistent with a broadly rationalist perspective.