Question

Do our feelings about moral situation and our consciences change as we age? If they do, how can we know if they are reliable? How do you judge the merit of your emotional responses to moral situations?

Answer 1

Throughout our lives, we experience dilemmas that pose dramatic and highly emotional choices. Emotions are not simply experienced alongside people’s judgments about moral dilemmas, but that our affective processes play a central role in determining those judgments. As we age, our knowledge, ability and insights that allow us to respond to a situation change and so do the emotions attached with them. To some extent, we can be held accountable for our emotions because we can exercise a degree of control over them. In case of moral situations, we can deliberate more, acquire more facts, expose ourselves to experiences and undergo training which would increase the merit of our emotional response.