ethics prompts
Ethics content forces you to confront questions that don't have clean answers. That discomfort is the point — but most people's instinct is to resolve it quickly by picking a side and defending it. Real ethical thinking means sitting with the tension longer than is comfortable.
These prompts slow down your moral reasoning. They push you to examine why you believe what you believe, consider perspectives you'd rather dismiss, and notice where your moral intuitions conflict with your moral reasoning.
prompts to use after reading or watching
- 1What's your gut reaction to this ethical argument — and can you defend that reaction logically?
- 2Where do your moral intuitions conflict with the logical argument being made here?
- 3If you accepted this ethical framework, what would you have to stop doing?
- 4What's the strongest moral argument against your current position on this issue?
- 5Is your ethical stance on this consistent with your ethical stances on similar issues?
- 6What personal experience shapes your moral reaction to this content — and might that be a bias?
- 7Who would be harmed if everyone adopted this ethical position?
- 8Does this ethical argument apply universally, or only within a specific cultural context?
- 9What's the difference between "this feels wrong" and "this is wrong" — and which are you experiencing?
- 10If you could see the full consequences of this ethical position 100 years from now, would you still hold it?
- 11What moral certainty did people in the past hold that we now find abhorrent — and what might we be wrong about?
- 12What would it take to change your mind on this ethical question?
why these prompts work
Ethics prompts work by separating moral feeling from moral reasoning. Most people's ethical positions are based on intuition first and rationalization second. These prompts reverse that order — they ask you to examine the intuition before defending it.
The prompt about moral consistency is particularly challenging. Most people hold contradictory moral positions on related issues. Noticing those contradictions is where ethical growth begins.
related topics
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