Abstract: Though moral judgment ranks among one of the most essential human activities, arguments about the roles of emotion and reasoning play in moral judgment never cease. From the philosophical controversy between Hume and Kant to the debates among developmental psychologists; from social psychology arguments about the power of the situations to neuroscience insights about the brain constraints to human morality, modern psychology has witnessed the paradigm shifts from time to time concerning the importance of emotion and reasoning in moral judgments. We reviewed several competing theories on moral judgment and gave a synthetic view of the roles emotion and reasoning play in moral judgment. We suggest that the psychological contributions in understanding human morality would come from the systematical analysis of moral judgments in real life situations involving real individuals with real implications. Methodologically, multi-level and multi-method analysis is much needed. By studying the effects of situational factors in moral judgments, we may eventually be able to go beyond the dichotomy of emotion and reasoning to truly understand the mechanisms involved in human moral judgments.

Key words: morality, moral judgment, moral reasoning, emotion, dual-process model