Emotion is a major factor that characterizes a moral judgment. It is the guideline for an ethical egoist. An ethical egoist is someone who behaves in such a way that creates the best long-term results for that individual. The ethical egoist uses emotion to determine what the long-term best result(s) is. For example, a moral rule used my many individuals is treat others as you want to be treated. People who follow this rule are ethical egoists. They treat others as they want to be treated because they do not want that person to mistreat them in the future. Emotion is also used in this principle. Most individuals are good people who do not want to inflict pain or suffering upon others. They do not mistreat other because not only want to treated nicely in return, but they do not want to harm that individual.

Altruists are the opposite of ethical egoists. They still use emotion in their moral judgments though. An altruist is someone who ‘sacrifices’ him/herself in

Emotion is used very widely in Western Civilization as a guideline for moral judgments. In the majority of Western countries, it is thought that killing is wrong. This is because of emotional bonds people have with individuals. People love their relatives and do not want anything to happen to them. If someone’s relative is killed, the other members of the family become sad. Individuals use this kind of emotion to establish laws such as killing another human being is illegal. Some individuals can take this a step further, especially the ethical egoists. They can say that they will not kill other individuals because they do not want any of their loved ones to be killed.

Moral judgments differ from other judgments. When an individual makes a moral judgment, he/she is putting values in front of him/her. For example, someone who does not steal does it because they put they are heavily influenced on their emotions and/or religion. Moral judgements cannot be thought about while other judgments can. Jean Paul Sartre expresses this idea when he criticizes Kant’s categorical imperative. Kant’s categorical imperative states that one must act in a way that others should follow. If I do something, all other individuals should do just as I did in this specific situation. Sartre states that

Some topics in this essay:
, Paul Sartre, Western Civilization, Commandments Thou, moral judgments, characterizes moral, ethical egoist, characterizes moral judgments, ethical egoists, kant’s categorical, categorical imperative, religion characterizes, kant’s categorical imperative, moral judgments judgments, moral judgment, religion characterizes moral, judgments judgments, judgments religion characterizes, characterize moral,