ABSTRACT
Evolutionary psychologists and brain scientists understand reasoning as an exquisitely adaptive, neuroevolved, instrumental capacity that enables reasoners to acquire information they can use to navigate their survival challenges, and shape their environments to accommodate their desires and well-being. A popular understanding of the origins of moral reasoning is the "naturalist" one that characterizes it as an evolutionary result of natural selection. Justificatory and explanatory reasoning will often overlap, both in real-life situations and in analytical deliberations. Utilitarian moral reasoning is a matter of calculating which action yields the most benefit or least amount of harm and then figuring out how to behave or structure social and political relationships with that goal in mind. One of the most recognizable platforms of moral reasoning to emerge in the late 20th century is the "principlist" account, popularized by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress in their book Principles of Biomedical Ethics.
