QUESTION 4(b)
GS4
10 marks
Differentiate ‘moral intuition’ from ‘moral reasoning’ with suitable examples.
WRITE IN
7 min
150 words
What the examiner wants
Differentiate moral intuition (quick gut sense of right and wrong) from moral reasoning (deliberate, principle-based thinking), with examples.
DifferentiateAnswer exactly what the question asks.
Demand-wise check
- 1Moral intuition: fast, emotional, automatic (feeling it is wrong to hurt a child)≈30 words
- 2Moral reasoning: slow, logical, uses principles and consequences (weighing a policy's trade-offs)≈30 words
- 3Examples from administration: helping an accident victim instantly vs deciding a land acquisition case≈30 words
- 4Both needed: intuition alerts, reasoning checks bias≈30 words
Open in about 20 words and close in about 20.
Answer plan
DefinitionsDifference tableExamplesHow they complementConclusion
Where marks usually go
- No examples for each term
- Saying one is always better than the other
Draw this
- Table: speed, basis, example, risk
Value addition
- ThinkerJonathan Haidt's 'emotional dog and its rational tail': intuition comes first, reasoning often justifies it later.Jonathan Haidt, 2001
- ThinkerDaniel Kahneman's System 1 (fast) and System 2 (slow) thinking.Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
Mapped topper copies
Reviewed public-source references related to this PYQ. Same-syllabus references are labelled separately.
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 3 ↗Reviewed PYQ reference
- Aakash Garg · AIR 5 · Page 7 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Vidushi Singh · AIR 13 · Page 5 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 23 ↗Same syllabus reference
Links open original public sources. MainsBuddy does not host these answer sheets.
Next: plan for one minute, write it in 7 minutes, then get it checked.