The mental form of a sentence is called judgment. But judgments are of many types. Moral judgment is different from every other judgment.
Compared to others, it has the following characteristics:
(1) Moral judgments are axiological, not factual:
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The judgments of psychology, physics, etc. are related to facts. That the sun rises in the east is a factual judgment.
That ‘Mahatma Gandhi was a man of character is an axiological judgment in this way, moral judgment is’ what ought to be and not what is It is imperative, not descriptive. It is a mental process which discusses the goodness or badness of an activity.
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(2) Moral judgments are normative. Science is either normative or positive:
Ethics is a normative science. In the words of Muirhead, “It is concerned with the judgment upon conduct, the judgment that such and such a conduct is right or wrong…It deals with conduct as the subject of judicial judgment, not with conduct merely as predicted in tune.”
(3) Moral judgment is on an activity not ‘about’ it:
According to Mackenzie the nature of moral judgment is not just like the one called ethical; it does not pronounce judgment about but upon something. In moral judgment, we judge the goodness or badness of some activity on the basis of a special criterion.
(4) Moral judgement is inferential:
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Before pronouncing a moral judgment on and act we place it upon the ethical standard and then we judge its goodness or badness front it: But this does not mean that argument is necessary on every subject.
In common matters we know the ethical or moral value of an act by insight or intuition. Only in profound and doubtful subject is it necessary to present the criteria distinctly in order to apply it.