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in effect saying that they are nonlogical and nonrational? Could these processes even be completely
irrational? Moreover, if most of our moral decisions are made through these nonlogical and nonrational-
apossibly irrationalprocesses, then does it follow that, in the end, most of our moral life is based on a
possibly irrational foundation that we are not even aware of? What is the point of studying all the stuff
we have been studying about moral reasoning, moral standards, and so on? It is important that we look
at these processes and try to answer these pressing questions.

2.8.1: X-System and C-System

Processes

Scott Reynolds, a psychologist, calls the unconscious processes by which we automatically make many
moral decisions the "X-system," and the conscious reasoning through which we make moral decisions
the ”C-system.”‘77 (Note that the conscious reasoning processes are sometimas called "system i" and
the unconscious processes ”system 2.”) The X-system, Reynolds and others have argued, is based on the
use of "schemas" or ”protc-types.”‘73 Prototypes are general memories of the kinds of situations we
have experienced in the past, together with the kinds of sounds, words, objects, or people those
situations involved, the kind of emotions we. felt, the way we behaved in those situations, the type of
moral norms or rules that we followed, etc. The brain uses these stored ”prototypes” to analyze the new
situations we encounter each day and to determine how to behave in those situations. Our brain does
this by trying to match

each new situation we experience with its store of prototypes. If the new situa tTon matches a stored
prototype, then the.brain recognizes that the new situation is the kind of situation represented by the
prototype. The brain then uses the information stored in the prototype to identify what kind of behavior
is appropriate for that kind of situation, what kind of moral norms apply in such a situation, what
emotions are usual for such situations, etc. I

Although these matching processes go on unconsciously, once a match is made, the conscious brain
becomes aware of the match. That is, when the brain matches a situation with a stored prototype, we
become conscious of recognizing the kind of situation we are in, and what behavior is appropriate in this
kind of situation. When we me having a conversation, we consciously recognize that we are in a
conversation and know what to do, for example, although we are not con~ scious of everything our
brain had to do to come up with that recognition and that knowledge. In this way, we do not have to use
up our limited conscious reasoning resources to figure out what is happening and what we should do
each time we experience something. Without expending any conscious reasoning efforts, we
immediately know what kind of situation we are in and how we should act because all the work of

2.8.1: X-System and C-System

Processes

Scott Reynolds, a psychologist, calls the unconscious processes by which we automatically make many
moral decisions the "X-system," and the conscious reasoning through which we make moral decisions
the ”C-system.”‘77 (Note that the conscious reasoning processes are sometimas called "system i" and
the unconscious processes ”system 2.”) The X-system, Reynolds and others have argued, is based on the
use of "schemas" or ”protc-types.”‘73 Prototypes are general memories of the kinds of situations we
have experienced in the past, together with the kinds of sounds, words, objects, or people those
situations involved, the kind of emotions we. felt, the way we behaved in those situations, the type of
moral norms or rules that we followed, etc. The brain uses these stored ”prototypes” to analyze the new
situations we encounter each day and to determine how to behave in those situations. Our brain does
this by trying to match

each new situation we experience with its store of prototypes. If the new situa tTon matches a stored
prototype, then the.brain recognizes that the new situation is the kind of situation represented by the
prototype. The brain then uses the information stored in the prototype to identify what kind of behavior
is appropriate for that kind of situation, what kind of moral norms apply in such a situation, what
emotions are usual for such situations, etc. I

Although these matching processes go on unconsciously, once a match is made, the conscious brain
becomes aware of the match. That is, when the brain matches a situation with a stored prototype, we
become conscious of recognizing the kind of situation we are in, and what behavior is appropriate in this
kind of situation. When we me having a conversation, we consciously recognize that we are in a
conversation and know what to do, for example, although we are not con~ scious of everything our
brain had to do to come up with that recognition and that knowledge. In this way, we do not have to use
up our limited conscious reasoning resources to figure out what is happening and what we should do
each time we experience something. Without expending any conscious reasoning efforts, we
immediately know what kind of situation we are in and how we should act because all the work of

coming up with that conscious knowledge was done by the unconscious matching processes of the
brain. Prototypes are not fixed and unchanging. As we go
through life and experience the same types of situation again and again, we add to their prototypes
whatever new information we get from each experience. A prototype, for example, may be one that
stores information about conversations we have had. As time goes on and we experience more
conversations, we may learn that in such situations truthful behavior is

appropriate. The prototype will store that information, and the next time we are in a conversation, the
brain will match this new situation with that prototype and know it is involved in a conversation and
automatically decide to be truthful in that situation. Because of the thousands of prototypes we
eventually store in our brains, we not only recognize a great many kinds of situations but also know how
to behave in those situations without having to think about it consciously.

Once we are conscious of the kind of situation we are in, we can begin to use our conscious reasoning
processes-our C-system processes-to deal with it. We may be conscious, for example, that we are having
a conversation with a friend and that in this kind of situation, we tell the truth. However, suppose this
time we know that if we tell the truth, we will hurt our friend’s feelings, so we consider lying. Our
conscious reasoning processes then have to swing into action to deliberately figure out what to do: Do
we lie or do we tell the truth? These conscious reasoning processes are part of our C-system. .

The C-system or conscious reasoning system uses processes that, as we have learned in this chapter, are
more complicated than the simple matching of prototypes the X-system uses. As we saw in Chapter 1,
conscious moral reasoning can deliberately gather information about a situation we are considering. It
can draw upon our store of moral principles to see which ones might apply to this kind of situation, and
it can then figure out what those moral principles require for the situation we face.

We also rely on conscious reasoning when we find ourselves in a new or unusual situation that our
unconscious X-system cannot match up with any of its stored prototypes. For example, we may come
upon some kind of object we have never seen before. Then the C-system takes over and begins trying to
reason out what it is that we have encountered. We may consciously try to gather more information
about the strange object, and we may call upon the rules and principles we know to see if any of them
tell us what to do with such objects. Should we touch it? Should we throw water on it? Should we eat it?
Should we run? Eventually we figure out what to do and then store up a new prototype that contains
the informa~ tion about this new kind of object. Our conscious rea~ soning processes are one basic
source of the prototypes

our X~system uses and the information contained in those prototypes.