| Category | Sub-Category | Why should I do this (in this way)? |
| Authorization | Personal Authority | * because I say so * because so-and-so says so |
| Expert Authority | * because experts say so * because Professor X says so | |
| Role Model Authority | * because experienced people say so * because wise people say so | |
| Impersonal Authority | * because the law says so * because the guidelines say so | |
| The Authority of Tradition | * because this is what we have always done * because this is what we always do | |
| The Authority of Conformity | * because that’s what everybody else does * because that’s what most people do | |
| Moral Evaluation | Evaluation | * because it is right * because it is natural * because it is perfectly normal |
| Abstraction | * because it has X (moralized) desirable quality | |
| Analogies | * because it is like another activity which is associated with positive values | |
| Rationalization | Instrumental Rationalization | * because it is a (moralized) means to an end |
| Theoretical Rationalization | * because it is the way things are * because doing things this way is appropriate to the nature of these actors | |
| Mythopoesis | Moral Tales | * because look at the reward(s) this person achieved for doing it |
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| Cautionary Tales | * because look at the consequences this person suffered for not doing it |