In order to truly prove whether or not humans are instinctively moral, an experiment would have to take place where a human’s responses to immoral situations must recorded after being left alone with no human contact and observed from birth to a certain point in time. There are far too many psychological complications that could possibly arise from this to have a clear conclusion; therefore we may never have a completely accurate answer. In Steven Pinker’s “The Moral Instinct” he mentions four year olds arguing that hitting a little girl for no reason is “not O.K.” even if an older individual tells the children that it indeed is O.K. This could be easily due to the results of the parenting of these children or the children putting themselves in the victims place and knowing the results would make them unhappy. This does not declare that humans instinctively can tell right from wrong; it just proves that people can feel pain and know if they would appreciate the same circumstances. Although it was also noted that the four year olds also agreed wearing pajamas to school is “wrong” unless the teacher declares otherwise. This is a clear example of the influences adults have on children when it comes to morality and decisions. Children do not have enough experience to differentiate between right and wrong, this is proven every day when children push over animals or steal crayons. Through time humans develop morality through experience and popular belief. Although the moral meanings to certain things may change over time, this continues to be the main cause for morality. Morality is simple adaption to ones surroundings, if people declared shoes with colored shoelaces immoral; many others would follow and agree with the statement. One person (or group of people) declaring something is moral does not make it moral. Different religions, countries, and people believe different things are morally just or unjust, this leads to complications upon whether or not humans can be instinctively moral. With so many diverse definitions of morality, one cannot claim that humans are born moral by instinct. Experience and time are the only proven reasons for moral understanding, ones moral views are ultimately dependent upon the beliefs that surround them and what beliefs one may choose to follow.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Are humans instinctively moral?
In order to truly prove whether or not humans are instinctively moral, an experiment would have to take place where a human’s responses to immoral situations must recorded after being left alone with no human contact and observed from birth to a certain point in time. There are far too many psychological complications that could possibly arise from this to have a clear conclusion; therefore we may never have a completely accurate answer. In Steven Pinker’s “The Moral Instinct” he mentions four year olds arguing that hitting a little girl for no reason is “not O.K.” even if an older individual tells the children that it indeed is O.K. This could be easily due to the results of the parenting of these children or the children putting themselves in the victims place and knowing the results would make them unhappy. This does not declare that humans instinctively can tell right from wrong; it just proves that people can feel pain and know if they would appreciate the same circumstances. Although it was also noted that the four year olds also agreed wearing pajamas to school is “wrong” unless the teacher declares otherwise. This is a clear example of the influences adults have on children when it comes to morality and decisions. Children do not have enough experience to differentiate between right and wrong, this is proven every day when children push over animals or steal crayons. Through time humans develop morality through experience and popular belief. Although the moral meanings to certain things may change over time, this continues to be the main cause for morality. Morality is simple adaption to ones surroundings, if people declared shoes with colored shoelaces immoral; many others would follow and agree with the statement. One person (or group of people) declaring something is moral does not make it moral. Different religions, countries, and people believe different things are morally just or unjust, this leads to complications upon whether or not humans can be instinctively moral. With so many diverse definitions of morality, one cannot claim that humans are born moral by instinct. Experience and time are the only proven reasons for moral understanding, ones moral views are ultimately dependent upon the beliefs that surround them and what beliefs one may choose to follow.
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I completely agree with everything you’ve said. The experiment you first mentioned is definitely not possible because of the psychological complications. Plus this person more than likely couldn’t handle the outside word after being released at the finishing point of the experiment. There is one thing I slightly disagree with you on. I think that there are some things that we instinctively do know are wrong. If a kid sees someone being punched, and that person reacts by crying, then the kid could figure from the reaction of pain and crying that punching is bad. Now I’m not saying this is for all kids, and that is why I slightly disagree instead of fully disagree. But for the most part, children do not know right from wrong until they are taught. I think that people do bad things because they think it is morally right. I’ve heard a story where this middle school kid would steal food from the local convenient store because his family could hardly afford it. His parents never told him to steal, but since he knew he was helping his family out, he thought it was morally right. I also believe that you cannot judge another group of people from their actions without knowing who they are, and what they believe. I’ve heard of a small group of Indian people who, in order to please their gods, would sacrifice a human. The way they would sacrifice them would be a “pleasant manner,” to show a sign of offering/respect to their gods, or deceased individuals. Although I disagree with this practice, they seem to think that it is morally right to sacrifice an innocent human being.
ReplyDeleteI don’t believe everyone is born instinctively moral; it is something that has to be taught to children beginning at a young age. We don’t come into this world anything the difference between rights or wrong, it is the influence of our environment and the experiences we acquire as we get older. Our experiences are what form our bias toward certain actions and issues. We are not instinctively moral but our experience forms our bias and as we continue to get older we become “naturally biased”. In most situations we “remain conveniently unaware” that we are “twisting” situations to fit our biased opinion. Moral is something everyone learns through experience, as we experience situations we inevitably create a default reaction and reasoning to back it up, which according to Robert Wright in “Why can’t we all just get along?” is more of just a “gut feeling than logic”. Wright creates the argument that humans are very emotionally based beings, I agree with his analysis to an extent. I believe it’s a mix of gut- feelings and logic. Society also tends to play a role in how we perceive things, is its moral or not, the answer to this question comes from people in our lives that we view as intelligent and non- biased. The person`s reputation also is a factor in how valuable their opinion is. Our moral compass isn’t something that is created out of thin air it is formulated by our environment, experiences, and society itself.
ReplyDeleteThere are many different perspectives of morality, it can come from your religion, political views, the laws of your land or how you are discriminated as a person, just to explain a few. I believe our morality comes from all of the examples above, in a general view. Morality can come from all over due to your raising and where you were raised. For example in “Why Can’t We all just Get Along?” Joshua Green explains “Muslims believe that no one- Muslim otherwise- should be allowed to produce visual images of Prophet Muhammad.” This shows that religion is a type of morality, and the region you live in can also affect where it comes from. I believe we are instinctively moral, I believe every child is innocent and through what they are taught turns them into people of different morals. In “The Moral Instinct” Steven Pinker shows “Moral sense… may be rooted in the design of the normal human brain.” This is saying were born with moral instinct before it is taught to us. I believe that Intention does not affect the goodness or evilness of our actions because terrorist of 9/11believed they were doing something good by sacrificing their lives to destroy many others but in fact they were being extraordinarily evil. Their actions caused many lives to be lost but by having two different perspectives of morality they believe the opposite. To decrease the good in the world and seize the evil would be impossible. Therefore we should not even attempt in doing such.
ReplyDeleteI agree that you can't just be "born with it". I believe that morality is developed over time due to circumstances and surroundings. Because of how most humans grow up, they all tend to believe what they know. Over time, as we grow we develop our beliefs along with what we think to be "moral". Every group and individual person has their own idea on what morality is. In Why Can't We All Just Get Along, Wright states, that morality and natural selection somewhat tie into each other. Humans do what they think is best, morally right, in order to survive. Robert Wright says, "in 1953, the United States sponsored a coup in Iran, overthrowing a democratically elected government and installing a brutally repressive regime that ruled for decades." He also goes further to say that most Americans aren't aware of this incident and that the lack of knowledge also has an effect on our morality. He says that we tend to forget our own wrong doings and just latch on to the hate towards the opposing side, which I think is our instinct, which isn't at all moral. Think about it. If our instinct is to be bias when in fact we are to blame for things as well, there's no way morality is an instinct. But like everything else it all boils down to perspective.
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