Are we born moral?

Out of the articles we have read in the past couple of weeks, I found the article, “Are We Born Moral?” to be really interesting. I think that we are taught what is wrong and right, rather than being born that way. I learned what is right and wrong from my parents, teachers, and friends. I never really thought about the topic. A good example was when we were asked whether or not we would keep money that we saw someone had dropped on the ground. My first reaction was that I would want to keep it. Bit after I thought about what to do for a short amount of time, I realized that I would have to give it back because that was what I was taught is right. The outcome of this situation also depends on who you were raised by and who you associate with, though there are also exceptions.

-Katie C.

Are we born moral?

In the class discussion, there was a lot of controversy whether species are born with morality instilled in them or if it is something they acquire over their years from personal experience. Another discussion which I was a main part of was, can instincts be separate from morals, when the story of the gorilla came up. I don't believe that people were understading what I was saying. What I was trying to say was that there are instances where people can react based on just an instinctual standpoint without it being based on their sense of morality. People can act on instinct without a concern of morality. What they were trying to say is that all of our actions (instincts) are based on a moral calculator or that what we do is based on our morals. For example, an alcoholic may start to drink when they are depressed, that does not make it right, even by their own stand point necessarily. There are many things that humans do without morality in mind, but instinct. How many people break traffic laws when they know someone isn't looking, to get to where they need to be faster? A lot of people. The thing about morals is that they are corrupt. It is true that most people only abide by what is right or wrong if other people are there to see.

are we born moral?

While reading the article are we born moral it talked about possibilities of morality being developed in humans and other animals. Which made me think about what exactly are morals. Moral is just a word after all.

When a group of animals are working together it’s beneficial to their survival most of the time rather than if they start to eat each other or do whatever they want which wouldn’t be. To me morality is cooperating with your peers enough to further your existence.

In class we talked about how morals differentiate around the world pretty drastically, which is very interesting because it shows to me that there is no real right and wrong. Only your society’s standard of what is right or wrong.

Corbin B.

Are we born moral?

The reading discussed many theories on how moralities in humans have been passed. Is it through natural born instinct or taught through the parameters of society that we learn the difference between right and wrong. They also raise the question of morality in the animal kingdom. Some have the opinions that with in animals they have learned their own form of morality. While I wouldn’t class it as having the same rules as humans do animals have certainly shown behavior that is not completely selfish and immoral. Personally I take the side of being born with moralities as instincts and then developing how to use them throughout life. I feel like if the question “are we born moral” was rephrased as “are we born evil,” more people would share the view. When you use stronger language people tend to have different opinions then they normally would, and in this case they would not want to consider themselves as evil from the beginning.

Kyle Eggers

Are We Born Moral?

I was thinking about the example someone made in class today, "when you find twenty dollars on the ground, what do you do?" And I preceded to tell how that happened to me once and I gave it back to the person who dropped it. But, my initial instinct was to keep it. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was still there. So, does that make my first instinct immoral? Does the fact that I almost immediately gave it back cancel that out? Do my morals conflict with one another? Or, was it just the natural thing to do? If the latter is true, then society has indeed played its part in shaping our ideas of morality.
I remembered this quote though, "moral life was a struggle to combat nature-- a view that left morality hanging in mid-air, without any evolutionary explanation, as a kind of human protest against the cosmos." I just can't bring myself to believe that morality just came out of nowhere. That doesn't necessarily mean it's solely biological, but I don't think society is the only reason either.

Kelly Dickens

Are we born moral?

I feel that in order to understand this article more fully, one has to understand its purpose is to explore whether or not humans are moral naturally or through the influence of our culture and if that morality is a human only characteristic or if it is shared with the rest of the animal kingdom. The article then is only a series of arguments from different big name philosophers and biologists and such that seem to dispute each other in smaller and smaller aspects of what it means to be moral; for example, though Hauser believes morality is an unconscious process (found in all animals?), he argues that the "part of the moral faculty that is unique to humans is that which they use 'to create judgements of permissible, obligatory, and forbidden actions,'" which connects with the monotheistic views that morality is a set of guidelines in becoming an ideal citizen. Maybe that is how morality should be viewed: not all moral choices come from teachings from outside sources (intuition rather) but a large influence from the outside world solidifies that particular "system of morality" we obey, which varies from culture to culture.