The descriptive accounts of what people do is left to sociologists and anthropologists. There have been many different proposals. Many claim that there is a necessary connection between morality and religion, such that, without religion in particular, without God or gods there is no morality, i.
Divine Command Theory is widely held to have several serious flaws. Most think that right and wrong are not arbitrary -- that is, some action is wrong, say, for a reason.
Aristotle, and most of the ancient Greeks really had nothing to say about moral duty, i. All action leads to some end. However, there is care to ensure that individual values are maintained and justice is achieved. Although behavior is often dictated by rules, laws and expectations, there are outstanding circumstances where independent thought and moral reasoning can surpass generally accepted norms in the moral decision-making process.
Joanna Jarc Robinson has several years of experience writing and editing educational materials, including work with publishing teams at Sesame Workshop, Nick Jr. Joanna has a Ph. D in Urban Education from Cleveland State University and enjoys writing content about education, psychology, creativity, relationships, and food. Regardless of how old we are, we never stop learning. Of course, kin altruism is important to human and to all animal!
The question is if doing so is the most useful definition for understanding morality as a matter of science, resolving moral disputes, and refining cultural moral codes to best meet human needs and preferences.
Pros — 1 Keeps in mind the importance of kin altruism and mutualism for increasing the benefits of cooperation. Cons — 1 Contradicts our shared moral sense about what is morally admirable. Mutualism and kin altruism do not require punishment to be evolutionarily stable.
How would you usefully distinguish moral norms from regular cultural norms if not all moral violations deserve punishment? Regarding the existence of kin-related morals all around the world, these can differ widely. I would classify them as cultural moral norms about relations with kin which are obviously shaped by our biology regarding kin altruism and the need for all cultures to provide for the nurture of children. That perspective also explains how we might refine cultural moral norms about close kin to better meet human needs and preferences.
Yes, the options are 1 morals are solutions to many different non-zero-sum games, and 2 morals are solutions to only one of these non-zero-sum games. This leads to a greater understanding and appreciation of morals relating not only to kin altruism and mutualism, but also those relating to conflict resolution, like hawkish heroism, dovish deference, fair division, and respect for possession.
This includes coordination and mutualism, which explains the moral value of unity, solidarity, conformity etc. If your theory of morality excludes self-interest, then it must exclude all behaviour, including your own preferred type of cooperation. What is reciprocity but long-term self-interest in an iterated dilemma which is actually a type of coordination game? That criterion is… surprise, surprise… cooperation.
And MAC distinguishes i moral norms from ii regular cultural norms on the grounds that the former i solve problems of cooperation, whereas the latter ii do not eg are prudential. In fact, MAC provides a broader framework in which to understand why moral disputes arise in the first place. People value different types of cooperation, sometimes they come into conflict — should I help my ailing mother, or go to war to defend my country?
The prisoners dilemma is not the only game, and reciprocity is not the only moral! Starting simple might help. My understanding is that cultural moral norms can be distinguished from other kinds of norms because violators of moral norms are commonly thought to deserve punishment though people may not actually be punished. Thanks for this bold statement of universal morality! If we equate morality with cooperation, then it immediately extends beyond humans to all cooperative species on this or any other planet.
In a sense, I am comfortable with this ultra-general definition of morality. It explains, for example, why people so often treat single organisms as a harmonious society of cells and social insect colonies as a harmonious society of individual insects as moral ideals for human societies to emulate.
If cooperation is the main criterion for morality, then these societies are MORE moral than human societies! There are also reasons to distinguish human moral systems from the mechanisms of cooperation in other species. They merely respond to their local circumstances.
As soon as we use mental criteria to define morality, then the seven items on your list quality as moral to different degrees. According to the theory of morality-as-cooperation, the moral criterion is whether something promotes cooperation the common good or not. This criterion can be applied to phenomena that are anatomical fortitude , psychological character traits, emotions, decision rules, complex cognitions , behavioural actions, omissions , or cultural laws.
They […]. These are the same across all cultures, according to an analysis of ethics from 60 societies , words from over sources. Ht Paul […]. As Massimo has already noted, xenophobia is part and parcel of evolutionary human nature. We transcend it more and more, but not perfectly. And, what exactly does it mean? Reflects problems with different schools of ethics, esp. Moraliy as a group of implicit rules to contro behaivor in social groups. Ethics as the thinking about wich rules to follow and why Morality can be found in humans and comlex social animals.
Ethics is a humman thing because only hummans as far as i know can think and act in a moral way considering the well being of those outside their moral group sorry my writting in english is not good.
Aniway what do you think about my comment? Thesebasis of marality are really universal? I mean your team has found out those ones in evry human society? I want to know because the differencce between a universal phenomenon and a general one is big.
Sorry about my writting writting in english is not my strenght. The […]. Values that are quite a bit more universal than those created in the Englightenment. Blood and […]. For what it is worth, six months after the original posting: I take issue with Oliver Scott Curry on this description of morality. Morality is not a collection of cooperative traits. Morality is a system of collective behaviour that makes human forms of cooperation possible.
I agree with Mark Sloan that mutualism and kin altruism are suspect here, because they are already evolutionarily stable. These behaviours exist in other animals like social insects. Why are human forms of cooperation so different from other animals? In all human societies people are not allowed to get away with murder, with the exception of active warfare. Dominant chimpanzees can kill the infants of subdominants with impunity. The human moral system is a way of regulating behaviour that involves deep collective participation.
When we see someone doing a wrong we will feel it in our guts, we will be highly motivated by our feelings to judge the actions, to seek the righting of the wrong, to share the information about the wrong and to act collectively to punish the wrongdoer.
This has been attenuated in modern society because a lot of the jobs of morality are done by established social institutions such as the police and the law courts. Nonetheless the emotions are still there when we witness wrongs.
They are their because they help us to perceive and judge actions morally, and to take action to right wrongs. If people can get away with murder without punishment, human culture breaks down. To paraphrase Mark Sloan, stopping exploitation makes cooperation possible. But the basic structure always remains: bad deeds should not go unpunished. Collective adherence to rules and to punishing infractions is what distinguishes us from other animals. It is not evolutionarily stable, just the opposite, it has to be in place or human society falls apart.
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