Moral Intuition
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- Posts: 1500
- Joined: December 22nd, 2013, 4:57 pm
- Favorite Philosopher: Eric Hoffer
- Location: California, US
Re: Moral Intuition
Just above, Belindi and Consul mentioned empathy, which is in my mind the primary basis of what I consider morality to be. We evolved to protect and benefit ourselves, of course; without an instinct for self-preservation, of course, no species would prosper. And empathy is essentially feeling ourselves in the shoes of another, of feeling the pain (or to a lesser degree, the pleasures) of another. In some sense we sense that other people (or animals) are a part of ourselves, or at least like us in some respects, or that we are all part of a group, so that our self-preservation instincts carry over - to a lesser degree - to others. All instinctive, and evolved.
There are also other personality/emotional characteristics that constitute morality, in my mind. First, there's the sense that there are rights and wrongs in the universe - that certain things are morally right and others morally wrong. Almost all of us believe that emotionally, although the specifics vary tremendously. Then there is the sense of fairness, and duty, shame, embarrassment, altruism, and honor. And the sense of belonging to groups, or being part of something greater than ourselves. Probably others, too. All play a part in pushing us to behave morally.
And then there's morality by rules. This is the version of morality that is not driven emotionally. Religions, nations, and other groups may have their revealed or agreed-upon rules or laws, and many people take those rules as gospel and base their conclusions as to right and wrong on them. In my opinion, rules vary so enormously from one set to another and have so many exceptions that I can't see anything universal in them, whereas empathy and compassion are something most of us have in common.
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