What gives us morals?

[retyopy]

What makes us do the things we do? Or, more specifically, what makes us NOT do things we could do? My friend is in the room right now, playing Animal Crossing. (Don't laugh, it's a fun game.) What's to stop me murdering her right now? Friendship? If it's friendship, what's to stop me from murdering my enemies? Fear of reprecussion? Okay, I suppose that's valid, but why do they feel the need to punish me? Why did our society build itself around that version of order instead of building something that would (by our standards) seem twisted? Why?

This is a genuine question. Answer it anyway you like.

 

[retyopy]

I suppose it could be genetics, but the orginal humans were murderous bastards, so that doesn't work either.

 

[Blue2]

It matters upon certain factors.

Family or the way you were raised - If your family hated something, most likely you will grown to hate the same too.

Society/Peers - People who did crimes are often labeled as a bad person regardless of motives.

Stories/Religion - Everyone learns by stories. "So the moral of the story is...".

Experiences - If you seen or experience the result of an action, you have learned that eating raw chicken makes you sick so you don't eat chicken or cook the chicken.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

The avoidance of pain and suffering and anything leading up to those two.

 

[nunqual]

Well, depends on who you ask. Socrates would say that justice is an innate human characteristic. According to him, we do everything in pursuit of justice, and our morals are a result of that.

Others say that morals are subject to society.

 

[retyopy]

Well, depends on who you ask. Socrates would say that justice is an innate human characteristic. According to him, we do everything in pursuit of justice, and our morals are a result of that.

Others say that morals are subject to society.

Yes, but why? What makes society give us those morals? That's the wuestion I'm asking.

 

[Takumashii]

Just like any other animal, we generally don't do things that threaten the survival and order of our species.

 

[motyr]

To avoid the "religion" argument, I would point to a couple of alternatives. 1. the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain and 2. directing our choices as we wish the whole of humanity to direct their choices. Those who lose sight of those things in combination with one another tend to stray from what many would consider a moral path.

 

[evilneko]

Some of them evolved with us. Some, we made up on our own.

 

[nunqual]

Well, depends on who you ask. Socrates would say that justice is an innate human characteristic. According to him, we do everything in pursuit of justice, and our morals are a result of that.

Others say that morals are subject to society.

Yes, but why? What makes society give us those morals? That's the question I'm asking.

If you take the societal approach to morals, then I would say that they, along with laws, are only in place to keeps leaders in power. Morals and laws are restrictions on the common people's power. By accepting and abiding by those morals and laws, the people give up a portion of their own power and give it to the leader(s).

 

[Indiscrimi]

Humans are still murderous bastards; we're just better at hiding it now.

In primitive times, the only people we had to be nice to were our neighbours because they were the only ones we needed to count on to help us. Now that technology has made everyone in the world so close, the distinction of "neighbour" is getting blurrier by the second; furthermore it's harder to get away with murder.

Being "nice" is an evolutionary response to us not having enormous claws: being social was the only way to survive in the early days. Now technology is moving faster than we can adapt.

 

[Dags90]

I suppose it could be genetics, but the orginal humans were murderous bastards, so that doesn't work either.

Which "original humans" are you talking about? Unless you have some, exclusive grasp on pre-history...

Also, "murder" is a specific definition which is distinct from homicide, use it wisely.

 

[retyopy]

I suppose it could be genetics, but the orginal humans were murderous bastards, so that doesn't work either.

Which "original humans" are you talking about? Unless you have some, exclusive grasp on pre-history...

Also, "murder" is a specific definition which is distinct from homicide, use it wisely.

I was refering to Neandrethals, who, although living in tribes, also ate people brains. And it was an exaggeration. The murderous bastards part.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Because Humans like to live in groups. And you can't form groups without some mutual understanding of what is acceptable behavior within the community? Otherwise we'd have anarchy, and no settlements...

 

[Ammutseba]

We have "good morals" because we're egoistic and expect it to pay off.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

Because some bright mind once said "Do unto other as you would have them do onto you" or something along those lines, i'm not good at remembering exact quotes, but you get the idea.

It's the idea that we don't want to cause any suffering since human nature say that we will project our negative feelings onto whoever cause us sufering.

You want to kill someone? Go ahead, but likely that person has family or someone else who cares. The one who cares will hate you for taking away someone he/she had a bond with and will want to come back and kill you(if we take away the moral the killing is bad). Thus causing a neverending circle of pain and missery.

Naturally we don't want that so we've adapted to trying to find solutions to a problem so we can make both parties happy.

 

[daydreamerdeluxe]

Well, depends on who you ask. Socrates would say that justice is an innate human characteristic. According to him, we do everything in pursuit of justice, and our morals are a result of that.

Others say that morals are subject to society.

Yes, but why? What makes society give us those morals? That's the wuestion I'm asking.

A society that lets its people run amok killing each other and doing whatever the hell it wants will not last very long. I'd argue that law and order are not inherent parts of humans, but they are inherent of civilised societies.

I was refering to Neandrethals, who, although living in tribes, also ate people brains. And it was an exaggeration.

... Neanderthals ate brains? I'd be fascinated to know where you got that nugget of wisdom from. Presumably the same place you were told that Neanderthals were Homo Sapiens' ancestors, as opposed to the cousins they were. Kissing cousins, maybe, but they're not the "original humans".

 

[Ruwrak]

I suppose society pressure and upbringing count for alot.

Society defines what is right and wrong as a whole. Genetically speaking we've evolved from the primalistic murderous bastards that we are into a tuned down primalistic murderous bastard. Yes we still kill eachother for no reason, but we have society laws (read: morals and ethics) to constrain the majority of our impulses.

Would morals and ethics dissapear, I can forsee a whole lot more murdering, pillaging and a few steps back towards more impulsatory like wild animals.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Because I believe that doing good things can lead to the betterment of Humanity, also empathy...