Does morality exist in nature or is it of a human construct?

SIDE #2 IT IS A HUMAN CONSTRUCT

By: Marty Frolick

Morality is very likely a human construct. Don’t confuse morality with empathy or sympathy as some answerers have. Grief is not morality. Morality demands a judgement on whether or not an action is good or bad. This then requires a definition of what is meant by good and by bad. Animals do not decide whether their actions are moral or not. Arguments could be made that there is no ultimate morality and any judgement is entirely subjective. This means that any action could be both moral or immoral depending on the context.

The reason you feel like you “know right from wrong” or feel guilt after an action, is because you are measuring your action and the consequence against a learned standard.

Morality can appear to exist in animals and humans as some innate behaviour but this is really only an appearance. Actions that increase our chances of survival also increase the survival of our genes. Genes that coded for any behaviour that helps us survive will become more common in the gene pool. A great deal of our learned morality comes from the idea of being nice to others and living cooperatively in groups. Because living in groups and working cooperatively increases our chance of survival, it is more common in our behaviour. While it appears that our genes have somehow programmed us with a sense of right and wrong, our sense of what is right and wrong is actually just the set of behaviours that ensure our survival – there is nothing good or bad about them other than the fact that they are beneficial to us.

That is why killing someone who is attacking you is okay while killing a respectable member of your community for no reason is not. Both actions ensure our survival and have different contexts that make one moral and the other immoral by our subjective standards.

By: Helge Moulding

Morality as it exists in nature is instinctive behavior governed by the reactions of creatures to particular situations.

Morality as it is practiced by human beings starts out as instinctive behavior, but it is shaped by social norms, which in turn are governed by a variety of factors, from human history, to human understanding of human behavior.

In the human context there are two ideas. One is that morality, as a social construct, is entirely arbitrary, and no one society does morality better than any other society. But, this kind of moral relativism is not, in fact, accurate.

Morality is a set of rules that we use to interact with one another. Whether or not we agree on what the rules ought to be, most people do agree that rules exist. Even people who do not agree that the word “morals” has real meaning will agree that people manage to live together in complex societies by establishing rules and convincing at least most people to abide by them.

I think we can stipulate that a society where people largely flourish is one that is doing morality correctly. On the flip side, I think it’s reasonable to say that a society where some people generally are allowed to mistreat other people (e.g. allows slavery, or has an aristocracy above the law) is doing morality wrong.

So, yes, morality is a human social construct, but it is not arbitrary.

By: Dan Holliday

 I believe that we’ve mostly inherited a millennia of natural selection on our brains that pushes us to see transcendence in our existence — the passionate belief that we are a part of something larger and more significant than our own ephemeral existence.

 This isn’t imply that you MUST be religious to be moral, only that wherever we find even the most primitive humans, we find spiritual, transcendent belief systems. And I cannot discount the importance in believing that our morality serves a higher purpose, even if it doesn’t.

Does morality exist in nature or is it of a human construct?

SIDE #1 IT EXISTS IN NATURE

By: Dan Avangard

Why wouldn’t it? Perhaps we humans have evolved in expressing morality in a much more complex manner than other species, but the roots appear to remain the same for all.

“Human morality was not formed from scratch, but grew out of our primate psychology. Primate psychology has ancient roots, and I agree that other animals show many of the same tendencies and have an intense sociality.”

By: Bruce McIntyre

Morality existed in nature, long before humanoids, much less humans existed. There are genetic basis for cooperation and communication within a species. And the tendency to “protect” the herd is part of our heritage. As our species has developed, the intra group communication and tendency to protect the group against influences both from outside and inside was the start of the development of what we now term as “morality.”

Note that all of this existed long before the concept of religion. Religion has adopted many of these attributes, and called them “Religious morals.”

And as our society has developed, that standard of morality has changed (and hopefully improved). If you read the Old Testament you will see ‘morality’ as it existed a couple thousand years ago. Things have changed, and in many ways has improved.

As our species continues to develop as a modern society, morality continues to primarily be a secular exercise, while various religions try to find a way to combine modern morality with religious dogma.

By: Jeff Corkern

The concept of “morality” was forced into being by the—-PHYSICAL—-fact we are all eternal beings who have eternal souls.

When the scientists finally realize we have souls, they are going to look at each other and realize souls are why the concept of “morality” evolved and persisted in human society. Along with concepts of “justice”, “law and order”, “compassion”, and a thousand other concepts.

By: Kyrani Eade

Morality exists in nature.

The clear evidence is that all people start with a conscience.

And furthermore most people value their conscience and try to keep it clean, they will acknowledge the wrong doing, have remorse and make amends. Why bother to do that if it was only a construct.

Sure, some may deaden their conscience but in doing so they become inhumane, they have no empathy and act unethically. But this makes other people shun them, so they have to wear a mask to try and be accepted and thus live within society.