Monday, October 20, 2014
Where does our morality come from?
Our morality comes from our environment and how we were raised. We learned from our parents right from wrong as they did. Our environment also play a role in telling us that is right. In the reading from The Norton Reader, it gives examples of things that we would normally think would be considered "wrong". These examples include a brother and sister sleeping together, eating dog, and a woman cutting up the american flag and using the pieces as a rag to clean. The author, Steven Pinker, shows us how its hard to justify our reasonings behind why we view these acts wrong from a survey asked about the situations. When it came to the brother and sister the explains, "people raised the possibly of birth defects, but they were reminded that the couple were diligent about contraception. They suggest that the siblings will be emotionally hurt, but the story makes it clear that they weren't. They submit that the act would offend the community, but then recall that it was kept a secret." Later on in the survey the people couldn't answer why it was bad. Honestly I don't care if I can't come up with an answer that would be proved wrong like the answers in the survey, it is simply wrong to have sex with your sibling. With Ethos comes authority from others, we listen to our parents because we trust and respect them; we tend to listen to their rules. I grew up in a house where I always had to say yes ma'am no sir to not only my parents, but to others that were older to me. I continue to use abide by their rules, even when others tell me I don't need to say it. I think we use ethos when it comes to our morality, because we were taught by people we respect and find credible.
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We are all born with a sense of mortality , but there are several things that help to shape mortality as we get older. Our parents are a big part of that seeing that they are the ones that raise us to believe certain things and do things a certain way. Our environment also a factor in the equation. In " Why cant we just get along ?" ,the author briefly mentions discussions about gay rights and abortions. Usually rather we support either one of those two controversial topics comes from the beliefs that our parents have raised us to believe in, people don't usually repel to those thing on their own. Greene believes that "the impulses and inclinations that shape moral discourse are, by a large, legacies of natural selection, rooted in our genes." I can agree with Greene. Sometime mortality can be instinctual and also norms come into place. The example given above is perfect, normally people wouldn't sleep with their brother or sister. To most people that would be socially wrong but they may have totally different morals based on the way that they were brought up. When it come to appeals to thing I believe that we use pathos and ethos. We use ethos because its what we believe in, its what we grew up to think is right. Also we use pathos because we tend to bring emotions into play when we are faced with a problem. The Trolley experiment is the perfect example. When the participants were asked to pulled the lever they agreed more quickly then the did when they were asked if they would push the person in front of the train with their own hands.
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