Do you think morality exists in nature or is it a human construct?

Question

hellionthesagereborn · Accepted Answer

Morality is a social construct, not necessarily a human one. Its designed to create rules and guidelines that allow us to work as a cohesive unit while trusting that we will not be harmed or exploited by others. That's why it can get complicated, like killing is wrong but not in self defense because you are not making yourself a risk to the group you are merely preserving your own life. Or as one famous thought experiment showed, when asked what a moral choice would be if you where in a train and you had to change between a track that had five people on it or one, most chose the one, minimal damage. However when given an alternate scenario and asked would it be moral to push a very large man off the bridge he was standing on to stop the train and save all six people at the expense of one (which is one more life saved) almost every one said it was immoral. the reason being is that in one your forced into the situation, the other you have actively decided to enter into the situation and thus take away agency of another based upon your beliefs which in turn reduces trust (who is to say that you will not find killing them a greater benefit then keeping them alive). So we see this in any group that has a society (apes, wolves). Morality is social, its required to have a functional group that is able to trust others enough to take risks (like expending energy to herd an animal so that another can kill it and trusting that you will also get a share in it) that benefit all not just one.

goaded · Accepted Answer

Morality isn't just present in humans, various animals display empathy as well. Hell, dogs can tell how you're feeling (cats too, probably, they just don't care)! A desire to see your family and friends safe and happy is quite common (we need better ways to identify people who abuse those emotions, though).

KaseyRouqe · Accepted Answer

I think it's a mix of both. Many moral "rules" are just common sense. Stuff like not killing/hurting others, stealing, being responsible for our actions, etc. We don't need religion to know these things. But others are just social norms that, for the most part, have been created by religion and the regressive minds of our ancestors in the dark ages. These, I don't think are all that necessary and in some cases creates division. Not saying religion is bad, but it's values shouldn't be pushed on others. If it's not directly harming you, we all need to mind our own business.

Olivia12345 · Accepted Answer

Moral things are what they call "relative" k?

I can have an opinion that something's ok, but someone else can think it's wrong, and vice vers.

So what do you do? Well you have to have more people on your side who agree with you in order to get anything done. Like murder, very few people think that's ok, so it's an easy law, but abortion isn't as easy because the line kinda splits down the middle on who thinks it's ok versus not. Getting an answer depends on who you ask.

EmoKate97 · Accepted Answer

This is one of those questions like "what's the meaning of life maaaan" that people ask to feel smart and deep but really it just shows they have low intuition.
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Humans are nature, or are humans not apart of nature? Most social creatures have a primitive sense or morality, like an elephant trying to save a zebra from a lion or even your cat / dog coming to you when your injured or sad. Low level question.

lumos · Accepted Answer

A lot of the morals we have are man-made, and are not otherwise seen in nature. But I do feel like some animals have a basic sense of morality, such as protecting their family, helping the weak and young etc. But can you call that morality or is it just pure instinct? I guess that depends on how you define morality and if you're willing to include those things in the spectrum.

dragonfly6516 · Accepted Answer

Definitely a construct because of freewill, and the ability to pick and choose what is "right" or "wrong". If it were nature, we would all instinctively know what is right or wrong, and that knowledge would be universally the same across the entire species.

BCRanger10 · Answer

This whole notion of "constructs" is really getting out of hand. Relativism in any sense is a self-refuting position because those who promote it are using absolute statements to say that there are no absolutes. The defies even the most basic semblances of human reason and intelligence. Just because someone thinks or feels differently about something does not automatically make it a valid position. This idea that we should "agree to disagree" is complete nonsense. People today don't want to research things. They just want to be right, or what they think to be "right".

Moral relativism has been a cancer in our cultural mindset for decades. There must be an objective standard for morality. It's time for us to move on from the idea that "anything goes".

Anon85 · Answer

Well, as a Christian I believe that a lot of ''social constructs'' do exist in nature, simply because human beings were created civilized and socially functional. It was rudimentary to start but that's how we're made. From my perspective there's not much difference.

As for morality and religion, I often hear that argument thrown at me for some reason. No one says you can't be moral without God, they're saying it's God's very existence that allows us to be moral. That argument is one of the most retarded straw-men I hear to date, right after the ''if evolution happened then why are there still monkeys?'' No one makes those arguments

03Outlaw · Answer

I do not believe that there is morality in general nature. Animals do not have the comprehension of morals. Lions don't think "I am not gonna kill that gazelle because killing is wrong". Nature is harsh. I do believe that morality is intuned in humans. We help people in need and often times us making the conscious decision to help someone can put us in a worse place. One thing that I look at objectively that is proof for me is in war. People are willing to sacrifice themselves for others and a clear-cut example of this is people who dive on grenades to save others. The servicemembers who have done this are made the decision to die for another person. If human beings didn't have a natural morality then why the hell would someone do that?

Piluex · Answer

To a point it is a construct, but the fact that humans have it can ne explained by biology and evolution. For the species to keep existing, the members have to follow a set of rules and behave beneficially to the group. The exact set of rules is what changes from place to place, but there are always the basic ones like "don't kill each other" or "do not kill", if these were not a thing, the group would end up distrusting and wouldn't cooperate with each other, humans wouldn't have gone too far without it.

EpicDweeb · Answer

I am a Christian. I believe the law of God is written on the tablets of men's hearts. It is what was inherited from our first parents adam and eve when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We lost any righteousness we may have had, but we gained the knowledge of right and wrong.

Mexicoman101 · Answer

I feel like morality works well enough for sustaining communal survival that it manifests itself as a force of evolution. I mean also, just because humans pioneer something doesn't mean its not natural. Honestly I think if there's alien life out there, there's no way they're making it into space or developing even ships that can make large distances on seas without having a system of morality to create stability & degrees of trust in society.

slatyb · Answer

Higher primates like chimpanzees have clearly demonstrated that they understand fairness, have empathy, and will punish individuals who selfishly act against the common welfare. So if by "morality" you mean ethics, it's an evolved trait that improves tribal survival.

ladsin · Answer

It depends on how you're defining it. If you're talking about a general sense of fairness, and treating our fellows amicablly then that is innate within most social creatures and we can actually breed that sort of morality into creatures by selecting for the more sociable strains. However, many of our more esoteric views of morality, ie the morality of public nudity, is not naturally based. At least as far as I can tell.

karahiri · Answer

i think morality is useful to the evolution of our species. therefore, i think it is a biological instinct, compounded by culture.

RoBesPieRRe · Answer

You can be moral generally without religion but not sexually. That's why Westerners have 'Anything goes' attitude of mind. Doing porn, having one night stands, sleeping with others with the permission of spouse, consensual adult incest etc. are moral, to them.

AngusBigMac · Answer

Introspeciel (I believe that's the word) morality assists in the survival and thriving of a species. It is commonplace in nature, just as emotions and thought processing are.

Anonymous · Answer

Human construct. Go ask a gorilla or a chimpanzee to explain morality to you... see how that goes.

JimRSmith · Answer

It's a human construct, but that doesn't make it invalid.

JackAce96 · Answer

Its man made or human construct as you said. Morality invokes consciousness about our actions. That's the only thing that keeps us civilized.

Cody01 · Answer

I saw a video of a silverback gorilla protecting another gorilla from a gorilla attacking that gorilla. Gorilla glue.

AllThatSweetJazz · Answer

It does technically exist in the world but only in the form of brain structures. The universe doesn't care about you or what you do. But you do. That's all there is to it.

willychilli · Answer

I think morality is built up by parents, and life experience.

troychapman · Answer

no its a supernatural construct humans never knew what morality was we had to be taught

jacquesvol · Answer

Don't do to others what you wouldn't want to undergo is the base of morality. I don't think animals or plants think that far.

macix670 · Answer

No. It's a human construct, a very important human construct. Without morality, our society would be in chaos.

GreetingsGuy · Answer

Its a mixture, somethings, like protecting babies and not killing them (I know it's a weird example) is a natural instinct, while things like modesty with clothing is something man-made

Ironlak282 · Answer

in nature? well humans are part of nature lol. I think morality to the  sophisticated degree humans have are ideas, that said just because  it's an idea doesn't make it not real.

demonics · Answer

"I need food to survive, you have food stuck to your bones. Gonna need to get that fam." ~Ancient Chinese Proverb

Julian_ · Answer

50/50 I guess Some moral rules naturally and others learned

Anonymous · Answer

A lot of them are just kind of Common Sense and play a role in a communal Society you can see a lot of the same trade shown in other communal societies outside of the human species

Anonymous · Answer

It exists, otherwise people would have killes each other from the beginning of time

Stacy77 · Answer

I think its more nature.

abc3643 · Answer

It's evolved emergent behavior.

Nice_Guy_Last · Answer

Depends on your definition of morality.

anoddtod · Answer

Both

BronzedAdonis · Answer

human construct

Blitzkrieger · Answer

It exists in chimps.

Anonymous · Answer

I think it still exist somewhere

TheGreatestOfAllTime · Answer

Moral nihilism.

Anonymous · Answer

in nature

VV3ZZY · Answer

Human construct

Do you think morality exists in nature or is it a human construct?

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Is morality developed within a culture or is it intrinsic?

Do you think morality exists in nature or is it a human construct?

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Is morality developed within a culture or is it intrinsic?

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