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On the Origin of Morality


Chilled Soda

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Curious to see what everyone thinks of.

 

 

Where does morality come from, in the sense that with most people killing is wrong, etc.

Does it stem from religion, the law, byproduct of evolution, sentience, or intelligence?

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Morals are spooks

stirner pls

 

Anyways, like most philosophical questions, you need a working definition. Some animals are really good at following social norms, but does that mean that monkeys have morals? Maybe. That's a thread for another day, however.

 

You need some degree of a shared sense of morals to form a society, and by extension, a culture. My guess is that what most people consider morals started emerging once humans started forming groups too big to keep track of everyone at once - tribes in the dozens and hundreds instead of the single digits. If you can't keep track of what everyone's doing at all times, you need to make some sort of framework of rules, guidelines, and punishments. The more social humans became (i.e. the bigger their groups were) the more these morals became ingrained, perhaps even on a biological/genetic level beyond just a social one.

 

Disclaimer: I haven't done any formal research into this, and I'm mostly just going off of AP Psych snippets from 3 years ago.

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Not going to beat around the bush, this isn't a very good forum question. What exactly are you asking? Are you looking for what school of thought people subscribe to concerning morals, ie Kantian, Utilitarian, etc etc? Are you asking for our own interpretation of morality through the lens of one or more of these schools? Are you asking for our own, completely independent interpretation of morals? Are you looking for an interpretation through a specific spiritual lens, as Christianity has an enormous amount of writing proposing various moral theories through the lens of Christ?

 

Even the simplest question, the first one, isn't a great one because I don't know how many people here know enough moral theory to identify what their own ideas align with.

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Not going to beat around the bush, this isn't a very good forum question. What exactly are you asking? Are you looking for what school of thought people subscribe to concerning morals, ie Kantian, Utilitarian, etc etc? Are you asking for our own interpretation of morality through the lens of one or more of these schools? Are you asking for our own, completely independent interpretation of morals? Are you looking for an interpretation through a specific spiritual lens, as Christianity has an enormous amount of writing proposing various moral theories through the lens of Christ?

 

Even the simplest question, the first one, isn't a great one because I don't know how many people here know enough moral theory to identify what their own ideas align with.

edited question

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