about the need of moral sense in our society .
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If we lived in a world where our actions hadno consequences, there could be nothing wrong with anything we might do. However, this is not the case. We are social animals, and the actions we take -- the things we do and the things we don't do -- have consequences on our environments and on the others around us. As a result, we need to be able to govern our behavior in the near term so as not to injure ourselves or our community in the long term. This system of controllingour actions and our thoughts in order to operate in a community is what we often refer to asmorality.What sorts of things do we commonly attribute to morality? Here are some common examples:We shouldn't steal things.Old ladies should be helped across the street.Killing or injuring people is wrong.We should give time and money to charities.
We shouldn't tell lies.Looking at this list, we can see that there are two categories: things we should do, and things we shouldn't do. Looking closer, we will see that things we should do are inspired by empathy and a desire tohelp others. The things we shouldn't do are actions and thoughts that we censor and suppress. I will argue that what we callmorality is actually two separate, although occasionally interacting, agencies. Theempathic responseagency inspires us to take action to help others while themoral restraintagency censors and suppresses"immoral" actions and the thoughts which might lead to them. Together these make up theSociety of MoralityWhy are there two agencies? Although they occasionally interact, both perform significantly different functions. The moral restraint agency often needs to take immediate action to keep us from doing things we would regret later or which would have unfortunate consequences. In almost every case, it is always working as a suppressor and a censor. We also seem to use it to pass judgement on whether theactions of others are "bad", but when we do so, what we are seeing is the effects of suppression on the thoughts of others taking "bad" actions. On the other hand, empathy is always inspiring us to take action. When we see others in need, we have a desire to help them and to perform a "good deed".
We shouldn't tell lies.Looking at this list, we can see that there are two categories: things we should do, and things we shouldn't do. Looking closer, we will see that things we should do are inspired by empathy and a desire tohelp others. The things we shouldn't do are actions and thoughts that we censor and suppress. I will argue that what we callmorality is actually two separate, although occasionally interacting, agencies. Theempathic responseagency inspires us to take action to help others while themoral restraintagency censors and suppresses"immoral" actions and the thoughts which might lead to them. Together these make up theSociety of MoralityWhy are there two agencies? Although they occasionally interact, both perform significantly different functions. The moral restraint agency often needs to take immediate action to keep us from doing things we would regret later or which would have unfortunate consequences. In almost every case, it is always working as a suppressor and a censor. We also seem to use it to pass judgement on whether theactions of others are "bad", but when we do so, what we are seeing is the effects of suppression on the thoughts of others taking "bad" actions. On the other hand, empathy is always inspiring us to take action. When we see others in need, we have a desire to help them and to perform a "good deed".
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