Causes of Knowing Right From Wrong Part II

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. Socrates was born in 470 or 469 BC to Sophroniscus and Phaenarete, a stoneworker and a midwife, respectively, in the Athenian deme of Alopece; therefore, he was an Athenian citizen, having been born to relatively affluent Athenians. He lived close to his father's relatives and inherited, as was customary, part of his father's estate, securing a life reasonably free of financial concerns. His education followed the laws and customs of Athens. He learned the basic skills of reading and writing and, like most wealthy Athenians, received extra lessons in various other fields such as gymnastics, poetry and music. His family religion was to believe in many gods who lived on 

Mt. Olympus and 

acted pretty  much like people on earth.  Although he never outright rejected the standard Athenian view of religion, Socrates' beliefs were nonconformist. He often referred to God rather than the gods, and reported being guided by an inner divine voice.

Religion is one way of conditioning people to understand right from wrong.  Another is something we all should be born with, and that is our conscience.  Knowing right from wrong has been the topic of conversation ever since the Greeks with Socrates.  

Conscience. is , a personal sense of the moral content of one's own conduct, intentions, or character with regard to a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.  It's developed by the ethics of the family one belongs to, usually.  

Historically, almost every culture has recognized the existence of such a faculty. Ancient Egyptians, for example, were urged not to transgress against the dictates of the heart, for one “must stand in fear of departing from its guidance.”  They understood it to be something we're born with to guide our behaviors.  We find today that there are people who have missed that gene, and seem to be amoral--without a moral compass, and that certainly is a sickness as they do get in a lot of trouble.  

Being amoral  appears in the late 1800s. The prefix a- means "not" or "without," as in atypical or asymptomatic. The dictionary definition of amoral is "having or showing no concern about whether behavior is morally right or wrong"—compendiously, "without morals." For example, an infant, unlearned in what is right and wrong, is amoral; someone who lacks the mental ability to understand right or wrong due to illness might be described as amoral. These are illustrative examples, however; amoral can be used to describe any person, or his or her actions, who is aware of what is right and wrong but does wrong anyway and responds indifferently about it.  Amoral can describe those actions with no moral consequence or intention. 

Immoral, on the other hand, describes those actions with bad or harmful intent or consequences. 

Obviously moral would then describe the actions stemming from good intentions.

 In some belief systems, conscience is regarded as the voice of God and therefore a completely reliable guide of conduct:

 Among the Hindus it is considered “the invisible God who dwells within us.” Among Western religious groups, the Society of Friends (or Quakers) places particular emphasis on the role of conscience in apprehending and responding through conduct to the “Inner Light” of God.

A growing number of researchers now believe  that babies are in fact born with an innate sense of morality, and while parents and society can help develop a belief system in babies, they don’t create one. A team of researchers at Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center, known as The Baby Lab, showed us just how they came to that conclusion.

Dr. Karen Wynn runs the Baby Lab, and she and her team have been studying the minds and behaviors of babies for decades. About eight years ago they began running a series of studies on babies under 24 months to see how much these babies understand about good and bad behavior.

Paul Bloom, author of “Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil” and a professor of psychology at Yale, says these studies show that even before babies can speak or walk, they judge good and bad in the actions of others because they are born with a rudimentary sense of justice.

But Bloom, who is married to Wynn, says this sense of justice is “tragically limited.” Although babies are born with an innate sense of morality, they are also born with flaws.

Thus the need to be raised in a condusive environment praising good and reflecting disappointment in evil acts.

I can't help but think of the act of the Aztec Indians of Central America who manually ripped hearts out of living prisoners for sacrifice.  How could anyone watch this and think it was morally okay?  One thing, they all must have been scared to death.

Canaanite Baal worship-an idol that is a bull and considered their god. This worship included human sacrifice.  How could they watch such an act and not feel pain; empathy for the victim?  

Therefore, the environment that one is raised in is most important as to their ethics and how they came by them in order to continue them, even though we supposedly are born with a conscience.  At least we are given something to build upon.  

Believe it or not, it was very hard for our prophets to stop people from attending such ceremonies and act and take part in this belief system. Something so horrid should have made their stomachs curdle.  Idol worship ultimately led to cruelty in some form or other.

 How did Nazis justify their killing of Jews?  How did they live with this knowledge?  6 million people were killed because of their religion.  This is the most horrible act ever on this planet by man.

Resource:

https://www.cnn.com/2014/02/12/us/baby-lab-morals-ac360/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/using-unmoral-immoral-nonmoral-amoral#:~:text=The%20dictionary%20definition%20of%20amoral,due%20to%20illness%20might%20be

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/socrates#:~:text=Although%20he%20never%20outright%20rejected,by%20an%20inner%20divine%20voice.