Understanding Your Morality

by Ali-Asad

Psychologists, anthropologists and ethicists have developed a comprehensive understanding of morality over the last century. The fundamental question underpinning this research has been: how do we define morality?

Initially, morality was defined with only the individual in mind. Psychologist Lawrence Kholberg theorized that morality was based on the protection of individual rights i.e. what's equal is moral and inequality is immoral; keyword: reciprocity - the justice/fairness moral conception. Later, Carol Gilligan thought that this justice/fairness foundation was too harsh, especially for the female psyche. She theorized that morality was more based on the avoidance of harm i.e. if something inflicts harm, it's immoral. This parallels the maternal instinct; keywords: protection, compassion - the harm/care moral conception. These two moral foundations of justice/fairness and harm/care can be considered as the ethics of the individual. But this isn't the whole story. Anthropologists found that more traditional societies had other moral senses, which often conflicted with the ethics of the individual.

In more traditional societies, the primary unit of society is not the individual but the family, tribe or country. Therefore, individual rights are not as important as protecting the group. This different focus gives rise to different moral foundations. Firstly, this group preeminence requires individuals to favor their own group over other groups i.e. what my group does has to be right as compared to other groups; keywords: loyalty, patriotism - the ingroup/outgroup moral conception. Secondly, all groups require a structure of authority to function. The group can only function if this hierarchy is strictly obeyed otherwise the whole group fabric will crumble i.e., an elder must be obeyed no matter what; keywords: respect, duty - the authority/respect moral foundation. These two moral foundations of ingroup/outgroup and authority/respect can be considered as the ethics of the community.

Now, for many people, divinely revealed laws serve as a moral foundation. Here, the primary unit is the soul, which God has gifted to everyone. Therefore, morality involves the protection and purification of this soul through protecting the body with certain dietary, sexual etc. regulations. Also, this foundations promotes health by using shame/disgust to avoid risky behavior; keywords: chastity, shame - the purity/sanctity moral foundation. This moral foundation is considered as the ethics of divinity.

So, we've established 5 foundations of morality:

1. justice/fairness - protection of individual rights



2. harm/care - maternal instinct of nurture, protection, and avoidance of harm



3. ingroup/outgroup - favoring one's own group over other groups



4. authority/respect - adherence to hierarchy



5. purity/sanctity - avoidance of health risks through shame and disgust/adhering to God's laws

Interestingly, empirical research has found that your moral foundations can accurately indicate your political views. Political liberals identify primarily with the ethics of the individual foundations (justice/fairness and harm/care) while not having any sense for the other 3 moral foundations. On the other hand, political conservatives value the ethics of the individual as well but also include the ethics of community and divinity in their moral compass. So, political conservatives tend to have a broader view of morality in that they deal with moral issues for the perspective of God and community, as well as the individual.

These researchers have set up a great website called yourmorals.org, where you can take a quiz to determine your moral foundations. My results from the moral foundation questionnaire are below:



A couple of things stand out here: I score high on one of the three values political conservatives share. Also, I do value the universal ethics of the individual but value justice/fairness quite highly and value the harm/care foundation quite a bit lower than average.

And that's jus' the tip.

Stand up-in-chief

by Ali-Asad

John McCain and Barack Obama recently attended a charity event where they both entertained the audience with some self-deprecating humor, as well as using their opponents as punchlines. It's nice to know that they are real people who can have sometimes. Some of the better lines included McCain's jab at Obama:

(This campaign) began with the heralded arrival of a man Oprah Winfrey called 'the One'. Being a friend and colleague of Barack's, I just called him 'that One'.

And Obama's jab at Mccain:
Al, I obviously never knew your great-grandfather, but from everything Senator Mccain has told me...


Definitely worth watching.


Mccain part 1:




Mccain part 2:






Obama part 1:



Obama part 2:




And that's jus' the tip.