Reply To: Is Morality Natural? (Year 2)

[Anonymous]

Morality is in fact natural. Marc D. Hauser says that in his article loud and clear. Research shows that all people, no matter their backgrounds, tend to make the same exact moral judgements. Even sociopaths can tell right from wrong. We all see things similarly in terms or morality, even when we fail to justify our choices. But we have to remember that our moral judgements and our actions are two different things and the movie “Eye in the Sky” is a perfect example.
It presents a moral dilemma: are we willing to sacrifice a life in order to save many more? From the very first minutes of the movie, we learn that we will observe a counterterror mission which quickly escalates from a “capture” operation to a “kill” operation. The targets are planning on a suicide bombing, hence many lives are at stake – but only one really opens an intense discussion: the life of a little girl selling bread right next to the targeted house. Is it worth postponing the decision and risking dealing with a suicide bombing’s consequences in order to save the little girl, or should we rather take more things into account, kill the targets and avoid a massacre, simultaneously taking the girl’s life?
In the article we read that our emotions impact our decisions, hence we can act very differently than what we say we would do. The film captures that perfectly because the characters meet all the legal criteria for killing the terrorists and possibly taking the little girl’s life, and yet they still are uncertain in their decision, they have doubts and postpone the attack as much as they can – all that because they feel sympathetic towards the girl.
In conclusion, I believe that morality in itself is inbred, but what we do, what decisions we make and whether we act upon our values is another thing. There are many other factors besides our sense of right and wrong that impact our decisions, one of them being emotions.