Blog Number Five

I think it’s important to discuss why we’re moral (at least most of the time), rather than just why should we be moral. Morals, as defined by wikipedia, are a system of principles and values. Like I stated in my first blog I believe that not everyone is moral; to be moral is a choice. I would say that a majority of people would agree they are moral because it is the right thing to do. As cliché as that sounds, I do agree with them. I think generally speaking that a lot of people act morally because that’s the way they were raised. There is also the idea that religion is influential to people’s ideas of morals. I did not however grow up in a religious family. I do share some ideals of moral behavior that are represented in the Bible, but I also have several gripes (which I will discuss in the final paper). What I’m trying to get at is that I don’t think being religious is a direct correlation with being moral and that there is some contradiction in that thought process. I wouldn't ever agree that you have to be religious to share some underlying morals as someone who is religious. With that being say I’ve taken a much more of a cognitive approach, which is through logic and experience, in determining what I believe to be moral, and why it is that we act accordingly. I’ve read an article several times online that offers a little bit more to this question of “Why are we moral”. The author states that “other philosophers would argue that being moral is logically required on penalty of being irrational”(Burns). It’s an interesting point to bring up because it supports the idea that being moral is synonymous with being rational. I’d like to think most of the time this is the case, but there are instances where I’d disagree. There are times where I would argue that as individuals, we are acting rational, but perception of moral would deem them to be immoral. I think that we are moral because we believe it’s the right thing to do: there are situations that we might consider something right, but others don’t. Again, this is true to the idea that we are moral because reasoning and logic tells us the decisions we make are moral. It’s a question that is very tough to answer, but it’s an important one to address.

Burns, Stuart. "Why be Moral?." 10 Jun 2008 http://www3.sympatico.ca/saburns/pg0412.htm.

*This post was edited 6/10/2008 @ 8:33pm est for citation purposes only.