Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Morals, by Brendan McGee #8


Morals
John Locke made several different interesting inquiries throughout his life. But my personal favorite, and his most memorable is his critique on Nativism: the argument that all knowledge is innate and, in a way, “pre-learned”, along with his introduction to Empiricism: the argument that all knowledge is learned from outside sources, and that even self-reflection is a reaction to knowledge learned from outside sources.

In his argument against Nativism, Locke argues against one of the main ideas of Nativism: the belief that God planted certain ideas into the minds of all people. A decent example of this would be the morals of each individual. Locke cites the “do unto others as you would have done to you” as an example. Personally, I think that this is a fair argument because in general the public’s morals are practically all in line with each other. However, John argues against this, by stating that the morals of Europeans are not the same as the morals of Americans, each cultural group has slightly different social and moral standards. And with this argument he runs with his theory that God did not plant these ideas into each individual’s head.  
I think it’s interesting to view morals as “internal”. For me my morals were taught to me by my parents and by the Christian School I went to as a child. I viewed things almost black and white during my childhood days. Things were either good to do, or bad to do. I once flipped my classmate off because another classmate had told me it was a nice thing to do in China. The whole class lost it. I meant kindness by it, but it was treated hostile because of the social negativity associated with that gesture. I never did it again and placed it under the “bad things to do” file in my mind. And the things that were bad to do, such as flipping the middle finger, eventually became my morals.

You cannot found reason from reason, what axioms of knowledge would have any advantage over any other if you had not first observed facts in the world?”

Therefore, I fully grasp why John believed that the morals of the public weren’t an acceptable example of Nativism. To me it’s a perfect example of Empiricism. It depends on the culture you’re raised in, and the family you’re raised in. Morals are something that are studied by watching others, then copied by what society, family, and piers view as right or wrong. It’s not something that is automatically there like an instinct, and the studies that Locke and many others have done prove this.

Personal Note:
I had a wonderful time learning and writing about this topic, and also sharing my beliefs with others. I also had a wonderful time opening my mind to the ideas of others in my Philosophy Class. I will miss you all and am grateful for the debates and studies we were able create during our time together.

4 comments:

  1. I loved reading this, you made a personal connection in which others can relate to as well.

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  2. We can agree that our moral sense is largely reflective of our particular cultural experience, AND admit that there seem to be near-universal features of human nature that make most cultures affirm mostly the same standards and mores (with the rare notable exception standing out and capturing our notice). It's in this sense that we can say we're all "created equal" etc., and for this reason that we want to steer clear of any very sharp statement of relativism - much depends on which culture we were raised in, but odds are that you'd eventually have learned not to casually flip people off wherever you'd been raised, China included. You'd also have learned something about the unpredictable perversity in the hearts of small children, until they've been fully civilized.

    Thanks for the personal note, Brandon, and thanks for always being engaged with the course material and participating in discussion. Good luck!

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  3. Good discussion here. Love/get scared when thinking about morals and how they relate to society. Love it because of how fascinating it is, and how it helps us to keep an open mind. Scared of it because some things that we know as wrong or even heinous may be completely suitable if we developed differently. Hilarious anecdote, too, with the story of flipping off someone in class. Great post!

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  4. That’s a nice form of support for your argument there. Morality is a super tricky thing. It makes sense that behavior is a learned trait from the culture you grow up in, but I’d like to think that there’s certain levels of morality that are still internally known, like lying or stealing. Sure, those qualities could be taught as something normal in a certain culture, but wouldn’t they also bring a slight bit of guilt for someone, even as young as you were?

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