Heard a simple question – do innate ethics exist? Are we really born with a moral compass, or is that we are conditioned to believe in a value system that your parents, culture, tribe or nation impose on you.
The answer I believe cannot be in absolutes. A child when born is innocent and unaware of ‘realities’. However, when he sees another smiling or laughing he responds with a smile or chuckle of his own. He tries to understand what caused the other to smile, was it a good gesture, a joke, a rose… Again when he sees a bully’s angry face go try push another child, he immediately assesses the reaction of the child at the receiving end.
Such interactions ultimately lead up to a value system.
I’ll give an example; my brother was a few months old. He was in my mother’s arms and was trying to reach for a piece of bread in my plate placed nearby. Ma picked it up and gave it to him…as he put in his mouth to chew on, I clumsily banged my foot in the sofa while trying to reach his cute cheeks. Tears sprang from my eyes. Seeing this, immediately my baby brother offered the bread to me. He simply assumed I might have wanted it… I actually started laughing, and was startled by his warm gesture.
Therefore, the deduction would be ethics or ethical behaviour is learnt only in context to others.
It may differ from one person to another simply by virtue of the environment, culture, tribe or nation you grew up in. What was right some years ago is acceptable today. Some years ago same sex marriages were considered unnatural, today some states have decided to amend their law on morality and have accepted the concept of sexual orientations. Is it not an ethical debate?
Stem cells research and cloning are again matters of debate. A scientist may find it ethical to abort a child with congenital defects that would, if born, would have lived in a vegetative state. A priest may find the idea of aborting a life abhorrent.
Ethics define our actions, and they are determined by and for the society you live in.
No comments:
Post a Comment