Do you think "morals" are an intrinsic part of human nature?

Question

Like, for example, it is a fact that there have been feral children(raised by wolves or in the wild not by humans) found on the outskirts of society. If they were to attack and eat you (if strong enough) would they encounter some kind of moral dilemna. It would seem not.

Could these humans possibly been born with, and maintained a set of morals similar to ours?

What about the people of ancient Rome who watched people slaughtered by eachother and other animals for the sake of entertainment. Not to mention all the other deviating values they held to ours.(the majority of us at least, not sociopaths)

It would seem these "morals" would have to be taught to you.

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Answer 1

I think culture is an intrinsic part of human nature.  We need to grow up around other people who teach us how to behave and take care of ourselves, or we never fully develop as humans.  Those feral children are unable, or almost unable, to learn to communicate, they can't socialize properly, and they can't really join society as a whole.  On the other hand, your average human who does grow up in a culture can, generally, learn to communicate with anyone else and usually can learn to navigate in a new society.

Morals are part of what we learn, culturally, but, from what I remember from a long-ago anthropology course, the only taboo that anthropologists agree is universal is the incest taboo.  Even that has a lot of exceptions, although pretty much everyone agrees that parents having s*x with their kids is a bad, bad idea.  Other than that, many cultures allow you to murder certain people (in ours, for self-defense or on behalf of the state, and in others, infanticide, honor killings, and others are acceptable) or to steal from certain people, usually enemies of your tribe or village or country.  Rape is perfectly acceptable in an alarming number of places.  It all depends on what your culture evolves in order to survive.

That's not to say, of course, that everything must be condoned nowadays as "cultural".  I'm against FGM, suttee, honor killings, and a whole host of other things as much as the next feminist American.  With modern technology making the world such a small place, we really will need to work out some sort of universal moral code.  It won't be genetic, but culturally-ingrained beliefs can actually override genetics, so that's okay.

Answer 2

Great Question!  I agree with Rhylinda on this one.  Having good morals in society is knowing the difference between doing what is right versus knowing and doing what is wrong.

We are animals born not knowing.  All information and knowledge that is gained while we are here on earth is learned or taught to us by our parents or influenced by our environmental surroundings.

Answer 3

Sociobiology claims that much of the cooperative/altruistic behavior can be explained by genetics and using mathematics such as game theory. That is a gene promoting altruism can be fit for population and thus the gene and the behavioral trait for this altruism will be innate in this population.

It's not that genetically we all have the same morals: this depends on upbringing. Instead we have a tendency towards certain morals that is innate and independent of upbringing.

Answer 4

Morals are a dimension of "conscience", which is an emotional element, that defines what a human being is...

Answer 5

being raised by wolves, or people who look like them , isn't natural...so it's not an example of a person stripped of morality,rather a person under severe circumstances. When raised by other 'normal' people, morality is  brought out from a place it was , the soul. Otherwise, we are wolves in cheap clothing.

Answer 6

Human beings are a learned species. We have absolutely NO instincts...other than sucking on the nipple as babies. Everything we know and do and feel is learned, although many will argue on this subject. Our morals and "self awareness" that apparently set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom are learned. The feral children are a good example of this, because even they did not exhibit any type of human behavior, speech or bipedal walking!

Answer 7

Morals are summed up by your knowing the differance between right and wrong regardless of what your were broughtht  up with.