Take some time to think about it.. How do we define whats RIGHT and whats WRONG?

Question

How do you decide whats the RIGHT thing and whats the WRONG thing. Do we form this beliefs because we are taught and trained to form these beliefs while growing up. Or this sense of RIGHT and WRONG is present in all of us as a sort of INSTINCT. Why is it so easy and natural to think LYING is wrong and being TRUTHFUL is right and NOT the opposite way. Imagine a hypothetical situation where you leave a group of children on island and make sure they are protected from the influence of the outer world. If there is no one who tells them what is suppose to be RIGHT and WRONG. what will they grow up to be? Will they have the same notions of RIGHT and WRONG or will they be different believing in JUNGLE RULE that exists in the nature and which animals follow. And what you believe is the RIGHT thing to happen?

Atma, I was waiting to ask this question but I am way TOO curious about your answer.

Answer 1

Many have thought about this and written books similar to your hypothical situation, where a small society is put in a situation where they are closed off from society and brought up a certain way without their childrens knowledge, most of which i have read in english class at school. What bothers me most about it is that they always come to the conclusion that it was very wrong to break these people off from society. I am going to copy and paste a description of one called running out of time by Margaret Peterson. It was the best book I have ever read in an English calss besides romeo and juliet. In the end Mr.Neely (book character) ends up in jail, by the way.

The book focuses on protagonist Jessie Keyser, a 13-year-old girl from the village of Clifton, Indiana in the 1840s. During a village-wide bout of diphtheria, Jessie's mother explains that the actual year is 1996, and that Clifton Village is actually a tourist attraction--a replica of a historical village. She sends Jessie on a secret and dangerous mission to find a cure for the disease by getting the cure from a man named Mr. Neeley.

Outside of Clifton, Jessie is amazed and often confused at the technological advancements of the modern world. After meeting up with Neeley at a KFC in Waverly, she returns with him to his apartment, where Neeley attempts to drug her so he can kill her because they say that she now knows too much about the outside world. Jessie escapes through a serendipitous misunderstanding.

On her own again, Jessie makes contact with newspapers and radio stations to hold a news conference on the steps of the Capitol. Jessie attempts to explain the situation, but faints due to diphtheria. The news conference causes Clifton Village to close because they find out that Miles Clifton was trying to create a gene pool.

Jessie awakens in a hospital, where she learns that a man named Frank Lyle was impersonating Mr. Neeley, and is talking about the diphtheria outbreak in Clifton Village. It is revealed that village's founder, Miles Clifton, was attempting to create a disease-resistant gene pool within the inhabitants by purposely introducing diseases to distinguish the genetically strong from the weak.

Later, Jessie discovers that several other members of Clifton Village have been brought to the hospital, including Jessie's mother, who explains that her father still believes in the simplicity the 1800's lifestyle.

And another called the Giver. Type it in on wikipedia, it is a very good description.

The thing that bothers me about this one is that they JUST HAD to make something wrong withe the society. There are some things that could easily be taken out to make the city actually a Eutopia. ^.^

Thank you for the interesting question, and I hoe I gave you a n interesting answer. I can't spend too much time in this catagory or else my brain will explode from trying to put all of my philisophical thoughts (I have a lot) into words that get the point across or my fingers will fall off from all the typing! :)

Answer 2

Any given culture assimilates the members of that culture into the right and wrong beliefs.  We decide what is wrong and right based on the model of examples we have seen and experienced in our given culture, intersected with personal desires.

Answer 3

You form your sense of right and wrong from life experience. From how you see people around you act. Even in your hypothetical situation, in order for those children to mentally and physically develop enough to establish a sense of right and wrong someone would need to be there to take care of them. In turn those children would form their ideas about appropriate social conduct from watching the one who took care of them. Even if it was just one of the other children, that child would then be the authority figure and the source of behavior learning.  

Answer 4

Personally I feel that all politics and all religions are deeply intertwined.  Each has the ultimate aim of controlling a population in some way and to do this requires a certain level of obedience.



So it would serve no purpose to me if I as a leader either spiritual or political were to teach you to lie, I want to know what you are thinking at all times and I want your unquestioning loyalty towards me.  So I will try to instill inside you the value of  being truthful and honest at all times; I will benefit from this greatly and speaking as of one in a position of power that will obviously be my aim.  Politically speaking I will back that up with the religious teachings of my country.

My own definition of right and wrong comes from within me, and I see that the older I get, that nothing is set, what might be the correct course of action one day could be totally wrong the following day.  There are just so many factors to take into account.  On a personal level it might be in my best interest to lie about something, simply because it serves no purpose to tell the truth, if no one is going to gain anything from it except a deep level of unrest, then it is pointless exercise inflicting truth upon them.  

However if someone is determined to find the truth no matter what, and I withhold information from them that will help them in their quest, then that is morally wrong to me.  That is why it is so important to awaken your own inner awareness, because without it you are just repeating a set of  useless laws parrot fashion that are of no real use to anyone, the idea of them may be useful as a starting point, but useless when you take into account the diversity of life.

You ask about what will happen if you take a group of children and leave them on a desert island.  How will they turn out?  You may be interested to read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, if you have not already come across it, where he writes about just this.

But to me personally I feel that it would be impossible to take children who were uncorrupted by society’s teachings/rules etc.  Something like 80% (I am sorry I can’t remember accurately what it is) of what we learn in the whole of our lives is in fact learned before we reach the age of seven, each child will already have been indoctrinated; each child will already have its own set of morals and disciplines that it has learned from society, friends and parents and everything that it does will be colored by this knowledge and its ego will also be well underway in developing.  

If you take children any younger than this age it will be very hard for them to survive simply because of their age and inability to live independent from their parents or adult carers.

Personality and attributes of the dominant/leader child would also be a deciding factor For example if a ‘leader’ child is fair and just and of a happy disposition, then these attributes will be reflected in their interaction with the other children and the ultimately in their ‘group’ lives.  

But if a ‘leader’ child were to be selfish and mean as their predominant characteristics and of an angry disposition then this also would play a part in the outcome of how the group would live and interact.

You would also have to take into account the random factors of their life experiences once on the island and how hostile the island was.  The more danger there, the more would be the need to work in harmony for their ultimate survival.

So, I feel that whatever the dominant characteristics are of the ‘leader’ child/children will inevitably be passed on to the rest of the group, although even this is not certain.  There will always be free thinkers and people who do not fit, wherever in the world you may go and I feel that this will also be the case in the situation you have proposed.

This is not the usual kind of question that I would answer, thanks for the challenge.

Answer 5

right and wrong, good and evil, these are all completely relative and subjective.  you can't really define what's right and what's wrong on a global scale, unless you don't mind making a gravely incorrect generalization.  right and wrong all depend on a time-bound setting, culture, and society.  as such, the perception of right and wrong changes from time to time, from place to place, from culture to culture, and from people to people.  and as individuals, we also have our own views on right and wrong, and we're entitled to each of our opinions, sentiments, and perspectives.  but humans, being the social creatures that we are, cannot be separated from society.  ergo, society and culture's heavy influence on each of our minds.

as to the situation you've given (though i think it's highly unlikely that the children be untouched by "the outer world", as you put it.  the very fact that they're already children means that they were tended to as infants and as young children, and anything that happens to kids during those ages always leave some kind of impact.), i think that they very well might act as nature dictates them to.  first and foremost, as humans, we are animals.  we'll always have our instincts; even civilization and civility couldn't completely extinguish our instincts to survive and reproduce.  so, in that island, stripped of all civility and culture, humans will live as animals.  and what of their concept of right and wrong?  it will be "kill or be killed", "eat or get eaten".  it'll be "live or die."  and that's completely valid, because to them, that's how it is.

it's all about perspective and perception.  what's right and what's wrong is all about what you think is right and wrong, but tempered by society and culture's "collective conscience".

*everything i've said here are completely nothing but my own thoughts and views.  my opinions are not facts.  do not think that they are.