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Morality being Natural
My writing progress for this essay was fast meaning I rushed through it. I picked Steven
Pinker article to write this essay which I had more connection with. I went over the article
multiple times to understand the argument the author is trying to discuss and choose my quotes
that I wanted to use and I applied them. I just took what I had and went with it just to get it over
with. Now, revising my essay for my E-Portfolio the process I am taking is going to ASAP and
taking my time to look over what David commented on the first time. I am revising thoroughly to
make sure my clarity and fluidity is understood. My process is different from the twice time I
will be submitting this assignment. For this essay I did not have any strongest points for this
essay by looking at the criteria. As for my struggles for this essay it was every category for the
criteria because every area needs improvement and received a low score. My thesis was the main
problem because it had me confused throughout the whole essay. My writing evolved during
multiple revisions by having a progress of having a chance to revise for the second time to fix the
clarity throughout my essay. Using this multiple revisions is helping me see that I did not do my
best in this essay and I need to put more potential and understanding in. The first time using peer
view was helpful because my other peers used the same article and we talked about the argument
of the author. The second time revising this essay there was not any peer review. I have learned
about myself about my writing that I have potential about writing but I intend to lack off to get
through it. Now, I know that even though I have good writing techniques do not mean I can just
put anything together in my essay because that will reflect in my grade.
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Morality being Natural
Morality being Natural
Ashia Coleman
California State Monterey Bay
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Morality being Natural
Morality being Natural
Introduction:
One’s definition will say, “Morality involves what we ought to do, right and wrong, good
and bad, values, justice, and virtues. Morality is taken to be important, moral actions are often
taken to merit praise and rewards, and immoral actions are often taken to merit blame and
punishment”. The Moral Instinct by Steven Pinker asserts many claims of morality by comparing
and giving examples of how our morals affect our values and others’ to see through people lives.
I can see that the decisions we make every day, are based on morality. Morality is instinct. We
use our morals without thinking.
Steven Pinker starts off with introducing how morality has an effect on humans and how
we can take from the moral intuitions. Pinker states, “Moral goodness is what gives each of us
the sense that we are worthy human beings.... To carry this weight, the concept of morality
would have to be bigger than any of us and outside of us (Pinker, 2)”. Morals are what make
people have good instincts. Being immoral goes against being worthy to oneself and going both
ways of being moral or immoral it is all being true to how you see things in life.
The Moralization Switch is the first header that was discussed by Pinker to understand
how our morals plat out when they are being used or not. The role of a moral switch Pinker
argues that moralization can be turned on and off by the opinions we react to by knowing the
different between right and wrong. His first claim states, “The first hallmark of moralization is
that the rules it in invokes are felt to be universal”. Morality being universal have its opinions of
how we use our judgments but the switch of it being “I don’t like this but I don’t care about that
either” of two sides of the story of how we analysis events in our head through. His second claim
follows, “The other hallmark is that people feel that those who commit immoral acts deserve to
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Morality being Natural
be punished”. Naturally it is wrong to hurt someone physically maybe even mentally but the
switch of it being moral is not attending to your own morals but not letting the person get away
with it. The immoral stand is that human beings acting on bad actions are not good so they need
punishment or blame. “…. Many behaviors have been amoralized, switched from moral failing
to lifestyle….Many afflictions have been reassigned from payback for bad choices to unlucky
misfortunes” (pg. 3). The message shows that people, who mistreat morals generally, fail their
lifestyles. Mistreated morals cause bad decisions which can cause a bad outcome. Morality has a
separation of morals and immoral. If we think morally correct, our outcome is good. If we think
immorally, the outcome is bad. The Law of Conversation of Moralization which old behaviors
are taken out of the columns and new behaviors are being added. For example, in the
moralizations of smoking being understood that smoking is cool but it harms your health and that
makes it acceptable. “The reason for these double standards is obvious: people tend to align their
moralization with their own lifestyles (Pinker 3)”. The things that are wanted and needed in
people lives are seem to be right but at the same time can be totally wrong for us that are why we
call it a “double standard”. Sometimes it is good to think on both sides of the good and bad of the
outcome because it can benefit our thinking and how we do things in our lives.
According to Pinker, the next header is Reasoning and Rationalizing of how people
morality approaches us in how we reason and analyze the judgments of others morals. He uses
three scenarios in the text about the justification of the right and wrong to how we see different
point of view of people morals. In the text talks about a girl named Julie on a summer vacation
with her brother Mark whom they decide to do something together. “One night they decide that it
would be interesting and fun if they tried making love. Julie was already taking birth-control
pills, but Mark uses a condom, too, just to be safe. They both enjoy the sex but decide not to do it
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Morality being Natural
again” (pg. 4). This first scenario Pinker brings this situation into context because it makes us
think of how moralization is for ourselves. He wants us to think if it acceptable to have sex with
your siblings and if brothers and sisters have morals of using a condom but it was not love
making between the two. Next scenario is about a woman who decides to clean out her
bathroom with an old rag to her. “….She finds her old American flag, She doesn’t want the flag
anymore, so she cuts it up into pieces and uses the rags to clean her bathroom” (pg.4). As being
American most humans would feel it is the most disrespect to even cut up the flag and use it like
an old towel. The American flag symbols justice and etc. but for the woman not caring about the
flag no more having her do otherwise with the flag. The last scenario Pinker uses is about a
family whom eats their pet. “A family’s dog is killed by a car in front of their house. They heard
that dog meat was delicious, so they cut up the dog’s body and cook it and eat it for dinner” (pg.
4). Pinker’s argument about this is that most people will think it is wrong to eat the dog due to
the dog being a part of the family but in this generation and plenty of religious or ethnicities will
do this action of moralization. These three scenarios Pinker included in the text to make his
audience realize the acts to justify if they are right or wrong and most would say they are but
being in a moralization switch the other percentage think it is okay with the actions these people
took.
In the next header A Universal Morality, Pinker points out the habit of worldwide
intuitions of the awareness of the rules in play. An anthropologist named Donald E. Brown states
the factors of “human universal” and the moral concepts which human beings collect. “…. And
emotions, including a distinction between right and wrong; empathy; fairness; admiration of
generosity; rights and obligations; proscription of murder, rape and other forms of violence;
redress of wrongs; sanctions for wrongs against the community; shame and taboos”(pg. 6). The
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Morality being Natural
“human universal” is what we are born with and analyze the awareness of these things with the
moral structure which comes by in the early state of childhood of how we as children form to act
upon talking or know to play with toys.
In having morals we ought to sometimes think about other people when it comes into
play meaning a favor for a favor. One factor of morals is also having fairness when it comes to
daily decisions for human beings. “Fairness is very close to what scientists call reciprocal
altruism, where a willingness to be nice to others can evolve as long as the favor helps the
recipient more than it costs the giver and the recipient returns the favor when fortunes reverse”
(pg. 7). If a favor is needed and having to ask someone to do so will get your favor completed
but asking the favor will only result in having to do a favor also, is asking for a favor worth it?
Fairness comes with many willingness of being okay with doing the favor and getting it back in
return. Follow suit, Pinker adds, “Sympathy prompts a person to offer the first favor, particularly
to someone in need for whom it would go the furthest…. anger protects a person against cheaters
who accept a favor without reciprocating, by impelling him to punish the ingrate or sever the
relationship” (pg. 7). These two of having sympathy and having anger results in what will others
will do for others. Sympathy has a cause of helping others without getting anything in return
because that sensitive spot but anger protects the one who is at fault.
Lastly Pinker ends his sections of with Is Morality a Figment? “Far from debunking
morality, then, the science of the moral sense can advance it, by allowing us to see through the
illusions that evolution and culture have saddled us with and to focus on goals we can share and
defend” (pg. 13). At the end of involving ourselves around morals, getting the deeper message of
how morals is important with the pros and cons helps with the ambitions of where us as human
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Morality being Natural
beings are headed in life. It is important to identify the type of person we are inside and out and
if morality can help us throughout life.
Conclusion:
The Moral Instincts concludes in many claims of how people instincts ties into with
having morals of the right and wrong thing. Steven Pinker finds that having moral as instincts are
okay naturally if they are in a result of coming out right or wrong. It is interesting that on a daily
some people do not even think about the moral actions they are taking and with Pinker’s help of
breaking down that people morals instinct is just not something we make decisions for but live
with cause it is something we were born with and learned over time.
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Morality being Natural
References
The Moral Instinct by Steven Pinker