Universal Aspects: An Analysis on “The Moral Instinct”
Universal Aspects: An Analysis on “The Moral Instinct”.
Dominic Elijah DiSilva
California State University Monterey Bay
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Universal Aspects: An Analysis on “The Moral Instinct”
WRITER’S MEMO
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 Writing Process
Writing this essay the first time was very difficult for me because I was
extremely busy with midterms and it was due the day before spring break so I
was stressing over figuring out how to go back home to LA. So I ended up
doing it very last minute while extremely tired. No it wasn’t similar at all. I
didn’t follow the process that I should have. The second time around was better
I had a friend edit it and I spent a decent amount of working and editing it.
 Strengths
I believe the strongest part of my essay is the thesis. Before my thesis was a
little weak and confused but I think after my revision it is stronger. I also
believe my tone to be very strong because of the revision. Initially my tone and
word choice was weak because I was tired and didn’t have time to edit out the
contractions and use a thesaurus to avoid repetition of words.
 Struggles
I believe I still need to improve my organization and my transition sentences.
For some reason it was really hard for me to transition my paragraphs.
 Revising and Peer Review
After multiple revisions my tone was refined and I had the chance to edit my
thesis so that it was clearer and not as confused. The in class peer review didn’t
help me that much but outside of that my friends helped me edit it a lot.
 Overall Assessment
I’ve learned that I am a very impatient writer and writing is just not for me.
Sitting down at a computer and typing is just not something I enjoy doing.
Universal Aspects: An Analysis on “The Moral Instinct”
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Steven Pinker, a journalist for the New York Times Magazine, published the article “The
Moral Instinct” from a discourse about the question of morality and how humans as a whole can
decipher what is moral verses what is immoral. Pinker describes to us that the science of
morality can help us further understand morality and why we act the way we do. Pinker sections
off his article to clearly express to the reader that studying morality is ultimately helping people
understand each other better and will in fact bring humanity together. According to Pinker we all
share the same basic moral codes and he proves this by posing the trolley-ology question,
describing the anecdote of the British woman, and telling us the different aspects of morality,
ultimately proving that the science of morality is bringing humanity closer together.
Pinker writes his article in a way that is very interesting and unusual. His article is very
direct and less formal than most academic essays. Academic essays are mainly formal without
sarcasm or humor but Pinker decided to take a more interesting route. He dishes out some
sarcasm in his intro paragraph and his body paragraphs but still maintains a sense of seriousness.
Pinker clearly illustrates and organizes his ideas clearly by giving a very brief title for each
section. This helps the reader follow Pinker’s thought process and ultimately understand how the
study off morality is helping people breakdown cultural barriers and unify humanity.
Morality, as described by Pinker, is an instinct. Instincts are felt universally by a species
thus showing that morality is universal among humans. Pinker says that there are five parts to the
moral instinct “harm, fairness, community (or group loyalty), authority and purity” and these are
“the primary colors of our moral sense” (Pinker, 2008). Everyone feels all these universally, he
claims. From the Afghans’ in the Middle East to the Hawaiian Islands, everyone has these set
moral codes. The only difference is that these cultures place the aspects in various rankings and
once we understand this we can start solving disputes verbally instead of violently. Pinker also
Universal Aspects: An Analysis on “The Moral Instinct”
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helps you to understand this by questioning your morality by giving questions of his own to
make you think differently.
A series of questions of hypothetical situations are posed by Pinker, which he calls
trolley-ology. In the first question, Pinker asks his audience if they would divert a train car from
killing 5 men to killing just one man. Most people kill the one man. The next question is the
same except instead of diverting the car to kill one man, “the only way to stop the trolley is to
throw a heavy object in its path. And the only heavy object within reach is a fat man standing
next to you” (Pinker, 2008). This question shows that harm is a fundamental aspect to morality
and is felt by all. Diverting the train car verses pushing a man is the difference between indirectly
causing harm and directly causing harm to a person. Most people would choose the former over
the latter because they are opposed to directly causing harm. This proves that harm is an innate
aspect of morality that is universally felt by people. However, not all people value harm the same
way -there are people in the Middle East that value loyalty more.
Within the article, Pinker explains the loyalty aspect of morality by using an anecdote
about a British woman who teaches in the Middle East. She taught an elementary class where the
kids were given a teddy bear and were allowed to name it after the most popular boy in class,
Muhammad. Muhammad, though, is the name of the founder of Islam, and naming inanimate
objects, even teddy bears of children, is blasphemy. Because of this “she was jailed for
blasphemy and threatened with a public flogging, while a mob outside the prison demanded her
death”(Pinker, 2008). This anecdote emphasizes the Muslims moral instinct; they felt loyalty,
community, and authority, but not the harm or fairness of morality. Their outrage was a
combination of their loyalty to Islam, the founder, and the communal bonds that were formed
between them and the state of Islam. This combination made them gather and call for her death
Universal Aspects: An Analysis on “The Moral Instinct”
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because of her unknown insult to their authority figure. The anecdote shows us that these aspects
of morality are felt by all even if they are ranked differently. By understanding this, we can share
in our commonality and ?????
Steven Pinker’s article on morality as an instinct is very revolutionary-especially in the
diplomatic world. Pinker asserts that if we continue to study morality as an instinct it will be
beneficial because we can understand that everyone, no matter what culture you are from, has the
same moral codes. Despite placing a different value on each aspect of morality, we all still feel
the same aspects. By posing the trolley-ology question, describing the anecdote of the British
woman, and telling us the different aspects of morality, Pinker ultimately proves that the science
of morality will bring humanity closer together.
Universal Aspects: An Analysis on “The Moral Instinct”
References
Pinker, S. (2008). The Moral Instinct. New York Times Sunday Magazine.
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