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Running Head: SOURCE OF MORALITY

The Source(s) of Morality

Lindsay G. Aiken

Glen Allen High School

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Introduction

Morality is the capstone on which modern, civilized society is held

together. It is the basis for both our civil codes and our general treatment

towards other human and nonhuman beings. Morality is what halts humanity

from tipping over the precipice into anarchy. With this importance in mind, it is

easy to understand the growing curiosity and motivation to understand the

mechanics behind morality. This search spans across the topics of psychology,

culture, and even religion. Even though people are looking in many different

places and fields, they are all aiming to answer the same questions: What is the

source(s) of morality, and if possible, how can we influence it.

Euthyphro’s Dilemma

Between 1509 and 1511, Plato created an ancient dialogue between the

philosophers Socrates and Euthyphro meant to explore the subject of

piousness. In this fictional dialogue, Socrates questions, “Is the pious loved by

the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?”

(Origin of the…). In modern terms, we can understand this dilemma as follows:

Is something morally good because it is willed by God or does God will

something because it is morally good?

At the center of this layered question that Plato has created is one simple

one: What is the source of morality? Is it imbedded within religion or does it

simply coexist with it? Throughout this paper this concept will be explored in
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depth alongside other possible explanations and hypotheses which attempt to

find the source of morality.

What is Morality?

This question is not commonly disputed between researchers as other

questions related to morality often are, because it is just a simple definition.

According to a paper published at the University of San Diego, morality is “the

system through which we determine right and wrong conduct” (The Nature of…).

There is a common misconception in the public between morality and ethics.

When people hear “ethics” they commonly think of it associated with the

definition that morality carries. However, ethics is actually not a synonym of

morality. Instead, ethics is “the philosophical study of morality” (The Nature

of…).

Morals are the standards of behavior that modern society uses in order to

keep our society stable and conducive to positive styles of living. We use morals

to determine “right” and “wrong” behavior. Even though what is “right” and

what is “wrong” may fluctuate over time based on what morals are being

enforced, the concepts continue to live on and grow.

Morality Over Time

“Morality describes the particular values of a specific group at a

specific point in time. Historically, morality has been closely
connected to religious traditions, but today its significance is
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equally important to the secular world. For example, businesses

and government agencies have codes of ethics that employees are
expected to follow” (Morals).

One of the best examples of how standards for morality has changed are

the morals and attitudes surrounding premarital sex. Back in 1969, the

National United states Gallup poll recorded sixty-eight percent of people

believing it to be wrong for a man and woman to have sexual relations before

marriage. However, by 2011, the most recent Gallup poll, sixty percent of people

believe that it is okay to have sexual relations before marriage (Americans’

views, 13). Morals surrounding premarital sex still exist, they have just shifted

over time as society has shifted.

How Does Morality Develop?

According to Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) children develop morality

within five stages. Stage one is when right and wrong is only associated with

good and bad. Children move into stage two when right and wrong are

determined by what others tell them. In stage three the child begins to adopt

their family’s moral values. Stage four marks when the child begins to question

what they have been told and figure out their standings on moral issues.

Finally, in stage five, the teen starts to care more about the morals of their peer

group and the world at large than their immediate family (Bretzinger et al.) This

theory of moral development supports the argument that morals are not
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completely innate and do rely on environment and social learning to develop

fully.

What Creates Morality?

This question sparks a debate within many communities including, and

not limited to, religious, scientific, and psychological. On a website supported by

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the writer acknowledged that a list

of potentially correct sources of morality includes culture, religion, feelings, pain

and pleasure, interests, rationality, rights, relationships, and character (What

Makes Things, 2018). This list of possible sources does little to narrow anything

down. However, since there is no research completely disregarding any one of

them they must all be considered and acknowledged.

Another website, again supported by the University of San Diego, did not

disagree with the above source, but it gave names to every potential source of

morality. This list of theories includes Moral subjectivism, Cultural Relativism,

Ethical Egoism, Divine Command Theory, Virtue Ethics, Feminist Ethics,

Utilitarianism, Kantian Theory, and Contractarianism (The Nature of…).

Cultural Relativism is a theory which believes that morals vary from

culture to culture due to variables such as “religion, social ecology… and

regulatory social institutions such as kinship structures and economic markets”

(Grahm et al., 2016). One example of a cultural divide in morals is that the

western culture conceptualizes immoral acts a harmful acts, while the Chinese
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culture conceptualizes immorality to be associated with uncivilized actions

(Grahm et al., 2016).

Ethical Egoism is a theory which believes that human beings develop

their morals through selfishly considering what is right for them (Ethical

egoism, 2018). This theory helps explain why humans are sometimes able to

shift their moral standing if it benefits them or someone close to them without

much inner turmoil and suggests that morality is then tied closely with survival

instincts and not its own concept.

Divine Command Theory is the belief that an action is morally good if it is

the will of God (Divine command, 2018). Those who believe in this theory would

have easily been able to answer Euthyphro’s Dilemma. Under this theory

religion and morality are directly correlated and morality is entirely dependent

on the guidelines that religion sets.

Virtue Ethics theorizes that morality stems from virtues such as courage,

truthfulness, modesty, etc. This theory corresponds heavily with cultural

relativism as specific virtues are stressed at different levels within different

cultures (Virtue ethics, 2018).

Feminist Ethics is a more radical concept claiming that traditional views

of ethics have largely overlooked women’s perspective and those who believe in

it seek to holistically look at ethics to determine right and wrong. Feminist

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ethics aims to increase the value of overlooked morals such as “relationships,

responsibilities, particularity, and partiality” (Feminist ethics, 2018).

Utilitarianism theorists believe that the most moral choice to make is the

one which results in the most “utility” or well-being (Utilitarianism, 2018).

Utilitarianism fits in very well in a democratic society as they believe that the

popular well-being is the most important goal.

Kantian Theory dictates that reason should be used to determine how

people behave. Immanuel Kant, the theory’s creator, believed the only true good

was good-will but other actions can be considered “good” if they are performed

out of duty to the moral law (Kantian ethics, 2018).

Contractarianism is a moral theory which believes that morals derive

their power and “goodness” from contract or mutual agreement (Cudd &

Eftekhari, 2017). Ergo, an action or decision is only “good” because we as a

society have collectively agreed that it is.

The Moral Brain

A recent focus in Moral psychology has been locating a hypothetical brain

structure responsible for moral decisions, or, in other words, a moral center of

the brain. However, it would not due to declare brain structures working

together to produce moral decisions as a “moral brain”.

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“finding the uniquely moral brain would mean finding brain regions
that are not only dedicated exclusively to moral cognition but also
dedicated to all of moral cognition, across diverse moral contexts
(e.g., harm, fairness, loyalty, respect, purity). In other words, the
moral brain would have to manage only moral judgments and all
moral judgments” (Young & Dungan, 2012).

Current studies have not been able to isolate one part of the brain

responsible for only and all moral decisions. Actually, they are closer to

genuinely ruling out the “moral brain” theory altogether based on the findings

that have been accumulated.

What researchers have found is that there are many components in the

process of the brain processing moral dilemmas and coming to make moral

decisions. The two biggest components are parts of the brain that deals with

emotional and social processes (Young & Dungan, 2012).

Using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) technology, this

study was able to discover that after being questioned with a moral scenario,

subjects were seen to be using two main structures of the brain to come to their

conclusions: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the right temporoparietal

junction (Young & Dungan, 2012).

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) is “a key region for emotionally

mediated moral judgments” located in the frontal cortex and commonly

associated with risk, fear, and decision making. It is hypothesized that because

the VMPC is an area of the brain associated with emotional processing that it
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plays a part in on emotionally charged decisions such as “do not hurt others”

while other parts of the brain consider the logistics of the decisions (Young &

Dungan, 2012).

The right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) is “is a critical node in this

neural network [which] selectively process[es] mental state information during

moral judgment,” is located between the temporal and parietal lobes and is

commonly associated with processing different possible perspectives and social

cues (Young & Dungan, 2012). When, perhaps, attempting to determine the

morality of a decision someone else made, the RTPJ would assist in seeing the

situation from their point of view and from the point of view of the people that

the decision affected. Essentially, it allows you to see and judge the decision

within the context that the decision was made.

Another brain structure that has been found to be active during all moral

decisions using fMRI scans was the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC). The

DMPFC is located in the prefrontal cortex and is associated with “self-referential

processing, thinking about other people and processing ambiguous information”

(Parkinson et al., 2011).

While there still remains substantial research to do on the brain

structures involved in morality, it is largely safe to say that there is no solely

moral brain natural to human kind. Therefore, this research supports the

argument that morality is not a natural part of the human experience and,
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instead, has been created and fine-tuned over time in order to bring stability to

civilized life on earth.

Religion’s Influence on Morality

The argument on whether or not Religion has a role in morality revolves

around both the concept of Euthyphro’s Dilemma and the Divine Command

Theory. For the purposes of this review it boils down to the question of if religion

created morality or if religion was formed alongside the preexisting concept of

morality.

Those that believe that religion created morality argue that without God,

moral values would not exist and the fact that moral values and concepts do

exist is proof enough that God does exist. They believe that God and religion are

the basis that moral values are calibrated on and therefore Religion must have

come first and created morals later (drcraigvideos, 2015).

It would logically follow then that religious people are instantly more

moral than nonreligious people. However, studies such as one reported on by

Emily Underwood which conclude that “Religious and nonreligious people are

equally prone to immoral acts” (Underwood, 2011). Divine Command Theorists

counter this evidence by claiming nonreligious people are equally moral only

because religious people dominate the culture and set the moral standards for

everyone, not only their own religion (drcraigvideos, 2015).

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Religion has been proven to increase levels of morality with a

phenomenon called the God Effect. In a study done testing levels of morality

regarding money, one group of people were verbally primed with religious words

in nonreligious contexts and the second group was not. It was found that the

first group was more likely to be more generous/moral. It can be inferred from

this that religion can have an effect on morality, even if it is proven not to be the

source of it (McCauley, 2012).

Other Influencing Factors of Morality

During a different study, scientists tested a group of people verbally

primed with religious words against a group primed with legal words. Again,

neither the religious or legal words were used in their respective contexts. The

study found that the “legal institutions effect” was equally as effective as the

“God Effect.” It was even found that the presence of a “picture of two eyes on the

wall” was found to increase levels of morality. (McCauley, 2012).

It can be inferred from these findings that effectiveness of the God Effect,

Legal Institutions Effect, and the eyes was due to the participants being

reminded that they either A) belonged to a group that has standards and/or B)

that they are being watched by members of those groups.

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Conclusion

Based on the research done in this paper it is reasonable to argue that

the most likely source of morality is the culture and environment that one is

raised in. Where and in what environment a child is raised (aka. Cultural

Relativism Theory) was the only variable which predicted variations in morality

with any level of consistency.

The source is not a physiological brain structure as the fMRI scans were

unable to locate any specific structure dedicated specifically to morality. And,

experiments were able to show that religious and nonreligious people are

equally as moral and legal institutions were just as effective as religious

institutions when influencing morality. Therefore, it is likely that religion is not

the sole creator of morality as well.

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Research List

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Cudd, A., & Eftekhari, S. (2017, March 15). Contractarianism. Retrieved April

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McCauley, R. N., Ph.D. (2015, April 19). Moral Motivation and God's Rewards.
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