As a social primate species, we modulate our morals with signals from family, friends and social groups with whom we identify because in our evolutionary past those attributes helped individuals to survive and reproduce. We do not just blindly concede control to authorities; instead we follow the cues provided by our moral communities on how best to behave.But the interesting thing in this article is that it nuances the Milgram experiments (where people were apparently asked to deliver huge electric shocks to other seeming-subjects) by noting that there is not only a conformity to authority thing going on, but that this is in conflict with empathy for suffering victims. Thus lessening the 'defence' that genocidalists, for example, might offer: that they were subsumed.
How Communities Shape Our Morals: Scientific American:
No comments:
Post a Comment