I believe that morality is innate. It's not an uncommon belief, I just did a quick net search and among those who believed morality is innate are John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, and Thomas Jefferson. It was a central tenet of the Enlightenment. It's a strong belief among many Christians, that God made us with an innate sense of right and wrong.
It's also true that selfish desires that have no regard for the rights of others are also innate. I think those desires emanate from the limbic system, and think the innate sense of morality is found in the neocortex. In children, the neocortex is less developed, it becomes more developed over time. When the neocortex is damaged, or defective, people are more likely to give in to their lower impulses.
I think moral education is certainly beneficial, but you can teach people to do almost anything - eat cows, not eat cows, eat pigs, not eat pigs, not kill anything at all, eat fish on Friday, bow to Mecca, not work on Saturday, on and on and on. Is that morality? Whereas, I think most of us would instinctively shy away from murder, rape, armed robbery, arson, and so on. Soldiers have to be taught to kill, and most do so unwillingly. |
