Morality
Published in
3 min readOct 7, 2015
- I found Lehrer’s readings insightful as to why we may act a certain way or choose certain decisions. He discusses how our morals help shape us to who we can become. He offers up the psychopath as an example as to why morals help us make a series of choices and remain empathetic to society. To him, a psychopath does shows “no morals, has damaged emotional ability to show remorse, and is detached from the reality of his or her actions.” (The Moral Mind, pg169.) The absence of these things can make a person preform heinous crimes or destroy personal relationships. All three of these items are important into helping us make the right decisions in life. We act on our morals in different ways. When faced with hard decisions, our moral instincts kick in to show us the proper way to proceed. Lehrer discusses the importance of thinking about the overall outcome and the best decision rather than what we think is best. I found this to be true in my daily life. There are times when I am faced with a situation where my moral decision may not be the best answer for the problem. For example, in Kids’ Club I am faced with kids learning the new common core math, which I believe is the wrong way to teach a student math, but I must still try to help them learn the way their teacher taught them. I cannot act on my belief and teach them a different method because common core may be the best way for that student to learn. Lehrer shows us that there are two steps into making moral decisions. The instinct is “first enacted by the emotional side of our brain” (pg.178) and tells us what we should do automatically do. It is then our “reasoning [side] begins to explain what the verdict might result in” (pg.178) allowing us to proceed with the action or change it. I believe that society should focus on this two-step process. I feel it would help in better decision-making and stop people from acting upon instinct. It would help make society think about societal issues and what would be right for the people rather than for themselves.
- In “The Brain Is an Argument”, I found the experiment with the undergraduate students and the large amount of cash to be the most interesting. The testing of the brain to see how it reacts to certain situations really intrigued me. These students had a certain amount of cash and were faced with options to buy certain items. When the eyes caught sight of something the student wanted, “the brain filled endorphins encouraging them to fulfill their desire” (pg. 200). However, when it was faced with “the reality of the purchase price, the brain activated parts that stimulate pain” (pg. 200). This just shows how we are constantly trying to fulfill the desire of something we want, but when faced with the reality of the situation we connect it to pain. The endorphins cause a sense of happiness that can be addicting at times resulting in making poor decisions based on our own self-need. I have seen this many times with the students at Kid’s Club. Everyday they have free play after their homework is done, however at 5:15 all the students are required to go outside and clean up. What will happen is some of the students will purposely rush on their homework or refuse to work on it to go and play a board game. I have to remind them constantly that this is homework time and that they can play after. Their brain is filled with the idea of playing that their endorphin level is high, however when I remind them of the reality that their homework is not done, they get mad or frustrated. Soon they are rushing or just waiting till 5:15 to go play. It can be very frustrating at times for me because I am there to help, but the idea of doing homework does not appeal to their desire.
