This is something I posted as a comment on this very good blog, but I thought it worthy of it's own post (even if I do say so myself).
"The choices we make are limited or effected by the "programming" we receive from birth.
For example, when we got a kitten, my son and my girlfriend enjoyed making him chase his tail by waving it in his face. He started chewing the end of it. Now, years later, when he cleans his tail he chews it, making the fir into a spike so he looks like some kind of cat-scorpion.
This got me to thinking - we've managed to program our cat into doing something he wouldn't naturally have done. And even though we no-longer wave his tail in front of his face, he continues with this habit. Perhaps he thinks it's "right" to do it.
Human morals are the same, I believe. I had no morals when I was born. They were programmed into me. If I was brought up to believe (in isolation) killing other humans is a good thing, and I was given a sophisticated enough reasoning behind this, I'm not sure I wouldn't now be a murderer.
This is why people can behave to very different sets of morals, both thinking they are "in the right".
So when you say you choose to remain Jewish (see original comment) that choice is only made under the influence of heavy "programming".
Do I chose not to murder? Or is it that I have been programmed to believe murder is wrong?
Culture is basically programming. And people become very attached to their culture - like my cat is to chewing the end of his tail."
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Choice or Programming?
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4 comments:
We're defeinitely all heavily influenced by what happens to us in our early lives. How are parents brought us up (or not), whether they stayed together, whether we had any, what we were taught by the people around us, the things they did with us and made us do etc.
I don't know that we always have to remain like this though do we? Things happen that make us question what we believe in and how we behave and sometimes we change our views on things. I had a very similar conversation with my wife last night who told me I couldn't change my opinion on something!!
Not at all. Many people question their beliefs and the beliefs of those around them.
A computer can be reprogrammed. I'm sure I could train my cat not to chew his tail, if I eally wanted to.
But these all suggest an outside source is needed.
Humans can reprogram themselves, it seems. And this is what religious people hold up as evidence we are not animals, we are not machines, we something different - we have free thought, or consciousness.
What I would argue is, humans are programmed to reprogram ourselves. I would say this is the critical factor in us being able to adapt so well to any environment.
So where did this ability come from? Religious people would like to think it came from God.
Animals are born with certain instincts. This is behaviour pre-programmed by nature which is essential for survival. My kitten had an instinct to chase a piece of string (which we, of course, encourage), but that instinct was there at the start.
Humans have an instinct for adapting. In other words, making things up as they go along.
Civilisation is the result of thousands of years of adapting. The strongest civilisations survive, the weak fail. It seems a value for human life is key to a successful civilisation, and that's why we're now all programmed with that value at an early age by society.
I would say Christian values initially made those societies founded on it stronger and, therefore, more successful. The stronger civilisations grow and their values spread.
This is why we're so protective about what our children are exposed to. We know that anything they experience or learn at a young age will most probably stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Some of our programing makes us unhappy and therapy is a way of trying to look into the "software" of our mind, find the problem and reprogram it.
Therapy is like Norton Utilities - and just as ineffective!
I too have recently ditched all things Norton and am rejoicing in a complete lack of software incompatibilites right now.
Sadly I am very allergic to all things kitten and your post made me itch.
The point. The point? Ah yes. The best definition of culture I ever heard was by Brian Eno who said, 'Culture is everything you don't have to do.'
Thus food isn't culture but cuisine is; clothes aren't culture but fashion is.
Don't know what that adds to the post. Just showing off that I can quote Brian Eno I guess.
Laters.
There are persuasive arguments to be made that in fact there is something akin to an objectve morality.
What is morally right and wrong fundentally comes down to reasons. Therefore a morally right course of action is one supported by good reasons.
What I particularly like is the fact that understanding morality as grounded in reason escapes the confines of having a positivist approach to ethics- that what is right and wrong is so because it has been dictated by an authority, most commonly God.
Morality is therefore dynamic and not indefinitely set in stone (e.g. the Ten Commandments). This is something religion fails to come to terms with.
Anyway, an appeal to authority as I am a little hungover:
"The idea that moral laws derive their authority from God's authorship of them was dismissed convincingly by Plato more than two millennia ago. His question, updated for our monotheistic times, is: does God command what is good because it is good; or is what God commands good because he commands it? If he commands what is good because it is good, then things are already good or bad irrespective of what he desires and we don't need God to establish morality after all. But if what God commands is good only because God commands it, that would mean that anything could be good or bad, and we're just lucky that God doesn't command us to kill and torture. Ironically, start with the idea that you need God for ethics and you end up either proving you don't, or with the ultimate form of relativism: the idea that God could make it so that "anything goes" -
Julian Baggini.
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