{"id":958,"date":"2018-04-20T18:08:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T18:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/?p=958"},"modified":"2018-04-24T18:20:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T18:20:55","slug":"let-true-morality-stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/morality\/let-true-morality-stand-up","title":{"rendered":"Let True Morality Stand Up!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Basically, two \u2018moralities\u2019 can be distinguished: cognitive (thinking) and emotional. However, this is a purely conceptual, abstract distinction. Reality consistently shows them intermingled.<\/h3>\n<blockquote><p><strong>The relevance<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>is enormous. \u2018Morality\u2019 is the basis of culture. Almost all important decisions carry within them a factor of morality, or better: moralities.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Stress\/distress\u2019 is in all cases related to an emotionally-moral dilemma: Should I do this or that? Should I care for keeping my job? Should I try to do things as well as possible in non-optimal circumstances?&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Without moral dilemmas, there is no psychosomatics, no depression nor anxiety\u2026 But there would also be no happiness, no joy, no heroism, no gratefulness\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>A soldier in context of war<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Two enemy sides, a revealing situation through the extremes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If a soldier intentionally kills a bunch of fellows, he is considered a murderer, court-marshalled, executed.<\/li>\n<li>If a soldier intentionally kills a bunch of enemies, he is considered a hero and gets a medallion.<\/li>\n<li>With the same victims but the soldier being from the other camp, he is treated in the opposite way.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What result \u2013 which bunch getting killed \u2013 is right or wrong? A Martian wouldn\u2019t make the difference. Purely cognitively, the Martian may be correct. Emotionally, we don\u2019t generally see it this way.<\/p>\n<p>=&gt; two \u2018moralities\u2019?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Brainy stuff<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the brain, we see specific parts being activated when a person is in a cognitively moral situation (*) versus an emotionally moral one (**). Say:<\/p>\n<p>A: You get to kill either 1 or 5 unknown persons, by pushing button \u20181\u2019 or \u20185\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>B: You get the choice to smother your own child or let others kill 5 persons.<\/p>\n<p>DON\u2019T mentally do this exercise please. The point is that the first situation is \u2013 again \u2013 a mostly cognitive dilemma; the second a mostly emotional one.<\/p>\n<p>Looking inside your brain, very different things would be going on. Your decision would probably be the opposite in A versus B. Yet it would <em>in both cases<\/em> be the most human one, therefore the morally correct. More specifically, the brainy stuff also doesn\u2019t show us which one is \u2018right\u2019: cognitive or emotional morality.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Conclusion: there is no \u2018True Morality\u2019<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There is a human one.<\/p>\n<p>We are no robots.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s keep it this way.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>So, what is \u2018human moral progress\u2019?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I think the answer \u2013 at least the direction \u2013 is twofold and clear:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>At the individual level, being-moral is being-human, as completely as possible, entailing cognition and emotion. Then, diving into the pool of human-ness. Moral progress at this level results from doing your best to be-human, completely, thus also within the boundaries of our evolution as a species even as we try to transgress these boundaries.\u00a0A point of departure may be a synthesis of the <a href=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/aurelis\/five-aurelian-values\">five \u2018aurelian\u2019 values: depth, openness, respect, freedom, trustworthiness<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>(Here one can see another level: the \u2018cultural\u2019. In my view, this is in practice something like the individual, in theory something like the universal.)<\/li>\n<li>At the universal level, \u2018morality-as-concept\u2019 lies in clear-cut, abstract thinking about this. Such thinking is also <em>about<\/em> emotion, <em>without<\/em> emotion. Key question: what is \u2018the good\u2019 and how can it be attained for as many as possible? This is: how can one let humans \u2018be-human, as completely as possible\u2019 \u2013 this is: be-moral \u2013 as well as possible? At this level, moral progress lies in the quality of the abstract thinking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><strong>I didn\u2019t say it would be easy.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(*) frontopolar cortex, medial frontal gyrus, right anterior temporal cortex, lenticular nucleus\u2026<\/p>\n<p>(**) right medial orbitofrontal cortex, medial frontal gyrus, cortex surrounding the right posterior superior temporal sulcus\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div data-object_id=\"958\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkwrap cbxwpbkmarkwrap_no_cat cbxwpbkmarkwrap-post \"><a  data-redirect-url=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\"  data-display-label=\"0\" data-show-count=\"0\" data-bookmark-label=\" \"  data-bookmarked-label=\" \"  data-loggedin=\"0\" data-type=\"post\" data-object_id=\"958\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarktrig  cbxwpbkmarktrig-button-addto\" title=\"Bookmark This\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"cbxwpbkmarktrig-label\"  style=\"display:none;\" > <\/span><\/a> <div  data-type=\"post\" data-object_id=\"958\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguestwrap\" id=\"cbxwpbkmarkguestwrap-958\"><div class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguest-message\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguesttrig_close\"><\/a><h3 class=\"cbxwpbookmark-title cbxwpbookmark-title-login\">Please login to bookmark<\/h3>\n\t\t<form name=\"loginform\" id=\"loginform\" action=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-login.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-username\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_login\">Username or Email Address<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-password\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-remember\"><label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label><\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-submit\">\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button button-primary\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basically, two \u2018moralities\u2019 can be distinguished: cognitive (thinking) and emotional. However, this is a purely conceptual, abstract distinction. Reality consistently shows them intermingled. The relevance is enormous. \u2018Morality\u2019 is the basis of culture. Almost all important decisions carry within them a factor of morality, or better: moralities. \u2018Stress\/distress\u2019 is in all cases related to an <a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/morality\/let-true-morality-stand-up\">Read the full article&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<div data-object_id=\"958\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkwrap cbxwpbkmarkwrap_no_cat cbxwpbkmarkwrap-post \"><a  data-redirect-url=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\"  data-display-label=\"0\" data-show-count=\"0\" data-bookmark-label=\" \"  data-bookmarked-label=\" \"  data-loggedin=\"0\" data-type=\"post\" data-object_id=\"958\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarktrig  cbxwpbkmarktrig-button-addto\" title=\"Bookmark This\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"cbxwpbkmarktrig-label\"  style=\"display:none;\" > <\/span><\/a> <div  data-type=\"post\" data-object_id=\"958\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguestwrap\" id=\"cbxwpbkmarkguestwrap-958\"><div class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguest-message\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguesttrig_close\"><\/a><h3 class=\"cbxwpbookmark-title cbxwpbookmark-title-login\">Please login to bookmark<\/h3>\n\t\t<form name=\"loginform\" id=\"loginform\" action=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-login.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-username\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_login\">Username or Email Address<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-password\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-remember\"><label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label><\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-submit\">\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button button-primary\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/106-1.jpg?fit=960%2C560&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fdiq-fs","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":993,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions\/993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}