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I thought that this was a really great topic, and one of the more challenging to discuss. One of the things that frustrated me a bit during our discussion is that we kept coming back to defining morality as a set of universal rules that we all just somehow know to follow. I don’t think that it would be possible to define morality in this way, since it would be impossible for us to be born with knowledge about social interactions. More useful, I think, is to view morality as a mechanism, something that allows us to learn how to engage in behaviors that will help others and refrain from behaviors that would cause others harm based on social cues. What helping and harming others means specifically varies from culture to culture, which is why there does not seem to be any universal morality. What is universal however, at least for the majority of us, is our ability to read the responses of others to our behaviors to develop an internal code of which behaviors are acceptable and which behaviors are not. This internal code, I believe, is based entire on one’s experience of the feedback they receive in response to their past behavior, and thus it varies not only from culture to culture, but also from person to person. There are some behaviors that I consider morally correct that my sister does not, and vice versa, even though we were raised by the same parents in the same society. I don’t believe either one of us is immoral, but that we have received different cues about these behaviors and have learned to value them differently.

I think this idea of defining morality as a concept rather than in terms of a finite set of rules is an important one when considering cultural differences in moral standards. I believe that everyone, no matter their culture, has the innate desire to do what is right by the people around them. The differences come about in how they have learned to do this, and we must be respectful of these differences and recognize they are not a reflection of someone’s character, or whether they are moral beings or not.

To address the issue of animal morality, it seems to me that since morals develop as a result of social experience, animals that engage in social behaviors likely do develop a set of morals as a result of their social interactions. Even if this morality develops out of a desire to remain a part of the group, rather than an inherent desire to do “the right thing,” it isstill morality. And actually, this makes me wonder where our own sense of morality comes from. Do we learn the difference between right and wrong and act accordingly because we want to be good people, or do we do it because we want to be accepted by society? If the latter is true and a person is shunned by their society, what happens to their morality? Does this internal code somehow remain even though it is no longer being reinforced by social cues? I think this is a pretty interesting thing to think about.