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I.W.'s picture

morality as a social construct

In my anthropology class everything always comes back to the “socially constructed”. Gender is socially constructed. Emotions are socially constructed. Senses are socially constructed. It gets very tiring. But when asked the question of where morality comes from all I can think about is how it must be socially constructed. All this means is that it isn’t an inherent aspect of humanity; that it is something learned. We may not even be able to recognize that we are teaching it to the next generation, but we are in our actions and words. I personally don’t think that “morality” is an inherent aspect of human behavior. I do believe humans have an innate desire to protect those that possess similar genes as themselves, such as siblings and children, but I don’t think the desire to protect those outside of that circle is something we are born with. I think that like so much of how we act it is based on a story that has been passed down from the generations and generations that have come before us. I just find it impossible to believe that genetics could have selected for something so seemingly detrimental as morality. It goes against the whole concept of survival of the fittest. If not for morality the strong humans would be able to easily out compete the weaker ones. But I think the use of morality comes in that it allows humans to move forward intellectually. By removing the constant competition it gives an opening for people to think less about surviving and more about exploring the world around them. But this is something learned by children when they discover that it is so much easier to share then get yelled at by adults or told that they shouldn’t laugh when another child is teased because they could be next.

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