Reply to comment

You walk in a street and see a hungry beggar sitting in a corner helplessly and hopelessly. What kind of feelings first come to your mind? You have sympathy. You maybe want to give him one dollar with which you initially intended to buy a chocolate bar. However, after you consider that the man can earn money by himself because he is not disable, that the man is just too lazy to work, and that the man himself creates the misery and suffering he faces now, you give up your charity to him. In this case, your morality that is shaped by society tells you that you should help the poor beggar without any hesitation; but then, you question the meaning and necessity of your sympathy after you calmly and logically think the reason why the beggar faces such a unjust situation. Obviously, moral is derived from people’s unconsciousness and justice from people’s consciousness; therefore, moral and justice sometime may not coincide with each other.

In The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail, the author said that moral judgment tells people something is right or wrong without telling them why. Thus, when moral helps us make decision, it is an unconscious process. Rather than justice which people establish from carefully reasoning, moral can be innate.