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As reported in the New York
Times recently, biologist Marc Hauser proposes in Moral Minds that the human
brain has a genetically shaped mechanism for acquiring moral rules. It is,
he says, a universal grammar similar to the basic neural machinery we possess
for learning language. In another book, Primates and Philosophers,
Primatologist Frans de Waal writes that the roots of morality can be seen in
the social behaviour of monkeys and apes. His argument stems from the
observation that all social animals have had to constrain or alter their
behaviour in various ways for group living to be worthwhile. But are these
just armchair musings or is there any evidence backing up such views. Looks
like there is
Consider chimpanzees, for
instance. These animals can't swim. Yet in zoos where they are kept in
environments separated from spectators by a circular water moat, it's been
seen time and again that often one of them will drown in an attempt to save
another chimp who may have fallen in . A more controlled lab experiment
involving rhesus monkeys is even more revealing. To begin with, scientists
taught a few of them that they could get food by pulling a chain-- but that
it would simultaneously also deliver an electric shock to another monkey.
Some monkeys ended up starving themselves for several days.
By extrapolation, researchers believe such
inbuilt traits are part of human inheritance since both primates and homo
sapiens arose out of a common ancestor. They also conjecture that in humans
it has subsequently developed much more over time and become increasingly
refined to evolve into codified ethical norms. Perhaps it's also the reason
that when we began thinking about why we generally follow an internal
ethical standard instead of behaving otherwise, we began ascribing its
source as a reflection of the divine. And that this then resulted in the
birth of religiosity, in a unique twist to the cliche that man created God.
But now that our species can
be said to possess an inherent moral voice, can we look forward to a rebirth
in our understanding of this dimension? The answer is not only that we can,
but we ought to. That's because not doing so would be as antithetical to our
nature as abstaining from food, sex or survival is. We would also know that
doing something for the greater good is not a learned response but comes
naturally from within. That, instead, it's evil which is a nurtured behaviour and can be unlearned. It's a pretty good thought. |
