Instinct or Not

Good vs Evil, right or wrong; is it genetic or are we taught what is good and bad? Biologist and cognitive neuroscientist Mark Hauser seems to think that evolution is hardwired into our moral instinct. Hauser talks about a scenario that could happen. " A healthy man walks into a hospital where five patients are awaiting organ transplants. " Hauser then asks is it morally acceptable to kill this healthy man for his organs. Without even thinking people would say no. Hauser thinks we come to this conclusion because our instincts are encoded into our brains by evolution. Hauser thinks millions of years of natural selection has made our universal moral grammar in our brains to make rapid decisions about ethical dilemmas. Hauser gives two examples of moral thinking:

" a train is coming down a track, and it is going to run over and kill five people. There is a person standing next to the track and can change the course of the train. Now if the person does this he or she will die but the other five will be spared. Morally people would think it is okay to spare the one life and save the five. "

Second scenario, a nurse comes up to a doctor and says"doctor we have five critically ill patients that all need an organ to survive. We do not have time to send out for organs, but a healthy person just walked into the hospital we can use his organs and save the five. "

Now in both cases one person dies and five are spared. Morally people would have a different reaction. People of different race, age, religious backgrounds,even educational backgrounds can not explain why the two cases differ for them morally.This article goes on to explain how children as young as 15 months old are impressionable to others beliefs.

I read this article in the magazine Discovery Presents THE BRAIN, it was written by Josie Galusiusz . Galusiusz interviewed Marc Hauser in the first part of the article. This article was named "The origin of Right or Wrong".

This really connects with chapter 1 in our psychology books. We learned about evolutionary perspective and how all humans share the same basic characteristics. Were our morals really part of operant behavior? Where, if a person was to be a hero and sacrifice his or her life for another there was fame to come with that. The people that were around to see the admiration others had for the hero,this would be a positive reinforcement.This would then be passed on to others. Where when a person killed another person there was negative attention brought upon the murderer and that person would be either killed or put in jail. That would of been a negative reinforcement.This showed others to behave and value human life. This also connects with the social cultural perspective. Socially and culturally it is known that killing is bad and putting someone Else's life before yours is good. I believe universally selfishness is looked down upon.