So, recently I have been wondering: where do morals come from?
When I was researching this idea, I was reading on Stoicism and other ideas from Zeno, the "chief Stoic", and I came upon something interesting.
During a discussion between the heads of the Socratic schools of thought, the stoics came to a conclusion, that from a metaphysical perspective, morals rely on physics.
So what does this mean? The idea is, that there is a structure to the nature of existence itself, and that morals, while different among people, are derived from this structure. While morals may change, they all believe that what they're doing is for the good of others, society, family, etc. This of course brings upon the idea, that there may be some form of "ultimate truth".
Thoughts?
Edit: People seem to be conflating certain sets of morals with the concept of morals themselves. This isn't regarding sets of morals, this is regarding the concept of morals themselves. Keep that in mind.
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Waste, stay with me here, waste is the root of all "evil", may sound strange but think of a sin and it is wasteful. Murder? You wasted that persons future productivity for themselves and family. Sloth? Again, wasted productivity. Disrespecting your parents? Wasted the effort they put into raising you. War? Probably the most wasteful thing you can imagine. Anything "evil" you can think of is wasteful. Live efficiently and you will live well, in line with any religion or moral structure you care to name. Weird huh? Still trying to come up with a good name for my new "religion", Anti-waster just doesn't sound holy enough for tax exemption you know? ;)
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Evolutionary biology.
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Because you opened this. you will get kissed on Friday by the person you love or like. Tomorrow will be the best day of your life. Do not break this chain. You have 2 minutes this is not a fake...apparently. Forward this to 15 people in the next 15 minutes and you WILL have the best day of your life tomorrow. You're number one crush will either KISS, ask you out, or call you. If you break this chain, the little girl named Kaitlyn who died 2 years ago on a car crash will be in your room TONIGHT! Good luck <<3, and your time starts, right know No Cheatin Haha
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The way you where raised has alot to do with it
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They are simply a set of rules we devised to create a situation whereby we can work together for mutual benefit.
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The heat of a million suns
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Space
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Edited by Doctor Electric: 11/12/2015 1:46:55 AMIt comes from a lot of things, it comes from religion, philosophy, various honor codes, etc., but they can be shifted to favor one's personality.
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I would say primarily the environment we are raised in, although I would argue that some comes from within ourselves.
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Here is a vid on morals it is pretty funny http://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
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Dammit it only took 10 seconds for me to find Christianity...
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Morals are sets of unofficial laws between groups of people, e.g. don't steal. Philosophy is the study of morals and what happens when you apply logic to a set of morals. While yes, all morals came from basically the same place, a mutual need to survive as a species, the more you study morals the more different and contradicting rules are, and finding unifying rules is harder. For every new breakthrough, more questions arise than are answered, so it seems to be getting farther away from a universal truth than closer. Anyway, just some of my thoughts on metaphysics (would this be meta metaphysics?). This is a great thought-provoking post.
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Your brain?
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Human concept. Evolution
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The bible
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Morals are ideas that we came up with based upon our reaction to negative emotion. You stole my bread, and I got very mad at you. Everybody in our community realizes that it makes each other mad to steal bread, so we deem it wrong to do so. Same with everything else
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Morals came about when humans decided it was more advantageous to build permanent homes rather than chase food in small families. Hammurabi's code is the oldest known set of written laws I believe, which were set when one guy went "yeah it would really suck if someone did that shit to me so I'm gonna make severe punishments if they do it to other people too". In my opinion, laws mold morals more than any religious text ever has.
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I think they should only come from us. Letting a belief/faith dictate morals removes much of the reciprocity.
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Our morals come from our knowledge of right and wrong.
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The reason we feel guilt is if we do something against our morals. As to which is more innate idk, and as to where they come from we're back to nature vs nurture
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To say morals come from nature, or to say they are subjective, is to say there is no morality at all. But the truth is, something can only be moral, if it does not go against God's will. There are three fonts of morality according to the catechism: 1. intention 2. moral object 3. circumstances Each is explained in detail in the link above.
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Morals come from the ideals of humans.
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Edited by Jello Monstr: 11/11/2015 1:44:04 AM*theowing rocks at you* n00b[spoiler]jk jk ily[/spoiler][spoiler]i have no idea[/spoiler]
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Morals come from philosophy. We decided what is right and wrong even though it is not truly fact.
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Some people credit religion for morals. Particularly my religion teacher. "Without God, the lord of our morals, morals wouldn't exist." To that, I reply, "Poseidon is the God of the sea. I know that Poseidon isn't real, but I know the sea is".