Do People Have A Moral Sense?

In the 1980's, fads came, and then disappeared without notice. It is amazing how a lot of things get popular for no particular reason. Then, with no signal at all, the popularity of that item or idea is out the window like it was never around. Why is that? Why do ideas and trends come and go so quickly? There is no real answer to this question. The problem still stands that a lot of good ideas go out of fashion, before they should have. James Q. Wilson also has this feeling. However, he is not trying to say that big hair and makeup on guys should be back in style. Wilson is talking about morality and virtue. He believes it has been lost. People in this era no longer speak of virtue as a good thing. He tells us that virtue has acquired a bad name. He says that young people think virtue is the opposite of having fun, and that older people see it as a symbol of lost virtue that politicians use for political gain. However, unlike the trends of today, he is going to argue that morality is good, and actually, it is born into us. Wilson tells us that morality is inbred in use, it is not from culture, and it is in our genes. What do we call this? Wilson calls it 'The Moral Sense.' We will only be able to take a look at a couple of the chapters in Wilson's book. However, we will be able to help explain his thesis, and try to prove that there actually is a moral sense.

In chapter one, simply titled, "The Moral Sense," Wilson takes a look at philosophy. There are really two types of philosophy is the world. Classical, or ancient philosophy, and modern philosophy. Philosophers used to believe morality was in use at all times. They believed that man is by far a good-natured being. Aristotle said that man was naturally a social being. This idea has taken new form however in the modern era. Modern philosophers have a break with this tradition. Many of the philosophers in the last century or so have argued that the human behavior is anything but moral. All we do is have wars and kill millions of people. Obviously, quite a bit of difference in the thinking. Now if this were true, that man has no future, but to kill, and survive with no thoughts of others, it would be a very bleak world out there. However, Wilson tells us that most people are centered around the enduring facts of human nature. We worry about our families; we worry about establishing a lasting relationship, and raising children. Everywhere, ordinary men and women go about their daily lives making moral judgments along the way. So by far, we are by nature good people. Hopefully, the philosophers will start to go back to this type of thinking.

Another thought that Wilson gets to is the fact that people may make a mistake about human nature. One such thinking is that culture is everything, and the other is to think that it is nothing. A more reasonably idea is that culture does affect us, but it does not control us. We are who we are because nature and culture are mixed with our ideas. If we were completely controlled by nature, our morals would speak to us a lot louder than they do now. However, if we were completely controlled by culture, we would have no morals. How do we integrate both? Well, we can't just assume that each of us is affected in the same way by culture. Even two people, who grew up in relatively the same area, and culture, could have a lot of different views when it comes down to moral choice.

These two ideas have shown us that there is a sense about our morals. With philosophy, we have realized that man is by far a social being, and that we have a moral sense about us. Also, we have seen that culture is not everything in our decisions, but it does affect us a little. It is a mix, and that mix is created to form our moral sense. But the decisions that we make are reflected by our culture, yet there is still a general morality about it. No matter what culture you are from.

Wilson also takes a look at good character. What is good character? Well, we have a universal idea of what it is. There are a couple of different areas that show if a person has a good character or not. The first of those is to feel sympathetic toward others. If you are affected by what happens to another, you are, by most people's standards, a good person with a good character. Also, if we have self-control, that is another example of having good character. Our morality is the distance between what we want and what we ought to have. So someone with self-control is also thought of as having a good character. How does this relate to the moral sense? Well, when we look at having a good character, the idea of Altruism arises. This is what Wilson looks at in the final two chapters that I will be talking about. The chapters are, Sympathy, and Self-Control. We will start to look at Altruism, and how that deals with sympathy. Also, the question of, "Is altruism really altruism?"

Do people feel sympathetic to others, simply because they want others to be sympathetic toward them when they are feeling bad? So really they are helping themselves, and only thinking of themselves when they do good things or are sympathetic. Well, Aristotle had a definition of virtue. He said that there must be three things present. The first is that it must be a beautiful act. The second is that it has to be deliberate. The last item is that is has to be wholly voluntary. Now this is a lot to ask for in a virtuous act. However, a lot of people believe that most people are like this. Why do we help out someone who is stuck in the snow and help get him or her out? We may never see this person again, and the chance of them helping us in the future is slim to none. So this kind of an act must be virtuous. This idea is very true. While some people may think that we are only doing it because we expect others to stop for us when we are stuck is wrong. If we never help out anyone from being stuck in a snowdrift, who will know? When we get stuck, or break down, people when they drive by don't go, "Well that person never stops out to help others, and so I'm not going to help him." No. People do not act this way. People help out others, because our senses tell us to do so. It is, The Moral Sense.

We are now to Self-Control. Exactly what is self-control? Self-control is basically a choice that we have. We have certain things that we can have, either by law or by virtue. Then there are other things out there that are what you would call dangerous; things that we cannot have, or things that are bad. Our self-control is having to choose between these two different items. I am always reminded of the cartoon Tom and Jerry. In a lot of episodes, Jerry has the choice of doing something mean to Tom, or vice versa. What happens next? Well, a tiny devil on their left shoulder shows up telling them to do the bad things, be mean to that person. Then there is this tiny angel, our conscience, telling us to do what is right. However, in the cartoons, usually the devil beats up the angel, and Jerry will do something horrible to Tom. It's a choice of self-control. Humans are quite a bit different from Tom and Jerry. We do have to make choices, but our own little devil usually does not win out. Wilson tells us that self-control is only a problem when one is faced with a choice between an immediate pleasure and a more distant one that is of greater value. If we decline that fifth glass of beer, we avoid the hangover tomorrow. However, how many of us think about the hangover the next morning when we're at the bar with our friends? None of us. That is the problem Wilson says. Self-control is a problem precisely because time elapses. So we are always looking at the immediate future, and not to the long-run. However, most of us realize that for most things in our life that are pleasurable, we have to give up some immediate sacrifice. I don't like to get out of bed at eight in the morning to go to class. However, I know that by getting up and losing that immediate pleasure of sleep, I will help myself in the long run by passing the class. This is how most of us act with a good majority of our thinking, and our lives.

Self-control has been born in us. It is not something that is taught (for the most part). It is something that every culture has. For example, lets look at etiquette. Etiquette is something that is universal. We all have the idea that we eat with silverware instead of our hands, and we greet people accordingly to how we know them. Our idea of what silverware to use is a different story. That is something that comes from culture. We are taught what to eat with what piece of silverware. But the fact remains that we still all believe that we should have proper etiquette. Wilson also tells us that we must lean self-control. It is not something that we can just know right off hand. We all have self-control when we are born. It is a moral sense in us. However, we need to learn how to develop it in a certain way, and be able to use it wisely. This is where the idea of culture and nature are once again mixed. If we were just controlled by nature, we would use different types of silverware with the different cultures. If we were controlled simply by culture we would again eat only how our culture eats. However, since it is integrated, we all know that we need to use silverware. And, we also use the same types of silverware. What we have looked at is just a small amount of what James Q. Wilson stated. That there is a moral sense about us. It has been in our genes, and is mixed with our society. We are by nature good. We do, for the most part, have good characters. We are altruists, and most of us have a good idea of self-control. Wilson wants to start a new fad. However, hopefully his will be around a little bit longer than those fads of the 80's.