Moral Grammar

Building on Noam Chomsky's universal language theory, Marc D. Hauser, a Harvard biologist, has proposed that people are born with a neuralogically based moral grammar. Hauser says that this morality resulted from the survival edge that it provided. It is an example of "group selection and is thought to have emerged during the hunter-gatherer phase of human development.

Examples of innate moral grammar are the "trolley problems" identified by moral philosophers

Suppose you are standing by a railroad track. Ahead, in a deep cutting from which no escape is possible, five people are walking on the track. You hear a train approaching. Beside you is a lever with which you can switch the train to a sidetrack. One person is walking on the sidetrack. Is it O.K. to pull the lever and save the five people, though one will die?

Most people say it is.

Assume now you are on a bridge overlooking the track. Ahead, five people on the track are at risk. You can save them by throwing down a heavy object into the path of the approaching train. One is available beside you, in the form of a fat man. Is it O.K. to push him to save the five?

Most people say no, although lives saved and lost are the same as in the first problem.

The distinction is refered to as foreseen/intended. And it is thought to be innate and not learned because most people can't articulate it.

Other examples of moral grammar:

• It is more acceptable to kill animals than people.
• Events that happen close to us carry more weight than events that occur in a distant place.
• Altruism within the group.
• Fairness.

People are generally unaware of this process because the mind is adept at coming up with plausible rationalizations for why it arrived at a decision generated subconsciously.

Link: NYT