What Motivates You To Do The Right Thing?

Jill Cabral

&ust=1366480337276659

Introduction

What Will We Look At?

• What is considered the “right” thing.

• Different motives to do the “right” thing..

• Different schools of moral thought.

• The role religion plays in morality.

• What I think.

Is There a Difference Between Being Morally or Ethically Right?

• Ethics - The study of morality, good, bad, right wrong,

human conduct and behavior in a moral sense, moral issues.

• Morals - Define good right and wrong– Goodness – decency, kindness, honesty, integrity, righteousness– Right- Correct, true, accurate, exact, precise– Wrong- Incorrect, mistaken, erroneous, not right, immoral,

dishonest, unethical

What Is Considered The Right Thing?

• When I asked my self this question I came up with a few things that that I consider when deciding if something is right.

• Being honest • Living by my morals and values• Honoring my religion• Honoring the legal system • How may actions will effect others

What Do You Think?

• Here are a few suggestions– Religion?– The Law?– Morals and Values? – Karma?– Judgment of others?

A poll conducted on February 21st 2013 asked 29 people showed what they thought was most important to consider when

deciding on the right thing to do?

Results

• Religion 28% (8 people)• Honoring the law 17% (5 people)• Honoring morals and values 24% (7 people)• Karma 7% (2 people)• Judgment from others 14% (4 people)• Undecided 10% (3 people)

I Also Asked Where They Thought Their Morals Came From

(a question we all asked ourselves this

semester)

Results

• Parents 28% (8 people)• You are born with them 7% (2 people)• Religion 17 % (5 people)• Society 24% (7 people) • Media 17% (5 people)• Other 7% (2 people)

Personally

• Personally I don’t think I was born with my morals. I think I learned my morals and they changed through out my life from many different outlets. First I think the basics of my morals were learned from my parents and religion then the media and society began to play a role. I also think your morals are very dependent on your culture. We learned this semester through out readings about the Mormons.

Before We Go On Lets Look At a Few Different Schools of Moral

Thought.

Consequentialism

• Consequentialism divides right from wrong entirely based on the consequences of the action, the end justifies the means (Sinnott-Armstrong).

• Whether an act is based on right or wrong depends only on the results of the actions.

• The more good consequences an act produces, the better or more right that act is (Sinnott-Armstrong).

Different forms of Consequentialism

• Utilitarianism- People should should act in a way that benefits the welfare or well-being the most people.

• Hedonism- People should act in way that maximizes human pleasure.

Deontology

• When you consider deontology the consequences don’t really matter because moral judgment is contained in the act alone (Alexander).– Immanuel Kant built on

this idea creating the categorical imperative.

Categorical Imperative

• Categorical imperative is an absolute non negotiable universal moral law that holds up regardless of the circumstance. What's right is right and what is wrong is wrong always (Alexander).

Moral Rules to Follow When Considering Categorical Imperatives.

• When faced with a choice consider all the possible actions you could take.

• Imagine that the action you take becomes a rule that allowed everyone to act in the same way.– Ex. If you decided to lie to a friend under

categorical imperatives you are saying that it would be okay for everyone else to lie too.

What Would You Consider Yourself?

Now lets look at a different approach: Religion

Religion

• People all around the world center their lives around religion.

• Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islamic, Hinduism, Mormon, and atheist are only a few religions that exist around the world.

• People look to their religions for guidelines on how to live their lives– For example Christians Look to the Bible and the 10

Commandments for guidance or rules to live by.

How Does Religion Influence Human Morals?

• Through holy texts religions make explicit moral claims that their followers accept.

• Followers trust the source (Bloom).• Religion emphasizes certain aspects of morality. – Ex. Christianity specifically states “you should not

commit Adultery” (Bloom)• Religion appeals to human compassion and might

increase one’s empathy, caring, and love.

Is There Morality Without Religion?

• How do we know if religion has an effect on Morality?– A Study in 2010 argues “It is impossible to know

what morality would look like without religion. I would require a visit to a human culture that is not now and never was religious.” (Bloom)

– It is impossible to know for sure because even though someone who identifies as atheist they are still exposed to religion throughout their everyday life. (Bloom)

So then what do we do?

• Since researchers were not able to distinguish the religious from the non religious they took a different approach. – They compared the religious to the less religious.– In 2004 a study of this nature revealed that “the

secular are twice as likely to say that they feel like failures, whereas the religious are twice as likely to say that they are very happy with their lives.” (Bloom)

So What’s the Conclusion About Religion?

• It seams that they jury is still out and the topic of religion and morality is bases mostly on opinion rather than science.

What Do I think About Religion?

• While to strongly identify with my religion and I think it has played a strong roll in shaping my morals, I would have to disagree with someone who thinks religion doesn’t matter. Regardless of whether you identify with a religion or not it has affected you. If you identify as atheist you have consciously made a decision about religion and what you believe.

My Opinion

• I don’t think there is clear cut answer to what motivates people to act morally. I think it is different for everyone. For some people It may be strictly religion or the law that motivates them. But I think in most cases it is a combination of many factors, religion, morals, law, Karma, consequences, etc that people consider when confronted with a moral dilemma.

Works Cited

• Bloom, Paul . "Religion, Mortality, Evolution ." Yale University . (2012): n. page. Print. <http://www.yale.edu/minddevlab/papers/religion-morality-evolution.pdf>.

• Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, "Consequentialism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/consequentialism/>.

Works Cited Continued..

• Alexander, Larry and Moore, Michael, "Deontological Ethics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/ethics-deontological/>.

• Survey Conducted at 489 Main St on February 21

Works Cited Continued

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FkoEZisAm0

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOCmJevigw

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79hOZdh4PkQ

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT2A3kyYI98

Works Cited Continued

• Desnoyers, George. "Ethics and Morality ." 01 10 2010: 3-7. Web. 27 Apr. 2013. <http://www.endusmilitarism.org/ethicsandmorality.html>.