Morality as a biological construct

January 16th, 2023

That is a simple question really — what is morality, the knowledge (and practice, of course) of proper and improper actions? But that simple question brings another question: should we consider intentions and thoughts as moral or immoral? If they stay only in our mind, without any action taken — does it matter if what we think or want is correctly moral or not? I think it doesn’t matter what we think or dream or desire, as long as there is no doing or acting on it. So what we can judge are only actions, which as a matter of personal integrity should be the same as thoughts but let's not kid ourselves — I don’t think there is a person alive who didn’t have even one immoral or improper thought in his/her life. And as long as we exist as anatomically modern humans there was never such a saintly person. If anyone would claim such purity of mind, that would disqualify that person from being moral as that person would be a bold-faced liar.

So only actions matter in morality.

We all have an innate ability to know what is right or wrong —for as long as we are children (or insane). Then this ability changes dramatically based on the environment where and how we grow up. Of course — knowing and acting are two different things, even before cunning and striving for power becomes the goal. This is something we are born with — so our conscious morality is a biological construct. That is something that we developed throughout generations of evolution since we physically become humans about 100.000 years ago. And what was developed in all those generations has to be correct on a fundamental level for humanity — if that would be wrong, we wouldn't be here as people who (more or less) can exist within to constraints of society and especially among and with others. So most of the time after we grow up, we tailor our actions to fit within the narrow band of what is understood to be proper and correct. Our thoughts and desires stay our own, no matter how wrong or alarming they are.

Until of course, we accept the immorality of the actions of another person, or people — and let ourselves indulge in and act out what should have been only a figment of our imagination. That is when the trouble and chaos and disorder start.