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For this semester (Spring 2001), I am taking a class entitled "Moral Psychology". It primarily deals with psychology's role in morality. After reading the first reading assignment with that class, I am beginning to believe that psychology is greatly needed for morality to work Moral philosophy does not always take psychology into consideration. Take Judeo-Christianity, for instance. Some would say that the religion expects you to be perfect morally. Now we all know that psychologically speaking that is impossible; whether it be from moral fatigue or forgetfulness. Some people respond to this by saying that God is a psychological realist; he realizes that people are not perfect and thus only expects you to try your best. Others say God does expect perfection, period. These two answers show the contrast of what can happen when psychological is and is not considered for a moral system. So the question becomes whether psychology should be considered when dealing with a moral system. Let's say you don't. This means that the system might end up with features that are not atainable by human beings. This could be because of biological and cognitive limitations that we as humans have, or it could be social limitations that are so engrained in our minds that it is impossible to ignore or overcome them. So is it right to require people to meet the demands of the impossible? What if a moral system does take into account psychology? What does that do? the biggest problem that could occur is that it could keep out certain moral beliefs that people want to be a part of the system. We can all think of moral rules that are impossible to kep but that we might think should be followed (for instance, the commandment that thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife). With psychology in mind we can't allow such morals to exist, no matter how much we want them. We also can't allow a universal moral system to exist. As mentioned above, sometimes morals are impossible to meet because of social beliefs that we have engrained in our minds. This might conflict with the belief of some group of people on the other side of the world who can hold that moral belief, keeping it from being universal and making it relative. Psychology would require a relative moral system with perhaps some moral beliefs that are universal. This is the only way to have moral beliefs that would allow cultural moral beliefs to exist. As with all things in biology, this topic is still being debated. It deals with the capacity of the human psyche along with religion and social beliefs. of these latter issues will keep this topic disputed for quite some time. |