Can morals ever be based solely upon emotions?

Question

People have gut feelings that give them emphatic moral convictions, and they struggle to rationalize them after the fact. These convictions may have little to do with moral judgements that one could justify to others in terms of their effects on happiness or suffering. They arise instead from the neurobiological and evolutionary design of the organs we call moral emotions.

Answer 1

absolutely

Answer 2

Once again, a question that draws the relativists out of the closet.

When you ask your question--before the additional information--the first thought to cross my mind is, "Why would we want morality based upon emotion?"

I think you are right that people often utilize emotional impulse to determine what they want to do, and they seek to find a good justification after the fact. But that isn't what morality is supposed to be.

Yes, there is an absolute morality--there are lots of absolutes. The quicker the relativists understand this, the sooner the world will be come a safe place to live. And we need to realize that the role of emotions in morality is the determination of whether we choose to do what morality requires.

Morality is not--never has been--never will be--just a matter of what the person chooses for himself. If that's all we mean, then in what sense does that define what we mean by the word "moral"?

Answer 3

I think the terms of the question you pose probably make the answer "no." Morality typically implies systematic application, as your suggestion of rationalization after the fact indicates. Accordingly, emotional or empathetic responses alone wouldn't constitute a moral system, but rather how the practitioner of those responses conceptualized them.

A good set of source material to poke around derives from "moral sense theory," in which some 18th-century philosophers tried to make sense of the moral implications of impulsive action.

Answer 4

some people morals are different from others. some people have morales that make them think sex out of marriage is wrong so they dont do it and if they do do it they might feel bad because they morales said they shouldnt have done it. Morals are just ways that people live by, but sometimes its hard to live by your morales and then live by how your emothions feels. morales are things that you learn in church or what your parents have raised you to do but emotions are things that you feel are right and wrong. morales cause also come from things that you learn. but as long as you feel what you did is right then you shouldnt worry about your morales even if your morales dont agree with your actions. because morally you might think its wrong to do something but if your gut instict is to do it then you should try to find a happy medium in between both

Answer 5

Morals are always based upon emotions. People sense or feel what they perceive as wrong and dictate those feelings or cast them upon the rest of humanity.

Answer 6

Yet more evidence that following a naturalistic/evolutionary path will lead one to destruction. Hmmmm, I feel like killing today. I guess that makes it right!

There is a such thing as objective truth. When the world remembers that, it will be a much safer place.