Is man a moral animal?

Question

Directions:Many situations have ocvcurred through history that Man's abiliy to treat his own kind in a moral way.(ex:wars,murder ,crime,the holocaust,terrorisme,etc...)
I would like for you to develop a theory to help explain how these incidents could have occurred.Relate your answer to the concept of morality.Try to be profound (deep thinking) and creative as possible.Pool some of your knowledge about the nature of man,leadership,power,authority,and group behavior.

Answer 1

Human beings have the capacity for moral judgment, but this does not mean that all humans will make good moral judgment all of the time. I believe it is safe to say that most humans make mostly good moral judgments most of the time, and that all humans make bad moral judgments at least some of the time. Nature is fundamentally diverse, so there are no fixed rules that apply to all human behavior. Each human is unique and fundamentally free, and every human act is fundamentally contextual – thus the moral meaning of an act depends at least partially upon the social context of the act. Thus the question "is humanity moral" is confused. Humanity is neither moral nor immoral, and no individual is completely moral or immoral. Only individual human ACTS are moral/immoral, and the judgment of whether a given act is moral/immoral depends to some extent on the context. The vast majority of people will agree that murder is immoral, but most people agree that not every instance of killing counts as murder. Accidents, self-defense, killing to protect another – all of these things complicate our judgments of moral/immoral to such an extent that there is often substantial disagreement over whether a particular act of killing is actually moral or immoral. Some believe in "justifiable wars" or "holy wars" etc., while others do not. Some believe that abortion is murder, but others do not. Some believe there are absolute right and wrong answers to these sorts of questions, and some do not.

So the bottom line is that there will probably never be complete agreement on what counts as moral vs. immoral; from any given individual's perspective, there will always appear to be someone committing immoral acts. We can also predict that there will probably always be some people (political leaders, religious leaders, influential people of various sorts) who have the power to intervene and prevent what they perceive as immoral acts. Depending upon one's point of view, these people will appear to be either hero's or villains (Hitler seems like the clearest example of a villain, and yet he is still a hero to some.) From the perspective of people in poor countries, the US and other industrialized countries are major villains because we consume a vast percentage of the earth's resources and extensively damage the ecosystem purely for our own greet and comfort. We kill lots of people, and we let lots of people suffer and die even though we have the power to help them. Meanwhile, many Americans see American government and American culture as the most humane on earth, and they see our way of life as being the greatest hope for all humanity. And so it goes.

Personally, I am an optimist; I think that humanity has the capacity to live in relatively stable peace, but I also believe that human existence is not fundamentally about peace and stability. Nature is fundamentally diverse and dynamic. Human existence is human potential, and there simply are no guarantees that this potential will always result in peace and joy. Growth is challenging and adventurous; challenge and adventure always imply genuine risk. So long as there is life, there is hope of growth and improvement, but the flip side of this potential is the risk of suffering, disappointment, and immorality. This is the fundamental human condition.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, morality is relative. Different religions and cultures have different morals, have a different definition of "right".
I think that a good percent of humankind is moral in that they try to do what is right by their standards.
The pity is, how do we KNOW what is right? We can't see the future. We can't know what's in the heart of another person. We can only do what we THINK is right... And that, my friend, leads to more destruction than happiness.