Moral First Draft

Where do our morals come from?

This is a question I get a lot. It’s one of those, if you don’t believe in God, where do you think morals come from questions.  The answer, for a naturalist like a Humanist, is that we evolved to have morals.  They aren’t magical things. There are, in fact, common human morals that are pretty consistent across cultures.

Jonathan Haidt – an evolutionary psychologist, and others, have posited a moral foundations theory, which basically states that we evolved to have morals. More specifically, they posit that there are several innate psychological systems that form the foundation of intuitive ethics. The variations of morals we see around the world are attempts by humans to create cultures that support these innate intuitive ethics we all seem to share by virtue of being born human.

You can read more about this theory at:  http://moralfoundations.org/ And/or get the book: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathon Haidt.

The innate psychological systems they claim form the basis of our morality are:

• Care/Harm
• Fairness/Cheating
• Liberty/oppression
• Loyalty/betrayal
• Authority/subversion
• Sanctity/degradation

When I read through this list – I agree – but I do think our sense of compassion seems to underlie quite a bit about this.  Compassion for self mostly. After all, when you look at this list, it’s clear why we as individuals would care. If someone causes us harm by cheating, oppressing, betrayal, subversion etc, we are harmed.  And, if we are cared for through the fairness of others, given autonomy etc, we are helped, for the most part.

It’s compassion for others combined with rational thinking that allows us to understand that others have similar responses to ours and that we can benefit when we help others. Which is why when people think rationally but don’t add in compassion, their morality seems so askew to the rest of us.

Humanism, it’s not just about critical thinking. It’s also about a compassion based ethic. For ourselves and for others.

Mindfulness in everyday life

3 ways to be mindful in everyday life.

Humanism is not an abstract philosophy. It has real world and immediate implications for how you choose to live your life.  In order to be a truly moral person it is important to think.  The question is what should you think about and how can you think in a way that improves your life instead of causing you to get into a endless thought rut.

Here are 3 ways you can think about your everyday actions that will help you to be more mindful and to gain greater enjoyment from life at the same time.

1) Think about what is moral. Being mindful isn’t helpful if it is selfish. Think about what you are doing as a question of morality and you will automatically be more mindful. You will also feel better about who you are as an individual.

2) Start with small things. Like – do you return your shopping cart and why at the supermarket? Are you smiling and making eye contact with people at the supermarket?  Choose one thing at a time to work on that you do multiple times a week and you will find it not only effects your mood immediately, it will also become habit forming because you get to practice it often. These habits will also transfer over to other areas of your life as you experience the benefits of a more mindful approach.

3) Remind yourself to be compassionate with the jerks in your life. When we are dealing with a negative situation, our focus is often on how to defend ourselves. When you find yourself getting stressed and defensive, remind yourself to think compassionately about the person who isn’t behaving properly. Don’t insist they behave better, they aren’t capable of it and insisting that they do is part of why the conflict is persisting. Just compassionately accept that for whatever reason, they are incapable in this moment of behaving better. Forgive them and move on. This will help you feel better immediately and help you navigate these difficult situations in a way that you will feel good about instead of beating yourself up afterwards for what you could have or should have said. Feelings of compassionate eliminate that need.

If you want to learn more, consider my Humanist life skills course – Living Made Simpler. (http://humanisthappiness.com)