Day 6 ~ Morals

I find morality a complicated subject. On the one hand there is supposed to be a natural law, a common ground for all humankind to know what can be done, and especially what should not be done. On the other hand, the "good Samaritan study" indicates that our behavior is highly dependent on our circumstances. That would lead to suggest a range of moral behaviors for the same individual. In other words: given the best of circumstances, one can easily be moral, but given a different set of circumstances, the same person could fall into a less moral side of the spectrum. For example: Would you cheat in an exam? High moral standards would say no. Now, how about a math exam if you know you'll never be taking math again because you are heading to art school? Perhaps you still say, "No, study beforehand and you don't need to cheat." OK, let me throw in a couple more "circumstances." How about you had a terrible teacher? Or perhaps a difficult family situation? Still not convinced? Let's add that you are at a very difficult school, and you know that other schools would have students pass with a much easier exam than the one you are facing. Would you do it? Perhaps by now, I have bent your principles a bit and you are leaning toward cheating with a fair amount of justification. You will not be harming anyone anyway... But let's just think that this exam will qualify you for a program that admits a limited number of participants. So by you making it, another student will be left out. Perhaps the one who didn't cheat. Now what? How do you decide? If we could zoom forward in time, we would find the cheating student having a wonderful life as a result of making it to that program. Likewise, the honest student doesn't have a good life because he was left out from the program. That is why I say morals are not easy to tackle. This all reminds me of Groucho Marx's quote: "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."