What do we understand by
morality? Is it by the book or by our heart? One of the earliest conversations
when this blog was coming up (in my mind) was with a professor who teaches
‘Ethics’ at a girl’s college in the New England area. She is in charge of
teaching a course to freshmen year about ‘ethics and morality’. Conversation
with her over a piping cup of chai with another dear friend was very
frustrating at some level but enlightening.
In her class, she wanted
to drive her students to the point of inherent morality, which exists
irrespective of external rules. So the dialogue in the class goes like this:
Professor: Suppose, you
have a car and you have a chance to steal it when no one’s looking. Would you
steal it?
Class: No. Perhaps there
would be police at the next traffic signal or the car would be traceable?
Professor: Suppose if
there is no police and no way to track the car….
There is a pin drop
silence in the class. Everyone is looking at each other.
Class: Of course we
would! Why would we not?
My dear friend did try to
steer the class towards their own conscience and what would it do to them if
they stole the car. However, these were not toddlers. They surely have been
taught about morality early on. The college was also under a religious fold and
hence the expectation out of the students to have ‘inherent morality’. But is
morality that inherent though?
Multiple concepts of
morality zoomed into my mind as I grasped this information. Is one’s morality
for oneself or for others? Does morality count when no one’s looking?
Unfortunately, in today’s life, we tend to think about morality and values
through a set of rules. If the rule maker is not watching, the morality doesn’t
count! Now, whether we believe that
rule maker is police, our society or God, it depends on us. Either way, our
morality comes out of fear. So, if the rule maker is absent, our morality goes
into the shit hole! Will you say so?
However, if one can look
at morality more through what our conscious would feel if we do a certain
thing, we can probably build our inherent morality or values our own way! Some
say, ‘moral integrity is the cornerstone to our humanity’. There isn’t a need
for a set of rules. Just our introspection over a cup of chai.…….
