My take on the origins of morality

1. Seeingall the injusticesinthe world,made me thinkwhypeople woulddosuchbadthings.Iwondered
why some people wouldharmothersknowingly,soIstartedthinkingaboutmoralityandwhere it
comesfrom.
The road to answeringthese waslongandneededpreparation.FirstIneededadefinitionformorality,
so I definedmoralitybyhaving todothat whichisgood and nothavingto do that whichisbad.This
onlyledtomore questions:whatmakesanactiongood?Andwhatmakesan actionbad?
I definedgoodactionsasthe actionsthat benefitusandour societyandbad actionsas actionsthat
harm us or our society,sofromthispointof view moralityprocureswellbeing.Everybodycaresabout
wellbeingatleasttheirown,andwhat’sgoodforsocietyisultimatelygoodforthe individual,aswe are
social beings.Thismeansthatmoralityisderivedfromourpursuitof wellbeing.We seekwellbeing
because we wantpleasure andwantto avoidpain;whyshould we seekpleasure andavoidpain?There
are no justificationsotherthanthatwe just do.
In Grade Eleven,myphilosophycurriculuminvolvedtheoriesforthe originsof morality.There were
fourtheoriespresented,the one Isupportedwasamongthem, andIwas excitedtolistento
everybody’sopinioninmyclass.Iwas readyto argue my pointof view if I hadto. At the endof the
lessonthe teacheraskedwhichtheorywe thoughtexplainedthe originsof morality.Istatedmine and
explainedwhyIbelievedso.She toldusheropinion:thatall of themcame togethertoexplainthe origin
of morality.Iwasn’tconvinced.Ipresentedanargumentexplainingthatthe othertheorieswere a
byproductof the theoryIsupported.Asif mytheorywas the rootsof a tree uponwhichthe other
theoriessproutedasbranches.Istatedthatthere wasno situationthatI couldn’texplainbymy
argument,soshe askedme to presentanexample.Irepliedbysayingthatif presentedwithanexample
I couldtrace it backto my original theory.Iexplainedsomeexamplesandwhyat firstglance theymight
seeminoppositiontomytheorybutwouldinfact supportit. The bell rangsignalingthe endof ourclass
and the beginningof the break.
Thisis the basisformy interpretationof morality,whichisimitiallysubjective.Since the basisisthe
same for everyone,we canconclude thatwhatis thenbuiltuponthisbasisisobjective;we all have the
same basis:caring aboutwellbeing.Thisismyanswerforwhere moralitycomesfrom, butwhatis
morality?Isitabsolute?Ithoughtso; I thoughtthatgood and evil were absolute,butIwaswrong.Good
and evil overlap,andtheyare oftennotclear.Ithinkmoral actionsdependonthe circumstancesand
deferfromsituationtoanother.The same yearwiththe same philosophyteacher;we were discussing
moral absolutes.A friendof mine andIbelievedthatgoodandevil are subjective contrarytowhatthe
restof our classand the teacherthought.We triedexplainingourstance byprovidingexamplesone of
whichisthat lyingisbad,but if a criminal askedsomeone weretheirnextvictimis,lyingbecomesthe
moral thingto do
Moralityiscomplicatedandansweringmoral questionsisextremelyhard,andIam sure there are still
a lot of questionsIneedtoanswer;Ibelieve it’snotimpossiblewiththe use of skepticismandcritical
thinking.