The nature of morality

Simply put, I think morality originates from a feeling of compassion towards other sentient beings. Humans as social animals have developed the ability to recognise suffering in their fellow creatures (human or non-human). Where other carnivores would look at a wounded animal and see an opportunity to feed, a human would additionally be able to feel pity for it. I believe that this is something that is inborn in most people (although psychopaths prove that it isn't an essential human trait). I think this awareness led to the first moral ideas, wanting to prevent suffering and to treat others the way we would want to be treated ourselves. What do you think?

It's personal for all things. The larger "morals" such as not committing murder, obviously overlap with other humans (not that this makes them immutable). But the smaller "morals" such as not interrupting someone when they are on the phone vary from person to person and often comes down to individual personality.

What is morality? Is it instinctual or something learned? Something in between that begins first as a primal notion but then comes to fruition with gained knowledge?

^I'm of the last line of thought. That the general notions of good and evil are native to our characters but can be chipped away at (or solidified) by our culture's constantly evolving ethos.

Think of someone born having instinctual knowledge (or morality) that outsiders are not to be immediately trusted. That instinctual morality could be then taken and used to keep ourselves safe, or else warped into an irrational hatred as it happened for the Slavs in the middle ages.

TL;DR- Morality is known to us by nature but can be bent one way or the other.

You have to remember that humanity created "good and evil" before we became civilized, what we call good an evil was what we called out nature.

What people class as "morally corrupt" in this world is ridiculous. There is a user on here that says that she's "morally pure" while everyone else isn't, simply because she's a virgin and others aren't. Ofcourse, this person only thinks that way because she hasn't been given the chance to lose her virginity.

People change the whole moral thing in the ways that fit and benefit them personally.

what about what your parents teach you? would that be put under society? Parents are pretty much in charge of teaching their children the basics on right & wrong, then its up to us to decide how we behave.

I think we learn a large proportion of our morals based on what we read/see/hear around us as we grow up. We are influenced a lot by the society we live in.

It really gets on my imaginary tits when people talk about sex and morality as if there is any link at all. Some people feel better about themselves being a virgin, and that is fine. Other people feel better by having sex, and that is fine too. These views will probably change back and forth with time. It doesn't make you a better or worse person, or a more morally correct person, whichever way. We all know the views on sex of just about everyone who comments frequently here, and while I agree with some and disagree with others, it pisses me off when people fight about it in terms of "morals", as if any personal choice someone made between consenting adults is any more moral, or otherwise, than another.

Sex and morality are unrelated, so please stop bitching about it with stupid, personal attacks in a thread made for the purposes of discussing "the nature of morality" when the OP never even mentioned sex in the first place.

Read the Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
it has some really good stuff relating moral sense and more. It's a small book and one of my fav ones, you wont regret reading it.

For years my morality came from society and religion. I've had immoral thoughts in my mind but I shunned them down because they were 'wrong' then I got older and I'm more aware of things now and learning everyday about how things work and so now my morality system comes from myself.

I was going to vote that morality comes from myself, but tofu seemed like the better option, so I went with that :)

no such thing as morality...just really really good sex

I would like to say myself but this isn't entirely true. We are all born into the prison that is society, to stay in this society we have to follow certain rules. On the most part we only see the person on the outside who is following these rules, on the inside everybody is capable of breaking these rules if the stakes are high enough.

I don't know. My morals don't tell me it's wrong to kill an animal, yet every time I do it's no more easy or less guilt free (I'm talking about farm animals raised for meat, not cats or something, so don't freak out). So....there MUST be something we're born with. I was raised exposed to this. AND my parent's religion says it's OK and encouraged even for non-food purposes (Christianity....sacrifice and all), so where else could this feeling of guilt come from besides being born into me?

It would differ with an individual, only that individual knows if they are just following rules or if they truly believe what they are doing is wrong, or if it's some unknown source of guilt.

i took an ethics class in high school and we were taught that you are born with a 'moral compass', therefore youre not taught morals. im not sure what i believe

My morality comes from all of the above. Originally it came from family/society, but as I grew up I discovered that this was insufficient and started to develop my own code. Then as I became exposed to world religions, I began to borrow from them to supplement my morality.
And then there was tofu. Don't get me started on tofu. Basically I think that tofu (ethical vegetarianism/veganism) is the ultimate morality. If you have those values in place (a deep-seated respect for all other beings, the planet and yourself), you don't really need any other moral code. You can get all of your answers from that.

I think morality is learnt whilst we are being raised, and although most judgement of "bad" or "good" come from potential harm which may be caused if you act a certain way, I think a lot of people just do what they're told from their parents or religion etc...

Basically it's just an opinion.

More and more ItDuz intrigues me.