When Morality Opposes Justice: Human Nature

When Morality Opposes Justice-Human Nature

Morality ivolves distinguishing which human behaviors are right or wrong and good or bad. Morality covers topics such as harm, rights and justice, and therefore it is mainly concerned with protecting every idividual. There has been a culture of war between liberals and conservatives all based upon human morality aspects (Haidt & Graham, 2007, p. 1). Cultural war can be termed as the division in personal opinions and thoughts between open-minded people or liberals and the conventional or traditionalists, also known as conservatives.

It is therefore belived that the many existing moralities in the world are founded on five psychological systems. These include the psychological preparations for detecting and reacting emotionally to issues related to harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity (Haidt & Graham, 2007, p. 1). A careful look at the five foundations shows that the first two, which include harm/care and fairness/reciprocity, are usually directed outwards towards other people, even to those outside the group. The other three, that is ingroup, authority and purity, are directed inwards towards the group itself. Liberals have moral intuition based on the first two foundations, that is harm/care, and fairness/reciprocity. Conservatives on the other hand normally rely upon all the five foundations.

Cultures vary depending on the extent to which they build virtues based on all the five foundations. Therefore, the liberals who only rely on the two foundations, find it hard to comprehend the moral motivations of the conservatives and therefore the culture of war. To them, the two foundations are all they require to make sound moral judge...

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...hy they themselves support them. By doing this, the culture war can easily be addressed as both sides will now be able to accommodate each other morally. Social justice activists and researchers will also have to respect, understand and work with moral concerns of people whom they cant agree with if they are to progress and achieve consistency in their own values.

Works Cited

Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionis approach to moral judgement. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814-834.

Haidt, J., & Graham, J. (2007). When morality opposes justice: Conservatives have moral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research, 20(1), 98-116.

Richards, R. J. (1986). A defense of evolutionary ethics. Biology and Philosophy, 1(3), 265- 293.

When Morality Opposes Justice (2012, 25 February). (powerpoint slides).