Do Babies Have a Moral Compass?

Discussion in 'Religion & Philosophy' started by dairyair, Feb 12, 2014.

  1. dairyair

    dairyair Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2010
    Messages:
    78,717
    Likes Received:
    19,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
  2. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I can't be assed with links (sorry!), but in my experience babies are perfect. Every last one of them :)
     
  3. dairyair

    dairyair Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2010
    Messages:
    78,717
    Likes Received:
    19,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    An experiment five years ago suggested that babies are equipped with an innate moral compass, which drives them to choose good individuals over the bad in a wooden puppet show. But new research casts doubt on those findings, demonstrating that a baby's apparent preference for what's right might just reflect a fondness for bouncy things.

    The researchers who conducted the original study stand by their results and interpretations, pointing to some discrepancies in the new study.

    In the original study, conducted by Yale researchers in 2007, groups of 6-month-olds and 10-month-olds watched a puppet show with neutral wooden figures, where one figure, the climber, was trying to get up a hill. In one scenario, one of the other figures, called the helper, assisted the climber up the hill. In the other scenario, a third figure, called the hinderer, pushed the climber down.

    Partial post of article. Google works.
     
  4. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    ah well now, that's a different kettle of diapers!

    at 6 months (and even more so at 10 months), babies are aware of things like wilful obstruction, and can perceive deliberate contradictory actions quite well. it's why they laugh uproariously when we play games with them involving pretence of obstruction or pretend frightening. they even take it a further step up the sophistication ladder, as they know that in this instance it's not real, and that they are safe. of course it's easier for them to make this distinction when it comes from someone they know - since experience tells them this person wouldn't harm them. faced with strangers doing the same, a baby is more likely to 'freak out'.
     
  5. Incorporeal

    Incorporeal Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2009
    Messages:
    27,731
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Good observation crank. Your observation points out the validity of confidence, trust, faith in the performer. Hence, BELIEF based on personal experience.
     
  6. Gorn Captain

    Gorn Captain Banned

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2012
    Messages:
    35,580
    Likes Received:
    237
    Trophy Points:
    0
    According to the Bible....you are authorized by God to kill a baby if you think it will grow up to be evil or it comes from an evil group of people.
     
  7. Incorporeal

    Incorporeal Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2009
    Messages:
    27,731
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    48
    When you use the word "you" in the same context as you have used it, who is the "you" that you reference? I am not authorized to commit such an act.
     
  8. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2011
    Messages:
    8,898
    Likes Received:
    2,751
    Trophy Points:
    113

    No. They do not.
     
  9. Beast Mode

    Beast Mode New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2012
    Messages:
    2,106
    Likes Received:
    21
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Noam Chomsky has a similar theory about humans having an innate framework to develop language.

    In studies like these, I am of the belief that they are fundamentally tainted by ethics. There is no ethical way to have a social study like this without it being tainted by the human experience.

    If you are serious about getting untainted evidence, isolate these children from the rest of society and see what you get. Of course that is impossible as well as unethical so all we can do is extrapolate whatever data we get from these kinds of studies.
     
  10. FoxHastings

    FoxHastings Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2014
    Messages:
    56,891
    Likes Received:
    21,024
    Trophy Points:
    113
    If they used 6month old babies then they canNOT claim baies are like that from birth ....they would have to use newborns.

    And, anyway, I don't believe babies are born with a moral anything, it's learned.
     
  11. Gorn Captain

    Gorn Captain Banned

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2012
    Messages:
    35,580
    Likes Received:
    237
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Technically, you are authorized if you are an Israelite.....then you can, even MUST, kill all the enemy babies you find.
     

Share This Page