Do we have a Moral Instinct?

In class, we have talked about ethics and how crucial it is in a business setting. But how do we determine what we are doing is right. We must have an innate notion that we use to determine how we deal with dilemmas with a so called moral instinct. As we are thrown in the business world, we will use this moral instinct to guide our decisions.

There is a great article in January 13th edition of New York Times Magazine about this so called "moral instinct" which makes you question your own morals and how even though we are firm in our beliefs and believe that our morals come from reason; this article argues that it may not be "moral reason" but "moral rationalization" guiding your decisions.

Here is a scenario from the article you might want to consider and judge how sound your morals are:

"On your morning walk, you see a trolley car hurtling down the track, the conductor slumped over the controls. In the path of the trolley are five men working on the track, oblivious to the danger. You are standing at a fork in the track and can pull a lever that will divert the trolley onto a spur, saving the five men. Unfortunately, the trolley would then run over a single worker who is laboring on the spur. Is it permissible to throw the switch, killing one man to save five? Almost everyone says 'yes.'

Consider now a different scene. You are on a bridge overlooking the tracks and have spotted the runaway trolley bearing down on the five workers. Now the only way to stop the trolley is to throw a heavy object in its path. And the only heavy object within reach is a fat man standing next to you. Should you throw the man off the bridge? Both dilemmas present you with the option of sacrificing one life to save five, and so, by the utilitarian standard of what would result in the greatest good for the greatest number, the two dilemmas are morally equivalent. But most people don't see it that way: though they would pull the switch in the first dilemma, they would not heave the fat man in the second."

I found it to be a great read and thought it was relevant to the issues we have talked about in class in terms of our guiding ethics and morals. This article goes beyond the idea of the "Potter's boxes" and makes you question the very idea of your morality. But I have been wrong before!

You can find the rest of the huge article here if interested:

The Moral Instinct