2. 职称英语
  3. There is one last question I must deal with in this chapter. Why should huma

There is one last question I must deal with in this chapter. Why should huma

游客2025-04-19  28
问题     There is one last question I must deal with in this chapter. Why should human beings be moral? Another way of putting the problem is as follows; Is there any clear foundation or basis for morality? Can any reasons be found for human beings to be good and do right acts rather than be bad and do wrong acts?
    I have already pointed out the difficulties involved in founding morality on religion, and especially on religion as a safe factor.(1)However, if a person has religious faith, then he or she does have a foundation for a personal morality, even though this foundation is basically psychological rather than logical in nature. What disturbs me about the use of religion as the foundation of morality is the frequently-made assumption that if there is no supernatural or religious basis for morality, then there can be no basis at all. A related, and perhaps deeper, statement is that there can be no real meaning to human life: unless there is some sort of afterlife or some other extra-natural reason for living.(2)It is obvious that for many individuals this is psychologically true; that is, they feel that their existence has meaning and purpose and that they have a reason for being moral if and only if there is a God, an afterlife, or some sort of religion in their lives. I feel that we must respect this point of view and accept the conviction of the many people who hold it, because that is how they feel about life and morality.
    It is also obvious, however, that many people do not feel this way.(3)I think it is terribly presumptuous of religious believers to feel that if some people do not have a religious commitment, their lives are meaningless, or that such people have no reason for being moral in their actions. But if religion does not necessarily provide a "why" for morality, then what does? Let us assume for a moment that there is no supernatural morality and see if we can find any other reasons why people should be moral.
    Enlightened Self-interest
    One can certainly argue on a basis of enlightened self-interest, that it is, at the very least, generally better to be good rather than bad and to create a world and society that is good rather than one that is bad. As a matter of fact, self-interest is the sole basis of one ethical theory, ethical egoism. I am not, however, suggesting at this point that one ought to pursue one’s own self-interest. I am merely presenting the argument that if everyone tried to do and be good and to avoid and prevent bad, it would be in everyone’s self-interest. For example, if within a group of people no one killed, stole, lied, or cheated, then each member of the group would benefit.(4)An individual member of the group could say, "It’s in my self-interest to do good rather than bad because I stand to benefit if I do and also because I could be ostracized or punished if I don’t. " Therefore, even though it is not airtight, the argument from enlightened self-interest is a somewhat compelling one.
    Argument from Tradition and Law
    Related to the foregoing argument is the argument from tradition and law. This argument suggests that because traditions and laws, established over a long period of time, govern the behavior of human beings and because these traditions and laws urge human beings to be moral rather than immoral, there are good reasons for being so.(5)Self-interest is one reason, but another is respect for the human thought and effort that has gone into establishing such laws and traditions and transferring them from one historic period and one culture to another. This can be an attractive argument, even though it tends to suppress questioning of traditions and laws—a kind of questioning that is, I feel, the very touchstone of creative moral reasoning. It is interesting to note that most of us probably learned morality through being confronted with this argument, the religious argument, and the experiences surrounding them. Don’t we all remember being told we should or should not do something because it was or was not in our own self-interest, because God said it was right or wrong, or because it was the way we were supposed to act in our family, school, society, and world? [br] (1)
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答案 然而，如果一个人有宗教信仰，那么他或她的确具有个人道德基础，尽管这种基础从本质上来看是属于心理方面，而非逻辑上的。在将宗教看作道德基础时，令我感到困惑的是需要常常做出这样的臆断：即如果道德没有超自然或宗教作为根基，就可以说根本没有基础。
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