Chimp Fights and Trolley Rides - Radiolab - 13 views
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"inner chimp"
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jose marichal on 07 Sep 12My inner chimps name is bubbles?
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waitin
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I found that it was very interesting how quickly they dismissed the idea that parents instill some of the qualities into their children. In my opinion someone has to stimulate the children to succumb to the evolutionary inner chimp. Even though when the younger chimps couldn't decide who got the branch, then the older ones had to intervene and teach them how to properly act. In the same way parents intervene when their child can't seem to figure out the proper way to share during their play date. The evolutionary aspect seems to be proven fairly well but from previous knowledge we all know that from birth we do not have that innate sense of right and wrong. Your inner chimp has to grow and mature before being able to sense right and wrong.
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Exactly. What kind of environment one grows up and, and the types of influences one gains throughout one's life should be able to play a big factor in how they act. We learn these things.
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I thought it was great how they took an incredibly abstract concept such as morality and put it to the scientific test. It suggests that morality may be instilled according to upbringing and environment but is inherently biological. It takes what is generally considered to be subjective and makes it predictable within our species (with a few outliers), for reasons we can't even quite understand. Which means that evolution dictates many of our ideas of right and wrong.
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I thought it was interesting that when the brain was looked at when asked the trolley questions that so much changed and different parts started to light up. How people saw the two deaths a different when they had to ask themselves about "personally killing" someone versus just pulling the switch
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The brain really battles itself and really shows how people get to what is right and what is wrong can be more than just moral ,but biological as well.
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To me personally i found it interesting that the two trolley stories both ended with someone being killed, but the what one person had to do were on the opposite ends. Its fascinating to see how when ask which option they would chose most people said pulling the lever even though it still ended in the same result which is a death of one person. I agree in the statement above that the brain when making decisions is not only based on morals but also biological. To me the fact that our morality might not have come from they way us humans grow up and our surroundings but instead from our basic inner chimp bring forth the question of if our morals play any part of decision making.
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The most interesting possibility is that the brain may have more than one way to handle complex decisions. I'd have to say that at this point science can't say much beyond that when it comes to morality and ethics. Morality and ethics are constructs we come up with to try and put some order into personal actions both on an inter-personal level and in larger groups and societies as a whole.
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If found interesting the fact that people don't feel as shamed of pulling a lever to save five people and kill one instead of pushing the person over the train. The people in the interview think that pulling a lever is better because they wouldn't feel as much guilt as pushing the person down from the trolley. Even if we all know that both are not great solutions. The gut feeling called as "inner chimp" I like how they say that moral sense is a unique and special human quality. Maybe we should ask ourselves what it really is. How the human brain works of different people is also very interesting I find because many people think differently and are ashamed of what other people think or would choose. Out of competition comes morality. We already have a sense of right and wrong when we are born, even before our parents can tell us. Basic primate morality understands the effect of pushing a person off, in this case, the trolley. The "inner chimp", which is "act of deep goodness". this is all connected to the 10 commandments, especially the one "thou shall not kill " Everything is always for a reason. Same story Killing your own baby or saving a village. I find it interesting how people would choose to kill their own baby and therefore save themselves and the rest of the people who live in the village. Others instead are very contrary because they say that a baby is God's gift. Everything now can evolve around having the inner strength for doing things like killing your own baby. I wonder if people that say that they would kill their own baby have actually the inner strength to do it. Actions speak louder than words. I think that it is also different when you have to decide to kill your own baby or save a village especially when you don't have one because you don't really know how it feels to be a parent and have a gift from God that not everyone can rece