This article explored two ideas surrounding the origins of morality, a discussion that turned out to be extremely convoluted. I think I lean towards the empiricist view on morality, simply because different cultures and societies will contradict each other in terms of what they perceive as "good" or "bad".

Transcendentalism in my opinion would imply that morality is universal, like an unwritten code of law that is subscribed to by every human being in the world, regardless of faith. Not only seeming impossible, there's a wide range of facts that show that it is. I can understand how a religion would subscribe to transcendentalism when they explain morality on the basis of an eternal God's actions or telling's. Like in Hinduism, where the concepts of "good" and "bad" are derived from stories of spiritual figures that act in a certain way which either provokes a negative societal effect or a positive one. However, as the article states, Transcendentalism also occurs without the invocation of any God. Overall, this idea seems quite unconvincing. Especially when you take into account the progressive techno-centric shift in just about every feature of modern life, there are probably many areas of dilemma where a universal morality just couldn't be applied. One example I can think of is Edward Snowden and the entire NSA scandal. Was Snowden immoral when he released the private documents of a government agency? Or is it immoral for the NSA to persecute him on such a basis when they were secretly breaching major civil liberty rights in America?

I'd like to believe in the idea that our morals evolve as we evolve, they become more nuanced as we grow more sophisticated as societies. This isn't tough to envision. Many cultures across the globe that have had violent or prejudiced pasts mature into the constructs that they are today. Societies craft their morals around the circumstances, variables and needs present within the community, to keep it in order and maintain conformity through similar perceptions of things. However the twenty first century has seen globalization connect communities across the world, meaning that morals that were once exclusive to only to one culture, are now the basis of a globally applied idea of "right" and "wrong".