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Philosophy in Russia

Models of Moral Activity

Alexander Razin considers why people act morally (when they do).

Is there a universal moral feeling that all humans share? And if so, what role do different emotions play when we make moral choices? Clarifying this issue can be helpful in demonstrating that disagreements over explaining moral motivation are often caused by attention being concentrated on the different situations of moral choice rather than on the moral motivation itself. What is it that motivates us to perform certain actions deemed to be morally acceptable or unacceptable?

In cases when the moral motive is represented clearly, without being mixed with other social motives (such as ambition), it can be seen that it is always the external situations that produce our moral motives. If so, then there are no special internal ‘moral needs’ capable of determining our moral activity. I hope to make this point clearer by examining models of moral behavior in different situations. For instance, if somebody rushes to save a drowning man, she doesn’t do it because of having experienced some emotional discomfort, like a hunger to do good, but rather due to a subconscious feeling that otherwise she would suffer guilt similar to that caused by an unpaid debt.

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