Ways Of Knowing Are A Check On Our Instinctive Judgement?

Coming from the point where humans were created in God’s image, it follows that they have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. From the rules of conduct given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to the Ten Commandments given to the Israelites, we see that God throughout history has prescribed what is considered right and what is wrong. Jesus summarized these commandments as loving God and loving our neighbors in Matthew 22:37- 40. Similarly, the fact that we were created in God’s image means that we have an inner ability to know what is wrong and right – conscience (Romans 2:15).

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell. This book introduces the concept of “thin slicing”. The concept refers to how in a split second or blink of an eye people can make an unconscious and accurate assessment of someone. Using the concept of thin slicing we can determine what is really important within the first few seconds when meeting someone. Malcolm Gladwell explained that first impressions or spontaneous decisions can be just as important as decisions that are made carefully and planned out. According to Gladwell, people make better decisions with quick judgments than they do with a lot of analysis. Gladwell believes that the power

‘Instinctive judgment’ is the motivation of an action in response to external stimuli based on either behaviour, innateness, or impulsion without involving reason (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014). Although instinct is often associated with intuition, they are separate concepts because instinct is inherent while intuition is acquired; instinct is the inherent inclination to react to a situation due to an inherited configuration of thought while intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without thought. Therefore, to make an instinctive judgment is to make a decision based on your instinct. There are as many meanings to ‘check’ as there are for ‘instinctive judgment’, but in this essay ‘check’ means to verify as to correctness by stopping

“Ways of knowing are a check on our instinctive judgments.” To what extent do you agree with this statement? Often times, when people can’t form a logical reason for certain things they did, their justification is “because I had a gut feeling”. Indeed, people sometimes make judgments based on their gut feelings, or intuition. It is a very subjective and interesting way to gain knowledge. Our intuition can trick us into traps in which we never thought we would fall; it can also lead us to bold, unconventional decisions which bring us truth and knowledge. Our instinctive judgments often become more justifiable when they are “checked”, or verified, by other ways of knowing. Before I answer the

Rebecca Saxe’s Do the Right Thing: Cognitive Science’s Search for a Common Morality analyzes multiple research studies performed on the ethical ideas of morality. Saxe uses three current studies to validate her argument, including a Harvard internet study, research on the cognitive activity in the brains of an infant, and analysis of brain imaging using an fMRI. She uses logos and ethos in this essay to support her argument that scientific research will never fully explain the process that a human takes to make a sound, moral judgement, despite all of the innovative studies being performed. Saxe begins her argument by presenting a scenario that helps the reader to further understand the topic being discussed: moral dilemmas. The scenario includes

The last ways of knowing is ethics referring to the matching between own actions and briefs and factors making me act in incongruent ways (Johns & Freshwater 1998, p. 4). It seemed to me that my actions and briefs closely matched because I thought that I

‘Instinctive judgment’ is the motivation of an action in response to external stimuli based on either behaviour, innateness, or impulsion without involving reason (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014). Although intuition is often associated instinct, they are separate concepts because instinct is inherent and intuition is acquired; instinct is the inherent inclination to react to a situation because of an inherited configuration of thought while intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without thought. There are as many meanings to ‘check’ as there are for ‘instinctive judgment’, but in this essay the word means to verify as to correctness but also stops or restrains false judgments from becoming permanent. If the statement is interpreted with these

The book starts to build up the framework for resolving right versus right based off of Aristotle’s view of sleep ethics. Sleep ethics relies on “insights, feelings, and instincts” (Badaracco, 42) to solve moral dilemma and is also known as ethics intuition. Aristotle highly view intuition because it is “more reliable in deliberation than detached intellectual judgments” (Badaracco, 52) and that it “could penetrate to the essence of the issue” (Badaracco, 52). Aristotle’s sleep ethics supplements criteria to denounce me-ism and support development of ethical character. He purposefully made the criteria vague for people “to reflect on who they are and what they hope to become, to feel and act on what they cares the most deeply about, to make commitments and try to live by them” (Badaracco,

Comparing and analyzing several experiments conducted by previous scholars, Gilligan states that both justice and care are moral reasonings that help organize “the basic elements of moral judgements: self, others, and the relationship between them” (Gilligan 34). She introduces that from a justice perspective, “the self as moral agent stands as the figure against ground

Wright argued that individuals should rely more on instinct than obeying a set of morals or laws, like a religion may set. However, this can indirectly set up its own form of morality, one of instinctual reliance. In Wright’s time and even in today’s time people are by moving away from instinct toward reason to move us beyond in order to make free choices. Yet, this might not necessarily be a good thing. Reason is met with hesitation, where instinct is met with action. Renouvier argues that this is the epitome of pragmatism, selecting a belief and acting on it—it is our duty, our will, our right to believe.

When an individual is proposed with a moral dilemma they will often seek the advice of others rather than acting solely upon their immediate cultural, familial, and cognitive predispositions; suggesting that judgments are also made about the moral judgments of others (Rest, Cooper, Coder, Masanz & Anderson, 1974).

When a parent asks their toddler if the Crayola drawing on the wall is their responsibility, his first instinct will be to lie. Of course no one taught the boy to lie, that was his natural propensity. His parents taught him to distinguish right from wrong; although he recognizes the difference does not mean he will make the right decision. For knowledge of moral code does not equate to natural goodness: “Merely being equipped with moral programming does not mean we practice moral behavior”(Kluger 4). Humans may know when an action or decision is morally wrong and still act on it. Therefore, a taught moral compass does not negate evil human

An intuitive moral judgment is immediate judgment that requires no thinking or reflection. In other words, an intuitive moral judgment is simply a judgment we make with a minimum of thinking about it. An intuitive moral judgment is an automatic response to our understanding of a situation or an action. Many moral psychologists believe that moral intuitions are mainly based on our feelings rather than reasoning.

Ethics has developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction to much ethical thinking. Each individual

Our conclusions on any occasion are direct consequences of any developed concept in our minds. We see the world as we want to see it through our personal perceptions. When we are categorizing anything as desirable or otherwise, we judge using the concepts that we hold to us. Although different concepts may shape different conclusions, they are all influenced by beliefs and experiences. So, to what extent do our beliefs modify the conclusions that we may reach? The knowledge obtained through out someone’s life through their experiences, or belief system direct decision making almost completely. In my essay I will explore how Ethics and Human sciences correlate with this topic. I will also implement and tie in the connections of Reason and link these concepts with belief and experiences.