Morality: You Be the Judge

For many centuries, man’s ability to rationalize and make good decisions has always been in debate. Through this rationalization, morals, or the rules that govern one’s ability to determine what is right and what is wrong, begin to develop. For some, these morals are drawn out and predetermined by a divine being, but others derive their morals from other means. Charles Darwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson fail to obtain their sense of morality from religion, so they formulate their own new ideas from which they acquire their morals, although these ideas are very different. While Emerson believes in human intuition and that morality is derived by self-reliance, Darwin doubts intuition and looks to his theory of evolution to explain morality. But while their sources of morality may differ, the formation of Darwin’s and Emerson’s morals through their own ideas reveals that morality doesn’t always have to come from a divine being; it can come from one’s own thoughts and ideas.

To begin with, both Darwin and Emerson grew up in religious homes, specifically Christian homes. At first, Darwin goes along with the ideas and moral codes of Christianity, but after he researches Christianity and acquires a deeper understanding of its rules and meanings, Darwin discovers that he doesn’t agree with the type of God that Christianity portrays, nor does he agree that humans naturally possess morals, as Christianity insists (CITE). Similarly, Emerson obeys the rules of Christianity, since his family is religious. He even becomes a priest because many of his ancestors, including his father, had been priests (CITE). As time progresses, Emerson comes to have some major problems with Christianity. He thinks that Christians are too focused on mirac...

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...hat is right for one person may not be right for another. Through this discovery, they began to explore their own ideas of life, which guided them to two completely different places, the places from where they attain their morals. And because these places are different, it can be inferred that all humans will differ in their morality. For some, these morals can be predetermined by a divine being, and for others, these morals can be the product of their own thoughts and ideas. And since every human is unique, their morals most likely will contrast in some way with the person beside them.

Works Cited

http://www.iep.utm.edu/am-trans/

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emerson/

http://www.victoriannetwork.org/index.php/vn/article/viewFile/11/12

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Emerson.html

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/studentdef.html