The Moral Sense

Are human beings naturally endowed with a conscience? Or is morality artificilly acquired through social pressure and instruction? Most people assume that modern science proves the latter. Further, most of our current social policies are vbased upon this "scientific" view of the sources of morality. Here, however, the author seeks to reconcile traditional ideas with a range of important empiracl research into the sources of human behaviour over the last 50 years. James Wilson shows that the facts about the origin and development of moral reasoning are not at odds with traditional view predating Freud, Darwin and Marx. Our basic sense of right and wrong actually does have a biological and behavioural origin. This "moral sense" arises from the infant's innate sociability, though it must also be nurtured by parental influence. Thius, this book revives viable ancient traditions of moral and ethicla argument that go back to Aristotle, and reunifies the seperate streams of philosophical and scientific knowledge that for so long were regarded as unbridgable.