Are our own morals what control what we do or does the social environment that we live in overrule those morals. As humans we like to think it is not the situation that we're in that dictates how we act but our own personal morals. History is littered with examples of ordinary people doing terrible things. Events like the holocaust and the Rwandan genocide are examples of normal people committing atrocious acts. Furthermore tests like the Stanford Prison Experiment seem to suggest that it's the situation that dictates how you behave not your own beliefs. And if this is true is this how history's most hated leaders managed to evoke normal people to violent acts?
Well your morals are always influenced by where you live. Someone in South Africa has different morals than someone in say, China.
Obviously we're in control of our own actions. Some people are just less strong-willed than others, and will quickly submit to perceived authority and social pressure.
Of course your brain is making decisions but you make those decisions based upon all the experiences of your life. Think about it or not who you are was actively shaped through your environment as you grew up, same as everyone else in this universe. Your thought process is a kind of self centered idealist point of view . We're not all different because of magically instilled personality traits you know.
Key words. Determinism is a functionally useless concept, similar to solipsism: its truth value has absolutely no effect on anything. We are all different. Whether that's because we grew up in different circumstances or were wired to be a certain way from birth doesn't have any bearing on the fact that we all make choices, and that we are responsible for those choices.
I never claimed it was relevant to your life. I 'm just stating how I believe reality works. All you said here is you're still responsible for your actions and I agree. But who you actually are is a product of where and how you were raised . You being held accountable for your actions is not relevant, while it does and should happen as it keeps society functioning it has little bearing on how human minds develop. I'm stunned that anyone would not care about the truth of the development of the human mind just because it doesn't effect their life . Like for what reason are you in the philosophy section?
People don't commit crimes because they were born that way they do it because they have no other options or skill sets because the cicumstances delt them. Kind of if the same way a person in the middle east join a millitant organization because he was born in the circumstance of farm dirt and hope it gives enough food to give you for the week or have someone give you a gun and tell you what is wrong with the world and who to blame. If you take away the circumstance that make's a person we would all be the same, just ready to be remolded to fit in the the world we live in.
It's actually just not relevant to anything at all. As will nihilists and solipsists and the rest... It's a fruitless tree. It's actually more of saprophyte than a tree, since it has no roots in anything but the consistency of its own system. I think you're looking at things from the wrong angle here. If you're interested in the development of the human mind, you should be talking psychology, not philosophy. I don't like a lot about postmodern philosophy, but it's absolutely right about one thing: "truth" doesn't count for a whole hell of a lot.
I think they we all do things because of our will or our will to do others will. We are responsible for succumbing to others wills, or following our own will.
I personally think we are in control of are own actions and are responsible for them and any result they form.
I think this thread is answering the wrong questions. Of course we make our own decisions. The main point the OP was asking was WHY we make our decisions. Do we use our own personal moral code or simply react to environmental stimulus . I personally think that if anyone truly believes they have a bullet proof moral code and iron will that will never be effected by outside influence they are full of shit, so this question becomes really, really simple. Yes we as people change and make decisions based on what happens around us and how we grow up learning things in this world. Tons of tests have been done to show this like the ones OP mentioned. Not to mention Nazi Germany. Or the existence of culture itself. We are social beasts.
Humans are evidently morale creatures, so I'd say that we are in control. We created society, society did not create us.
