Week 7, Post 1

     I have always found the Heinz dilemma to be very interesting. Having taken a few philosophy courses, I have spent a lot of time contemplating or discussing it, or at least a variant of it. I have always felt that it was very much a philosophical conundrum, and not one that was based in psychology. After having reviewed all of the information... and having read more into it out of personal interest... I still feel that it is, at its heart, an issue based in philosophical morality. That being said, the psychological approach adds an interesting element to the ideas.

     Morality, especially in a situation like this, is often muddled, but I think there are some clear pointers towards the right choices. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke hypothesized that "Morally Good and Evil [...] is only the Conformity or Disagreement of our voluntary Actions to some Law, whereby Good and Evil is drawn on us, from the Will and Power of the Law-maker; which Good and Evil, Pleasure or Pain, attending our observance or breach of the law, by the Decree of the Law-maker, is that we call Reward or Punishment". With this, Locke sets forth the idea that our actions are simply judged as moral or immoral based on the ideals and standards of the society in which we live. This idea was further specialized into a ethnologically relativistic viewpoint, much as psychology often is, by Francis Boas in 1887, when he concluded that "Civilization is not something absolute, but [...] is relative, and [...] our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes". This highly anthropological view, known as cultural relativism, is where I tend to lie on the debate of morality. While dissolving a criminals eyes with acid in retribution for petty theft is perfectly moral and acceptable in some parts of the world, it is utterly reprehensible and unthinkable here. Yet, we have absolutely no right, nor ability, to judge.
     The fact that, psychologically, a person may answer different opinions based on their developmental stage I find interesting  as it sheds a light on their mental development as a whole. However, I tend to think that what a person answers and believes is moral is far different from what they would act upon... Their actions are far more reliant on nurture than nature.