Throughout our lives we evolve a moral instinct. Our judgements are mediated by an unconscious process, a hidden moral grammar that evaluates the causes and consequences of actions.
In Moral Minds Marc Hauser describes how this process works, and why it has evolved. And he makes you think along the way: try this scenario for example:
A surgeon walks into the hospital as a nurse rushes forward with the following case. “Doctor! An ambulance just pulled in with five people in critical condition. Two have a damaged kidney, one a crushed heart, one a collapsed lung, and one a completely ruptured liver. We don’t have time to search for possible organ donors, but a healthy young man just walked in to donate blood and is sitting in the lobby. We can save all five patients if we take the needed organs from this young man. Of course he won’t survive, but we will save all five patients.”
Is it morally permissible for the surgeon to take this young man’s organs?
What determined your answer?
Can you really make a coherent explanation for your reasoning?