The Moral Life Of Babies Analysis

Words: 623
Pages: 3

Early on, we were taught the difference between right and wrong. It is a firm belief that we are shaped by our caregivers and without their guidance, we would not develop into acceptable members of society. Through research many have discovered that morality is not something we are essentially taught, but born with. We all have a sense of morality, which means that we can recognize a distinction between good and bad. Through research many have discovered that morality is not something we are essentially taught, but born with. The New York Times publishes a series of articles, where different researchers explore morality and its roots. Other researchers, such as Paul Bloom and Jennifer Kahn expand and clarify on many of Pinker’s ideas. In …show more content…
Paul Bloom in his article, “The Moral Life of Babies”, published in 2010 includes research her conducted. Bloom seeks to prove that we are born with morality to a certain extent and instinctual emotion controls our morals. In the introduction of his article, Bloom describes a scenario where they had a puppet show for a one year old. They showed three puppets, the first puppet was in the middle struggling to open a box. The second puppet hindered the first, which meant he was the mean one. Then they showed a third puppet who helped the puppet open the box. After the puppet show, they placed treats in front of each puppet, “Like most children in this situation, the boy took it from the pile of the “naughty” one. But this punishment wasn’t enough — he then leaned over and smacked the puppet in the head” (1). The baby felt that the second puppet needed to be punish for his wrong doings because he felt compassion towards the first puppet. This emotion the baby shows proves that babies have the ability to recognize good and bad. Though by punishing the second puppet, Bloom shows that a babies sense of morality is