Do Pride and Shame Inform or Confound Moral Discourse?
Should “moral” choices “feel” good?
I think there’s a common assumption in western society that we can judge an action as “moral” or “immoral” based on how it “feels”.
If an action feels “shameful”, we judge it to be “immoral” and “bad” or “evil”. And if an action would make us feel “proud”, we judge it as “moral” and “good”.
But I think we need to question this assumption, and ultimately reject it as dangerously misleading.
Because what pride and shame really represent — rather than a barometer on universal “morality” — is, in fact, just our awareness of community approval or disapproval. When we perceive our community to have accepted us, we feel proud. And when we perceive our community to have rejected us, or that we have jeopardized our standing in our community, we feel ashamed. That’s it.
Pride and shame are nothing more than our perception of community approval.
But a community is just people. And just as no two people are the same, no two communities are the same. What’s considered shameful in one community can be considered laudable in another. No single human or community can represent the universe.
