The Five Primary Colours of Morality

January 16, 2008 · Filed Under Science and Technology

Steven Pinker has written an article that was published in the New York Times on the science and philosophy of morality. I have created a diagram below that I hope accurately summarises the key points of the article.

The steps involved in forming a moral reaction to a given scenario.

Some scenario occurs and is observed or some scenario is imagined.
The brain reacts to the scenario.
The brain examines the scenario from five perspectives, with some more relevant to different scenarios than others.
Each perspective is given weight and priority. They are then balanced against one another.
The moralisation ’switch’ is either turned on or remains off. If it is switched on, rationalisation follows. If it remains off, any non-moral thoughts will win out.