The philosophers' long-running monopoly on questions of morality may be ending.
Biologists may have discovered the genetic basis of what some call our "moral instincts."
Working under a grant from the National Institutes of Health, a group of scientists have located a single gene that seems to be involved in certain moral decisions.
The particular moral decision they tested is the familiar Trolley Car problem. You control a switch that will route a runaway trolley onto one of two tracks. Throw it one way, and five people will be killed; the other way, one person will be killed. What do you do?
Most people would say that, under the circumstances, switching the trolley onto the track with only one person is morally justified. But some people disagree.
The researchers discovered that people who have the "short" version of a single gene were more reluctant "to endorse actions resulting in foreseen harm to an innocent individual."
The gene in question controls how serotonin is transported in the brain. Researchers have long known that serotonin levels can influence people's emotional reaction to such situations. But this is the first time the phenomenon was traced to different forms of a single gene.
You can find the news release announcing their discovery here.
All of which may help explain why even philosophers have difficulty agreeing on the right solution to moral dilemmas.
Comments