The Distinction between
Good and Bad
Since ancient times the notion has persisted that the ability to make the distinction between good and bad is inherent in human nature. The divine origin of this gift is expressed in an invocation set forth in the Quran: “…by the soul and how He formed it, then inspired it to understand what was right and wrong for it.” (91:7-8) But in present times certain thinkers of the West have presented the opposite theory, for instance, Sigmund Freud (d. 1939) and others who, in their self-styled or self-concocted psychological studies, held that human nature by birth was like a blank slate with no consciousness of how to discriminate between good and bad. All such consciousness was produced by social conditioning. This theory dominated the thinking of the educated classes in the twentieth century.
But research in the field of psychology in the twenty-first century has refuted this theory. It has proved that man is responsible for his actions, because wherever he does anything wrong, he does so by deviating from the consciousness with which his nature has been endowed. Man’s ethical sense stems from his inner nature. It does not owe its existence to external influences. In this way, there has been a restitution of the religious stand in modern history.
In America there is a scientific institute of international repute, the Infant Cognition Center, Yale University, Connecticut, whose objective is to carry out scientific research in matters relating to children’s issues.
Details of research recently conducted by this institute, under the guidance of the Professor of Psychology, Paul Bloom, were published in The Times of India, May 11, 2010. We reproduce here the summary of this research.
This American research shows infants to be moral beings. According to a new study, contrary to the Freudian theory that humans start their lives with a moral “blank slate,” children may be born with the ability to tell good from bad. Newly born babies apparently start making moral judgements by the time they are six months old, claims a team of psychologists at the Infant Cognition Center at Yale University in Connecticut. The scientists used the ability to tell helpful from unhelpful behavior as an indication of moral judgement. Infants can even act as judge and jury in the nursery. Researchers who asked one-year-old babies to take away treats from a “naughty” puppet found they were sometimes also leaning over and smacking the figure on the head. As part of the study, they conducted multiple tests on infants, who were less than a year old. Firstly, an animated film of simple geometric shapes was screened for the kids to watch. It showed a red ball, with eyes, trying to climb a hill. A yellow square helped, pushing it up, while a green triangle forced it back down. Later, the children were asked to “choose” between the “good guy” square, and the “bad guy” triangle. In 80% of cases, the infants choose the square over the triangle. In a second study, the children were shown a toy dog trying to open a box. One teddy bear helped him, while another sat on it to stop him from getting inside. The observer found that most babies opted for the friendly teddy bear. To further confirm that the babies were responding to niceness and naughtiness, the scientist devised another test. A toy cat played with a ball while two cuddly rabbit puppets stood on either side. When the cat lost the ball, the rabbit on the right side returned it to him, while the rabbit on the left side picked it up and ran away with it. The children were asked to handle any one puppet. Most picked the naughty rabbit and smacked it on the head. Paul Bloom, the professor of psychology who led the study, said the research counters theories of psychologists such as Sigmund Freud who believed humans began life as “amoral animals” and William James who described the baby’s mental life as “one great, blooming, buzzing confusion”. “There is a growing body of scientific evidence that supports the idea that perhaps some sense of good and evil is bred in the bone,” the Times quoted Bloom as saying. Kiley Hamlin, author of the team’s infant morality report, said: “We spend a lot of time worrying about teaching the difference between good guys and bad guys in the world but this might be something that infants come to the world with.” Peter Willatts, a lecturer in psychology at Dundee University said: “You cannot get inside the mind of the baby. You cannot ask them. You have to go on what most attract their attention.” “We now know that in the first six months babies learn things much quicker than we thought possible. What they are born with and what they learn is difficult to divide,” he added. (The Times of India, New Delhi, May 2010, p. 17)
