The Moral Advantage

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4 Empathic Morality and the Golden Rule

Try a fascinating experiment in moral development with any group of five-year-olds. First, tell them the Golden Rule. Say it in a couple of different ways, both in its traditional form (“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”) and in a plainer English version, making sure that they understand all the words (for example, “Treat other people just the same as you’d like them to treat you”). Then ask the five-year-olds to repeat the Golden Rule and give some examples of the way it works. Unless they are prodigies, most of the children will repeat the Golden Rule as something like, “Do back to other people what they do to you,” or “Treat other people in the same way that they treat you.” Most ...