What keeps people from doing wrong?

I originally posted this as a comment over at The Business Evoloutionist.

There is a deeper question here: What keeps people from doing wrong? Of course that begs the question what is wrong.

At birth we are Tabla Rosa. (As opposed to original sin) Meaning we are a blank slate. We learn right from wrong, good from evil through experience and guidance. How can we define good and evil when those terms are subjective?

There is something common to all living beings: life. Good and bad is judged by what value an action furthers life. A thief steals other peoples’ production. He is not wrong in trying to survive only in the fashion he chooses to survive: by leeching off others or someone else’s production. This is not a sustainable practice. If everyone stole nobody would live.

Going back to the Super-duper- Nice post, it’s expected they wait and pay for damage “they” cause the other person. If they didn’t they would be no better than the thief. The fact it was noteworthy only means very few would do it.

I defined above good or bad as “what value an action furthers life.” If it takes away from life, it’s deemed as bad, if it gives to survival its good. (This is a simplistic definition, if you want more details “The Virtue of Selfishness” by Ayn Rand)

We are born not knowing right from wrong (Tabla Rosa). We learn right from wrong through experiences. Consider this: when two people break up there is always pain. Why? Because we can not live alone, we would die and the human race would cease to exist.

What keeps people from doing something bad? The fact other people know. In the Super-Duper-Nice post there was a couple. Would either of the couple have waited for the man in the BMW if either of them was alone? They waited to look not to look bad in the others eyes.

Think of the things you would do with an invisible ring. — Think about it for a second. If nobody knew then what would be the harm? You could listen to your girlfriends private phone calls, rob a bank and break the speed limit. Why don’t you do these things now – because someone would find out.

Why do people thirst for “bad” news? For the shock factor, it gives them something to talk about. Why don’t people talk about good things? Who wants to talk about something someone is suppose to do. A house is not supposed to burn, so as long as it doesn’t there is nothing to talk about. Until it burns the house is doing exactly what’s expected of it.

Above I defined good or bad as to what value it brings life. I pointed out we are born a Tabla Rosa and must experience right and wrong. Pleasure being good and pain being bad (again in simplistic terms). I also stated the reason people don’t do wrong, it’s because someone else will find out. And sometimes this includes them knowing.