Ethics and moral values have been a subject of interest for humans ever since it existed. So much so that redemptions like that of Cain after killing his brother Abel, and the law of Hammurabi and much much more from different cultures and thoughts. Specific limitations to actions due to such laws have been applied differently throughout centuries, and sometimes, such laws are just the starting building blocks of other specified laws for different situations.

Eventually, this brought me to the question which is: do moral values change in accordance to knowing when we die?

In order to attack such question, I had to write it down on my notes app and left it for a couple of days to just passively keep thinking about it while going on about it.

Interestingly, what inspired such question is through a published study shared through Neuroscience News page on LinkedIn, “Moral Behavior Pays Off”.

In summary, the study shows how a stimulated game done by the researchers showed how selflessness helps the society as a whole in the long terms. Which sparked my interest about the previously asked question.

If we knew that we would be dead by tomorrow, would our moral values change?

If, for example, Cain knew that he was dying the next day, would he have continued his intention and killed his brother?

Whether was his intention out of Jealousy or perhaps to reach a certain goal, would his action have changed if he know the next time he would not be alive?

I can only think of two options which are either give up and determine that the action of killing is meaningless because that goal, if achieved, would only be experienced for one day or less. Another option where the action is still applied just for the sake of the emotion of it.

Those two options bring two me two fighting sources: logic and emotion. At some point both are intertwined, but it’s at what ratio is one taking the lead is which would bring different consequence.

Reference: https://neurosciencenews.com/moral-behavior-evolution-21893/