The Intangibles of Morality

There are several theories and concepts in Philosophy that attempt to quantify or categorize morals and ethical behaviors whether it be ones that are socially acceptable or ones that are against the cultural norm.  Is it possible that we are trying to categorize an intangible thing? For example,  one theory, Egoism, argues that humans are selfish in nature and any actions we take subconsciously or consciously must have some personally gain to the individual.  Other theories go to the extremes and state that there is no such thing as wrong or right since every culture does not see things the same so no one can be completely right.  I don't necessarily agree with latter, ethical nihilism, but it has its place.  Here are a few examples that to me shows that just maybe personal morals behaviors are very difficult to quantify.

On Valentines' Day, a woman was driving in her new car which was also her Valentines' Day gift when she got into an accident.  She was stuck in the vehicle and was yelling for help and honking the car horn to get passersby's attention. She said that a man named Harrison founded her and said he was going to stay with her and hold her hand until help came.  He broke through the windscreen with his bare hands to create a hole injuring himself to make good on his promise.  He stayed with her until help got there.  They both went to same hospital where he needed surgery to repair his hand.  If he had a conscious or unconsciously agenda or the coding of prominent gene to have some personally gain, this scenario make it hard to determine for me.

Another story about a young woman that stopped to offer a ride to a elderly lady that need transportation to see her daughter in the hospital.  The elderly lady was waiting for 2 hours for the hospital shuttle or the bus but neither came.  As she helped the elderly lady out of the vehicle and elderly man asked her to for ride to the pharmacy to pick up his heart medication.   She brought him there and waited for him and brought him home.  She is now friends with both people.  Instead of selfish gain, I see compassion and care not a collection of DNA.

Some theories seem to try to make robots out of humans.  What I mean is that, it try to make us readable or predictable.  But the human mind is unpredictable in its ways.  There are no wires and circuit boards with programs to control them.  We have a living, changing and unique computer called the brain and it very difficult to understand and quantify its actions.  Maybe the theories have some truth but it is too elementary and simple to say that we are just selfish and that is why we do good.  We are far too complex for that simple of a theory, it is way more intricate that.  It maybe it is something that is not tangible, maybe it is spiritual thing, or emotional thing, heart/ soul thing.  Just maybe it is, we see others in a bad position, put ourselves in that position,  and do what we would want someone else to do for us.  It is very difficult to put a measuring stick on the intangibles we have as humans as it applies to morals and ethics, I believe that is one of the many reasons why there are so many theories.

Albright, L. (n.d.). Random Acts of Kindness: Kind man literally lent hand when she drove over hillside. Retrieved April 8, 2015, from http://www.post-gazette.com/news/portfolio/2014/02/27/Random-Acts-of-Kindness-Kind-man-literally-lent-hand-when-she-drove-over-hillside/stories/201402270182

Biddle, D. (2015, April 8). Her awesome random act of kindness. Retrieved April 8, 2015, from http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/inspire-me/67651909/hamilton-womans-random-act-of-easter-sunday-kindness-warms-our-heart