“Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

How would someone’s morals be if they were raised in a place where one gets away with almost anything? Would they be altruistic? Would they be egocentric? How would a game of tit-for-tat look like? Who would win in a prisoner’s dilemma?

Such is the world of S- orphaned at an early age, neglected by caregivers, he grew up in the streets, or in and out of institutions, schools; never had a childhood, never a stable school where he could learn how to function in a society, or a home he could call his own.

The evident function of morality is to promote social harmony so that we’re not at each other’s throat. A moral structure for example, of rules and punishment or rewards such as medals or social validation, enables us to function as a society. According to Kohlberg, a person goes through stages of moral development from early childhood. The first is the pre-conventional level where the individual lives to avoid punishment and fulfill their self-interest.

Perhaps never having a stable relationship all throughout his childhood stunted S’s moral development onto the next stages of development. In and out of lockups and rehabs and juvenile centers, he does not show much regard for others, nor does he show the need to please others or the ability to get into a stable social contract. He has difficulty building trust; and from a deeper conversation reveals, that he feels alone in life and feels suicidal at times.

But morality has its limitation. The word morality carries a connotation, a feeling of rules and standards and criteria, a level in which morality can only bring surficial change and can only be as powerful as the powers that enforce it.

Self-integrity (more in line with the sixth stage of Kohlberg) as opposed to morality fosters the individual and not just the collective. The individual might lose their individuality if they simply adopt the moral structures given by their surroundings i.e., culture, religion, law. They might even lose or never develop the sense of what’s wrong or right and go along with the social conventions or laws that are questionable. They might simply conform to the values rather than build their own.

As an individual who discovers their own values and perception, conventional although socially accepted ways can be tyrannical, for example in the case of Galileo, he was tried for suggesting that the solar system was heliocentric, i.e., the planets revolve around the sun. The individual who moves away from the convention risks being isolated, risks their safety and even risks opposition.

But to develop as an individual, to develop a personal value that encompasses empathy and see another person as an autonomous being who just as them, is able to feel and reflect, one has to develop a form of impartial self-honest morality that doesn’t depend on rules, conventions or simply on forces outside of themselves.