Philosophical Questions: Innocence
Jan. 4th, 2025 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithPeople have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.
If babies are considered innocent, when do people cease to be innocent?
It's a gradual process, not a sudden shift. Also, it occurs at different speeds for different people, depending on their biology, personality, and living conditions.
Babies tend to start out innocent because most humans come into this life with no memory of anything else, no sense of morality, little or no language, and a self-centered worldview with little or no sense of other people as individuals with lives of their own. So right off, there's potential for divergence. In fact, asynchronous development is one hallmark of gifted children. Conversely, delayed or limited development may retain more aspects of innocence longer due to lower capacity to grow beyond it. And some people just seem to have a personality that holds onto innocence, wonder, and simplicity regardless of their age or experience even though they are healthy.
So for instance, a baby born with active farmemory, or even the potential to access glimpses of it as needed, will already know things or learn much faster, which among other effects can cause dramatic differences in moral awareness at a very early age -- and it might or might not match the moral framework(s) of the society around them presently. A baby with high linguistic intelligence can acquire language faster than average and may learn to read much sooner, which also pushes moral development, whereas one with low linguistic intelligence may lag in that area but excel in some other way. High intrapersonal, interpersonal, existential, or emotional intelligence can also boost the process. Someone with empathy, telepathy, soul sense, or other direct perception of other people may figure out faster that they have lives and needs of their own -- although some soul perceptions have the opposite effect if they break the illusion of separation that defines so much of mortal existence.
At birth, the brain is more of a seed than a complete structure. It continues to grow and develop over time, in response to the environment and experiences which a child encounters. Infants don't have enough neural connections or observations to gauge complex things like right vs. wrong or priorities of need and timing. These grow in slowly over time. Children first begin to notice things like fair vs. unfair. By age 7-8, most children gain a basic awareness of morality and a reasonable ability to follow most rules most of the time if the environment is safe and consistent. Indeed, one of the early tasks of development is to form secure attachment which is a necessary foundation for gauging the world as a rational and moral place to be. Then adolescence brings the complicated process of creating an adult identity and and a role in society. Interestingly, when people become parents, that leads to another enormous reorganization because it typically situates the new infant at the center of the parent's worldview.
Innocence can also be stolen. A child who grows up in a neglectful, abusive, or otherwise traumatic and chaotic environment will be hindered in development. Things like connection disruption and developmental trauma disorder can mangle the maturation process. Exposed far too early to the harsh parts of the world, such children quickly lose their innocence as they scramble to survive in a hostile and unpredictable environment.
In a healthy environment, people exchange innocence for wisdom and ethics as they grow up. Various frameworks have been proposed for moral development, of which Kohlberg's six stages is a popular example. Not everyone necessarily makes it up the common scales of development, and indeed, some people grow beyond them. Cosmic or transcendental morality, for instance, includes concerns like "Life is precious, so don't destroy the biosphere of a living planet" and "Souls are equal, so don't discriminate against people based on their current body." That's off the top of the most moral scales, and people who function at that level don't fit in well when the society as a whole is one or more levels lower. The effect is dramatically worse if you pack it in or remember it early in life. This is why some societies have safety procedures to recognize baby lamas and support them with an environment appropriate to their development.
Furthermore, there are many ethical systems and decision-making frameworks. People often disagree on what "good" even is, let alone how to get there. A great exercise is to take a set of ethical systems and sit down with a newspaper or list of current issues in the world, then work out how each system would address those issues. Which system best fits your worldview? Are some better with certain types of problems? Which system(s) seem able to handle the widest range of issues effectively? Exercises like this help people to develop ethics and wisdom -- and understand that many different approaches can work. It helps to have a diverse toolbox in a complex world.
If babies are considered innocent, when do people cease to be innocent?
It's a gradual process, not a sudden shift. Also, it occurs at different speeds for different people, depending on their biology, personality, and living conditions.
Babies tend to start out innocent because most humans come into this life with no memory of anything else, no sense of morality, little or no language, and a self-centered worldview with little or no sense of other people as individuals with lives of their own. So right off, there's potential for divergence. In fact, asynchronous development is one hallmark of gifted children. Conversely, delayed or limited development may retain more aspects of innocence longer due to lower capacity to grow beyond it. And some people just seem to have a personality that holds onto innocence, wonder, and simplicity regardless of their age or experience even though they are healthy.
So for instance, a baby born with active farmemory, or even the potential to access glimpses of it as needed, will already know things or learn much faster, which among other effects can cause dramatic differences in moral awareness at a very early age -- and it might or might not match the moral framework(s) of the society around them presently. A baby with high linguistic intelligence can acquire language faster than average and may learn to read much sooner, which also pushes moral development, whereas one with low linguistic intelligence may lag in that area but excel in some other way. High intrapersonal, interpersonal, existential, or emotional intelligence can also boost the process. Someone with empathy, telepathy, soul sense, or other direct perception of other people may figure out faster that they have lives and needs of their own -- although some soul perceptions have the opposite effect if they break the illusion of separation that defines so much of mortal existence.
At birth, the brain is more of a seed than a complete structure. It continues to grow and develop over time, in response to the environment and experiences which a child encounters. Infants don't have enough neural connections or observations to gauge complex things like right vs. wrong or priorities of need and timing. These grow in slowly over time. Children first begin to notice things like fair vs. unfair. By age 7-8, most children gain a basic awareness of morality and a reasonable ability to follow most rules most of the time if the environment is safe and consistent. Indeed, one of the early tasks of development is to form secure attachment which is a necessary foundation for gauging the world as a rational and moral place to be. Then adolescence brings the complicated process of creating an adult identity and and a role in society. Interestingly, when people become parents, that leads to another enormous reorganization because it typically situates the new infant at the center of the parent's worldview.
Innocence can also be stolen. A child who grows up in a neglectful, abusive, or otherwise traumatic and chaotic environment will be hindered in development. Things like connection disruption and developmental trauma disorder can mangle the maturation process. Exposed far too early to the harsh parts of the world, such children quickly lose their innocence as they scramble to survive in a hostile and unpredictable environment.
In a healthy environment, people exchange innocence for wisdom and ethics as they grow up. Various frameworks have been proposed for moral development, of which Kohlberg's six stages is a popular example. Not everyone necessarily makes it up the common scales of development, and indeed, some people grow beyond them. Cosmic or transcendental morality, for instance, includes concerns like "Life is precious, so don't destroy the biosphere of a living planet" and "Souls are equal, so don't discriminate against people based on their current body." That's off the top of the most moral scales, and people who function at that level don't fit in well when the society as a whole is one or more levels lower. The effect is dramatically worse if you pack it in or remember it early in life. This is why some societies have safety procedures to recognize baby lamas and support them with an environment appropriate to their development.
Furthermore, there are many ethical systems and decision-making frameworks. People often disagree on what "good" even is, let alone how to get there. A great exercise is to take a set of ethical systems and sit down with a newspaper or list of current issues in the world, then work out how each system would address those issues. Which system best fits your worldview? Are some better with certain types of problems? Which system(s) seem able to handle the widest range of issues effectively? Exercises like this help people to develop ethics and wisdom -- and understand that many different approaches can work. It helps to have a diverse toolbox in a complex world.
