Moral Foundation

Perception according to moral foundation is rooted into our conscience. Universal morality is based on our receptions of pain and pleasure. The golden rule, present in many cultures, defines our knowledge of pain and pleasure. It implies how harmony arises from actions that avoid the pain of others. Thus, this rule is constructed by man with the desire to control pain, which is defined as suffering. Animals also distinguish pain from pleasure. Their instincts make them avoid pain and seek pleasure. Morality is our mechanism to avoid pain, and survive (pleasure from existing). This is the first learning material presented to us. The base of physical pain provides us the knowledge to be educated to avoid it and meet the desire for pleasure (the very purpose of morality). Authors, educated in this trend, appeal to readers with this intrinsic reason (the presence of pain and pleasure).

Considering this universal morality, being guided by the same desire to avoid pain does not cause people to evaluate experiences in the exact same way. Under many influences, students (the human body) of this education possess their own distinct moral views. The process of cause and effect in which pain and pleasure are effects is evaluated from various approaches. This is due to our practice of experience. Authors present their moral views through their work. They construct themes to generalize them. They promote this theme by applying its effects to the occurrences of pain and pleasure in the world of their narratives. They encourage us to adopt their moral views by providing their reason. We can either relate to their reasoning with our own or perceive how it influences characters of different values. In the latter, we relate to the characters’ change of feelings and thus recognize the cause that prompts the change (as it is wholly perceptions which stimulate emotions). If a character weeps, we can relate to his/her emotion, associate it with woe, and observe how his/her perception of a stimulus calls for pain. In a moral controversy, a standpoint which is similar or relatable to the author’s may support the understanding of his/her propaganda. This statement implies the sustenance of the universal morality of pain and pleasure, an educative material which we can always relate with.

The characters in a narrative also follow universal morality. The author’s style of narration manipulates our perceptions of the characters. The author does not merely observe. Because he/she is influenced by a distinct moral view, he/she perceives. The narration may not directly suggest the author’s true judgment. It is his/her style of writing reveals his/her thinking. We receive the author’s perception and that of his characters. However, like the author, we judge by our own morality. We understand by what we are educated to understand by our distinct experiences. Though universal morality always is instinctively our instrument of understanding, we may not