Why do people act ethically?
The urge to act ethically is rooted in our human capacity for feeling, thought, and free will. Feelings are our most primitive means of knowing what we value and of generating passion for what’s important to us. Recall how satisfying it feels to do a good deed, or how upsetting it feels to be treated badly. When we act cruelly or unfairly, we usually pay the price with feelings of fear, alienation, or guilt. We damage our ability to love and trust as well as the ability to be loved and trusted. When we are able to empathize with another person, we genuinely care about the consequences of our behavior and enjoy the good we do. While feelings show us our values, thought, in the form of memory, imagination, and reason, enables us to anticipate what behaviors might have long-term benefits or negative consequences. Reasoning can verify whether our deed is likely in fact to elicit the best from life. When we are addicted to habits that feel good or familiar but are destructive, our vision of
