Chunsoo Ha

Professor Repp
Development of Moral Actions
Examining Moral Emotions
Screaming for help, crying in fear, a woman is about to be raped. Her boyfriend runs in
angrily to save his woman from her assailant, while passersby ignored the conflict due to fear of
being attacked. What drives this man to save his girlfriend while the others purposely avoid the
conflict? What drives anyone to ignore somebodys pain like the teachers in the Columbine High
School who looked the other way from bullying? Several factors include the mans relationship
and empathy with the woman, how she was a complete stranger to the passersby that were too
afraid of repercussion, or how the teachers who were afraid of confrontation. To identify with
moral emotions, you first define morality and then figure out what moral emotions trigger a
response to moral violations or motivate a person to morally act. The four families of moral
emotions that influence the moral actions people make are other-condemning, self-conscious,
other-suffering, and other-praising. Understanding the concepts of moral emotions and behaviors
allow people to identify with actions that people make, even sociopathic people like the
Columbine shooters.
When something tragic has happened to a person, people feel sympathetic for that person,
but dont truly feel empathetic. A person truly understands a persons sorrow if they could relate
to it. A teenager who has lived with both their parents alive might feel sad for the newly
orphaned teenager, but wouldnt know what it really feels like to lose both of their parents. The
same goes for a death in a family. A relative is able to relate to the sorrow within the family, but

their friends wont really experience the same loss, unless they had a close relationship with the
deceased person. A sympathetic person will most likely just give their condolences to the
victims, but an empathetic person will most likely mourn with the victim and always being there
for them to help them mentally recover. When a person who isnt a psychopath or sociopath kills
somebody, usually it haunts a person with guilt. A person feels guilty when they feel like they did
something morally wrong. In the Vietnam War, many Americans lost their lives, but many
Americans took other lives. Sometimes, veterans feel so much guilt that they pay a visit to
Vietnam so that they can pay their respects to the people they killed. They also might partake in
humanitarian efforts in aiding the people of Vietnam. The philosopher, Joseph Haidt, mentions
how purity is one of the universal moral spheres, which is valued highly by Japanese people.
People experience shame when they feel like they are involved with humiliation or
embarrassment. Japanese people are known to commit seppuku when they dishonor their family
for the sake of purifying their shame.
What happens when a person feels no empathy for others? How about no remorse or
shame? What about behaving with extreme impulsivity? These characteristics describe a typical
sociopath which we could relate to the Columbine shooters. Sociopaths feel no empathy for
others and generally have no sincere moral emotions. They think highly of themselves and
immerse in self-gain. Dave Cullens book, Columbine, depicts the lifestyles and behaviors of
Eric Harris and Dylan Kleboid. Having a basic understanding of the way they thought explains
how they become involved with the killings of numerous students. Eric Harris and Dylan
Kleboid thought highly of themselves. They thought that they were cool, smart, and better people
than their peers. They were high school students with typical high school desires like having a
prom date, but they were quite often bullied for being different. They hated the norm and revered

the rebel lifestyle. Sooner or later, something snapped within these two. They acquired guns a
month before the attack and constructed ninety-nine explosives. The night before the shooting,
Eric Harris had recorded a monologue saying, People will die because of meIt will be a day
that will be remembered. which indicates his sociopathic mindset because he is aware of his
actions and feels like killing people will be an accomplishment. On the day of the killings, they
planted bombs all around campus and shot twelve people. Because they were victims of
bullying, they targeted their bullies and didnt care for how drastic their thoughts were. Dylan
Kleboid had said, "You've been giving us shit for years. You're fucking gonna pay for all the shit!
We don't give a shit. Because we're gonna die doing it." In the end, they killed themselves.
All in all, moral emotions play an important figure in understanding how people behave
based on their morality. Empathy, sympathy, guilt, and shame are emotions that promote peoples
moral behavior. If a person lacks these moral emotions, they are a sociopath like Eric Harris and
Dylan Kleboid. Moral emotions influence how people behave, which leads to a stable structure
of society. If sociopaths experienced love and compassion from others, maybe they wouldnt
exist.