There was a time when human beings kept other human beings as slaves. Measured across history, the era with slavery ran longer than the era without it. Even in the United States, often described as the most advanced of nations, slavery was not abolished until 1865. Korea had its own bound laborers and outcast classes, which disappeared into history only at the end of the 19th century. Does that make everyone who upheld slavery before the 19th century a bad person? Many of the great figures we know from history kept slaves or bound servants. Should their morality be reassessed?
In his new book "Between Fixed and Fickle," published in Korean as "Why Am I Always Right and You Always Wrong," Audun Dahl, a psychology professor at Cornell University, examines why moral judgments such as support for slavery change with the times and circumstances. Drawing on moral psychology, he traces how human moral judgments are formed and how they shift.
Morality is neither entirely fixed nor arbitrarily changeable, the author argues. Moral truths can change depending on circumstances and historical period. Judgments differ according to what each person treats as important, whom they take into account and which values they prioritize when values conflict. People also learn new facts, find reasons to change their minds while weighing existing values against new ones, and continually adjust their moral priorities.
The author does not claim that having a reason for a judgment makes the resulting action justified. He discusses his own grandfather, who joined Norway's Nazi party around the start of World War II. According to the records, the grandfather joined believing the party could serve as a check on Germany, but left after being shocked to find that it had little power and instead fell in line with German aims. Still, there were troubling details, including that he wore Nazi uniforms and insignia during his time as a member. His grandfather may have had his own reasons, the author writes, but there is no need to look past a clear wrong.
The book follows shifts in moral judgment across three layers — the individual, the situation and history — ranging from the trolley problem to political divisions between left and right, human rights and global warming. By examining moral judgments formed in different eras, different circumstances and different courses of life, it leads readers to look at how those judgments were made and changed rather than to pass easy verdicts on the morality of others. Priced at 22,000 won.