Is Morality Innate?

Is morality innate? This is an important problem in the field of moral psychology. Supporters of moral nativism believe that due to the similarity between morality and language, we can apply the argument about linguistic nativism to support moral nativism. Moreover, they believe that there is universality of moral norms in different cultures, which can prove that human morality is innate. However, Sripada and Prinz, as representatives of moral nonnativism, point out that the analogy between morality and language is problematic, and moral innateness cant be inferred from universality of morality. This article focuses on the following question: Can the nonnativists make adequate objections to moral nativism? Firstly, This paper will introduce the views of moral nativists, explaining two important components of linguistic analogy:Poverty of Stimulus Argument and Principle and Parameters Model. At the same time, it will also illustrate the argument from universality. Secondly, through the objection by Sripada and Prinz, I will find out the difficulties in argument which support moral nativism, then try to replace the explanation of moral nativism with Innate Biases Model and Emotions Constitution Model. Finally, I think that these theoretical models can plausibly account for problems, such as moral acquisition, universality of moral norms as well as moral nativism. Moreover, nonnativism makes weaker commitments than moral nativism.