How do we know whats right?

Go directly to "easy"...turn 360 degrees and the path you are now facing is right.

By trusting on our instincts :-)

All philosophical ethics systems sort of suck. They try, and should get some polite applause for their efforts, but they still suck.

Here's one that sucks less than most, but it still sucks: "right action" is that which has the interests of the Whole in mind, while protecting the rights of the parts.

So since all systems suck, what to do? It turns out that humans are actually pretty good at choosing correct ethical actions pragmatically, WITHOUT fancy systems of ideas, as long as their own egos are being properly managed -- an excess of self-centeredness messes up the dials and knobs.

This ability to make good ethical choices improves with experience and time if development proceeds normally, such that an older person who has a sound relationship with their own ego can make excellent judgment calls about right and wrong in specific situations. These are the people we (hopefully) draw from when appointing legal judges.

So as a practical matter, knowing what's right is a fairly solvable problem. As a philosophical matter, you mostly get various shades of squirmy goo.

By ruling out everything that is left.

Every now and then Rich or Joel will come on and tell us. Either in an answer or in the blog. :)

I line everything up with the Bible.

I always look at how it works in nature and often get the right answer

when in doubt just ask me..I am always right ya know..lol :)

Conscience is an ability or faculty or sense that leads to feelings of remorse when we do things that go against our moral values, or which informs our moral judgment before performing such an action. Such feelings are not intellectually reached, though they may cause us to 'examine our conscience' and review those moral precepts, or perhaps resolve to avoid repeating the behaviour.

Commonly used metaphors refer to the "voice of conscience" or "voice within."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscience

http://www.search.com/search?q=voice+of+conscience

It's best just to not ask that question.

some of it is instinct.

Hold up both hands, palms out, with the index fingers pointing upwards, and thumbs extended at right angles to each other. The hand that forms the capital letter "L" is the left one, and the other one is the right.

Right and wrong are very subjective depending on our upbringing, beliefs systems, and fears. I would choose the pragmatic approach and try to foresee the results of my actions before I do anything. Above all, we should always control our emotions: don't let them make our decisions for us. And it's better to make decisions when we are rested.

I base it on what my parents taught me. What religion has taught me. What society expects of me. What makes me happy. I combine all of these and balance them out in a manner that causes the least pain and most benefit to myself, my loved ones and society.

This is a tough one but I want to take a run at it:

We know what's right because of a deep non-verbal feeling.
I think this takes place in the inherited structures of the lower cortex. Humans appear to have an innate social appropriateness-meter that emerges with socialization. ("Aww- isnt it cute...etc )
Call it the 'inner light' if you like, or 'conscience' ("with-knowing"); used to be called 'instinct'.
This moral sense is way easier to work with than it is to understand. It's more than just learned. And it's differently configured by learning in different people.
The 'rules' of right and wrong are just verbal statements. The important part of our moral understanding takes place at a deeper level in our headspace.

i don't think we really do. We seem to get things put on a plate.. what is right and what is wrong. Basically, if you don't experiment yourself you'll never know any different!

Will what you do hurt ANYONE else (think that shoplifting hurts the store-owner... robbery and beating hurt the victims... many things you do as kids hurt your parents/grandparents/guardians... Calling people names hurts THEM... etc.)

Is it against the law in any way?
Is it against the 10 Commandments in any way? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments )

If it's not, and it WON'T in the future, it's right.

We don't, some people just think they do.

Ask yourself if what you are doing will do something bad in any way to anyone or anything anytime. If it will affect badly someone or something then it is not entirely right.

One might say that everyone has an "idea" of what is right, but it is strictly subjective. Their decisive processes adhere to their individual value and belief systems. So, I guess what im saying is that nobody can know what is universally "right."

society tells us.

sometimes something that is right in a western country for example - is not in a eastern setting - taking the teacher that named the teddy Mohammed - no-one would care in England or America.

Taking another example - (apart from veggies) no-one would think twice about eating a mcdonalds hamburger - but in muslim society, this would be seen as wrong because they don't eat non-halal meat.

I think this just shows that wrong and right is dependant on your culture.

I think it comes down to your own beliefs and values. for example if i believe that crashing a car into a lamp post is the right thing to do, when i go through the action i will feel good about it because i believe it is right to do so. The same goes for everyone alive, they all have different opinions on what is right and wrong. Religion has a major influence on this matter and so does your upbringing. very good question.

Easy! If it's not left, it's right.

(this one is hard, but one of my views)

I think that we don't really know what it is that we know. We may think that we are doing whats right(to our conscious mind), but we can be doing what is wrong. There is probably no real answer to this question, but "You might know whats right when you yourself has surpassed the existence of the "wrong"."
Meaning, to know the right, you must to know the wrong at the same time.

Put your answer on here if you're wrong (or not sometimes) there's plenty of people who will let you know and mark you down.

We may not know what is right or wrong, but inside us some one is watching all our actions that some one knows right and wrong. It is known as conscience.

We can never truly know if everything is right if we exclude the silly pun and all that aside. there are too many shades of gray to consider when judging whether something is correct or not.

If Sven approves, everything is okay. otherwise,
keep your nose clean and your bark clear.

Listening to and observing others?
;-)

what we see "ourselves" as right is based on what we have learned or expireinced, what we believe and our own ethnics and morals

i think all this comes together an we make a decision on what we see as being right an that is what we belive

Sometimes we know
Mostly we dont.
Sometimes we lie,
mostly we try.
just hanging in there.

anyway, if there was a formula it would not be right, painting by the numbers.

1. Do you think it's right?
2. Do the majority of humans on the earth agree?
3. Does it do more good than harm to humanity and the planet as a whole?
If you can answer yes to all three, then there's a good chance it's the right thing. Of course, if you spend enough time, you can always think of a way to see something that appears right as wrong. There's some condition where it would no longer be right. So we go with our best guess, and sometimes we turn out to be wrong. But the important part is to still care about getting it right.

You feel it if it is truth. But right to one's self does not always mean right to society

I believe Australian philosopher Peter Singer’s thoughts sum it up best. He claims it is not a moral code particular to a sectional group. For example it has nothing to do with a set of prohibitions concerned with sex laid down by a religious order. Neither is ethics a ‘system that is noble in theory but no good in practice’. He agrees that ethics is in some sense universal but in a utilitarian way it affords the ‘best consequences’ and furthers the interests of those affected. To me, this is the most civilized way to approach it.

Right, wrong are moral descriptive terms. Just like other descriptive terms, like big and small there has to be a standard to measure against. Moral implies the need to choose an action, and a thing for whom the choice actually matters. Humans act by choice, and humans face an alternative that matters, life or death. Right is that action which that which serves to assure or enhance the life of a reasoning human.

We don't.

You dont