Morality and a sense of self: The importance of identity and categorization for moral action

I begin with a puzzle: analysis of moral choice during the Holocaust locate s the drive toward morality not in traditional explanations-such as religio n, duty or reason-but in identity. This empirical anomaly suggests a gap in the literature on ethics. I thus developed a theory explaining morality th rough identity, focusing on the human capacity for intersubjective communic ation and the need to distinguish boundaries via categorization. Psychologi cal studies on self-esteem and the need for consistent behavior and linguis tic and psychoanalytic work on categorization suggest people do categorize and that such categorization is a universal of human nature. Once people cr eate categories, furthermore, they feel they must accord equal treatment to ail members within that class. This suggests the drive toward morality ema nates in human psychology and that we must honor the humanity of others in order to claim it in ourselves.