Conditioned by culture.

Philosophers and theologists must take account of neuroscience in their investigations.Software" of thinking, independently of the "hardware"—the brain structure and neuronal firings—that produced it, this metaphor doesn't work with the brain: Hardware and software are intertwined to such an extent that all philosophy must be "neurophilosophy." There's no other way of explaining the vacuous ness, of a vast swath of contemporary moral philosophy or origins of values. The biological picture contains other elements, of course, notably our large prefrontal cortexes, which help us to take stock of situations in ways that lower animals, driven by "fight or flight" impulses, cannot take logical decisions. Oxytocin and its cousin-compounds ground the human capacity for empathy, and we might accept it as the germ of 'moral sentiment in human minds. We can assume that it is from here, that culture and society began to make their presence felt, shaping larger moral systems: tit-for-tat retaliation helps keep freeloaders and abusers of empathic understanding in line. The rules for acceptable behaviour are passed on from generations, and then cultures raise institutional moral and value structures which vary from culture to culture.