What is morality?
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What is morality?
If morality has any actual solid base it goes back in a prehistoric era where individuals abjusted their behaviour so it can be acceptable by others because they had to work together for their survival.
I don't think instincts are fixed to determine a solid base about morality. Just as you can teach a child to help a weak animal, you can teach it to torture a weak animal.
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Re: What is morality?
What if few really believed what they claimed to believe?
Arguably the truest vote for what the majority of people value comes from how the majority of people spend their coin or their time or their efforts. I doubt whatever comes out on top will be as noble as the arguments people pose about what they or their culture stands for.
As to morality, how should we treat one another? In a simple sense, isn't it about how individual or a collective answers that question in practice? Even the issue or acceptance or justification can be questioned - just because you can perform an action that everyone allows or perhaps doesn't even realize is happening, does that make it right?
And what if there are directly conflicting views within the populace? What if internationally the predominant view clashes with your countries, or your society's, or your community's or your families? Who are you loyal to?
And does someone need to be right? I would be willing to argue that it is possible that no one is right, and security from being held accountable for whatever you do, even if it is line with a higher power, doesn't need to be the goal of morality. It may even be an opposite of a desirable goal, in some regards.
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Re: What is morality?
If you say you believe something but you don't really believe it the only reason I can think you would do something like that is because in your society your true belief is something "not moral" so you lie about it. If all the people or the vast majority in a society thinks something is moral then it is bound that their actions based on this opinion will be moral (for them). For example for christians in middle ages killing people from another religion was something moral. Now the vast majority changed their opinion to the exact opposite and the same thing became immoral.
On how you should treat others is based on the opinion of the strong or the many in a certain comunity. For example hitting women is not immoral in some eastern countries while in western countries it is considered very immoral and so for them "it's not something that is correct" (I'm not implying that hitting women is ok for me it's not I'm making an extreme example because it is more simple to explain what I say).
It is up to you on who you are loyal it doesn't have anything to do with what I say. If you go against an international predominant view then your specific actions are considered "immoral" or "not correct".
Explain your last paragraph because I'm not sure I get it.
- Kevinandrew
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Re: What is morality?
I totally agree - morality is simply based on what the majority of people like and dislike. What else could it be based on?Mistery wrote:I think its just whether something is acceptable or not by the overwhelming majority in a comunity. If someone controls these opinions then he decides what is good and what is bad. For example burning a cross is something evil in a christian comunity while to other comunities it means nothing.
If morality has any actual solid base it goes back in a prehistoric era where individuals abjusted their behaviour so it can be acceptable by others because they had to work together for their survival.
I don't think instincts are fixed to determine a solid base about morality. Just as you can teach a child to help a weak animal, you can teach it to torture a weak animal.
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Re: What is morality?
- ToSeekWisdom
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Re: What is morality?
Scenario: One man has an orange while another man decides to take that orange against the other man's will. The first man gets upset and expects the other man to give the orange back. The first man is assuming that the other man lives by the same moral law of Right and Wrong and expects to receive some sort of apology or compensation. Therefore the first man has a Moral Law by which he lives. Now the question is, does the other man, the thief, live by any sort of similar Law? If when asked by the first man to either give back the orange, or compensate him with money or perhaps another orange, the second man would then reply, "To hell with your request." What is the second man implying? He knows the first man's desire for retribution without needing him to go into detail about the deep felt wronging due to his own crime. Since the thief knows the first man's feelings without him even saying why he wants retribution, then the thief understands the same Moral Law that the first man does. It lies within.
I honestly don't have any reason as of now to believe that Morality is based on cultural norms. I believe that it is a code written within every man and although the actions of morality may differ from culture to culture, the outcome is ultimately the same. If you do not believe their is an absolute Right and Wrong but all is relative, then I would encourage you to spend a night in camden NJ with your door unlocked and see what others believe.
I love forum topics such as this and you all are some intelligent people. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and I cant wait to be inspired by further comments.
- Skycloudnz
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Re: What is morality?
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Re: What is morality?
I agree the above is the fundamental element of morality.Mistery wrote:If morality has any actual solid base it goes back in a prehistoric era where individuals abjusted their behaviour so it can be acceptable by others because they had to work together for their survival.
Morality is the establishment of a system of conduct such that the individual(s) act collectively for the optimal good of humanity and to ensure its preservation and continuation.
"Optimal good' results in no sufferings for anyone, regardless of actions taken.
There is no absolute truth, there are only perspectives - Nietzsche.
The above applies to moral truths.
But nevertheless, for an ethical system to work, we must establish 'absolutes' (even pseudo ones) to guide the implementation of the ethical system to ensure its objectives are met.
Another point is we need to deliberate on what is 'ethics' and 'morality' either to differentiate them or agree both are synonymous.
To be super efficient, an ethical system must comprised the Pure and Applied in complementarity.
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Re: What is morality?
In other words, evolution gave us a moral sense. Not a specific set of moral standards, but the capacity for believing that some things are right and others are wrong. And for most of us, our moral beliefs are based on two things - 1) empathy and sympathy for others, and 2) rules (our own or those of our church, our state, our community, etc.).
- DoubtnThink
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Re: What is morality?
It was acceptable (ie. not morally wrong) in the times of Jesus to shun members of another tribe. Jesus set an ethical standard by the parable of the Good Samaritan. Many religions publicly profess that they obey the “Golden Rule” but an closer inspection of the laws, rituals, thinking and acts of a number of religions shows that this is not always so.
There were tribes in South America that lived by human sacrifice – the standard of the day. Killing a prisoner was not immoral. But universally it was not ethical – and ultimately the practice caused the extinction of some tribes when the corpses of the victims poisoned the well water. Poetic justice some might say.
- SadTeenagePoet
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Re: What is morality?
People who grew up in certain places have different types of understandings of right or wrong. It's all about the current state of mind. Right now, we have morality because it is intertwined with our guilt or pride. If we were raised while being trained by our parents to not have shame, we probably wouldn't understand morality as well as the people who were taught what was good and what's bad.
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Re: What is morality?
For me it's the same thing call it morality or ethics whichever you like. Both are formed according to what most believe it's good or bad in a comunity.DoubtnThink wrote:Morality is the set of standards of a community - for the greater good of the community. A set of rules. Ethics is what is universally good - and a person might have a set of ethical values that are different to the moral rules.
It was acceptable (ie. not morally wrong) in the times of Jesus to shun members of another tribe. Jesus set an ethical standard by the parable of the Good Samaritan. Many religions publicly profess that they obey the “Golden Rule” but an closer inspection of the laws, rituals, thinking and acts of a number of religions shows that this is not always so.
There were tribes in South America that lived by human sacrifice – the standard of the day. Killing a prisoner was not immoral. But universally it was not ethical – and ultimately the practice caused the extinction of some tribes when the corpses of the victims poisoned the well water. Poetic justice some might say.
- Skycloudnz
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Re: What is morality?
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Re: What is morality?
The passage there is entitled What is Morality?
It is a term in a system. That means it is related to all the other terms - because the system is coherent and it has validity. The word "Morality" was selected as the most-appropriate label to apply to a specific relationship within the theory of Ethics presented there. It is a re-definition of an old concept.
What the o.p. describes I would designate as mores or ethos. What a culture believes (or what it practices) is not necessarily moral at all !
So check it out..... Click on the sigt. link, and then on the Basic Ethics link at the bottom of new page. You may wish to skip the technical stuff for my fellow Philosophy professors at the outset. So skip to page 10 of the manuscript to learn about the proposed theory. Its a new paradigm for Ethics.
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Re: What is morality?
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023