Understanding Morality and Ethics in Society
Regulatory System
A regulatory system typically includes:
- A human model of their status and virtues.
- A pattern of behavior.
- A model of society.
Morality serves two universal human necessities: regulating conflicts of interest among people and settling conflicts between opposing intimate desires. These appear because moral standards are useful and because there is an advantage to maintaining them.
Custom, Morality, and Law
Distinguish accurately between different types of rules:
- Rules that come from custom are imposed by social training.
- Moral standards are imposed by social pressure.
- Rules of Law: coercion is imposed by authority.
Fundamentals
- Morality: A normative system of a society that determines which behaviors are good and bad. There are many moral cultures.
- Philosophy of Morality: Studies the morals of human culture, according to their genealogy and their criteria of validity.
- Ethics: Transcultural morality developed by reason, taking advantage of society’s moral experience.
The Origin of Morals
We consider the origin of morals the result of social intelligence. That is, they are emergent phenomena that arise from the interaction of personal intelligence. Each person has their private project of happiness, which must be coordinated with other people. However, not all members of society have the same influence on the appearance of norms. It is easy to see the imprint of active humans. Human characters seek pleasure, sociability, and increased opportunities. These desires influence each other: our selfish desire to enjoy is controlled by our need to live with others.
A Shared Rationality
The case of morality makes us take a step closer to finding a shared rationality: social rationality, public, and communicative. Because individual reason can perfectly justify selfishness, while shared reason has to propose different claims. We can integrate the claims of moral progress of mankind into law.
The Great Moral Problems
- The value of life.
- The duties of the community.
- Power and conflicts of interest.
- The distribution of goods.
- Ownership and sexuality, prosperity and family.
- The afterlife, death, gods, the meaning of life.
Functioning of Ethics
The basic axiom of practical reason says all humans, just because they have dignity, have fundamental rights derived from that dignity.
Human Dignity
From Kant, it is asserted that what characterizes from the moral point of view is its dignity. Human dignity is not only the fact of having intelligence, but also the act of affirming the dignity of human beings, and acting accordingly.
The Ethical Project of Humanity
We agree on the idea of an objective mode of living. Dignity is the intrinsic value of the person, for being a person, regardless of all other characteristics. It is concretized in the possession of rights.
Evidence and Errors
It is necessary to distinguish truth from falsehood in some ethical matters. There are highly contested issues, but often there is no disagreement in substance, but in the mode of performing or interpreting the accepted principles. We possess an ethical theory strong enough to be considered to have universal value, which is contained in the Declaration of Human Rights.
Fundamental Criteria
- Universality: Kant considered it the main feature of all ethical standards, which made him make his categorical imperative.
- Consistency: We cannot accept a model or theory that says contradictory things.
- Consistency with other truths: An ethical model must be consistent with science.
- Effectiveness: Scientists believe that the success of a theory is an element for ethical standards that aim to solve serious problems.
- Prediction of good consequences: An ethical theory is supported if you can perceive good consequences of its application. The elimination of the serious barriers identified by the law of ethical progress can provide good consequences.
- Argument ad horrorem: Ethics is a demonstration like mathematical corroboration. If the ethical model is not met, what would happen?