Morality is a specific code of conduct held by an individual, person or group. One must have freedom, knowledge, reasoning, discernment, and a normative basis to have the ability to make their own moral and ethical decisions. A normative basis gives the sense of who we "should" be as individuals. Everyone has their own normative basis whether they acknowledge it or not. Ethical development and discovery have been important themes in my life. Like many, through my growth, I have worked to discover the reasons behind the moral teachings I have been taught. My ethical views have been highly impacted by my upbringing, education, and familial and social environment. Throughout each stage of development, my view of morality has continued to …show more content…
The school I attended was highly religious and focused mostly on biblical teaching rather than academia. The faculty expected spiritual and moral perfection. Spirituality was often synonymous with a person's morality. For example, if someone did not express themselves enough in prayer, they were considered morally inferior to someone who was extremely expressive and engaged. I often would do the right thing and pray the right way because I did not want to be ostracized from my friend group as a bad influence or not “holy” enough. As I developed, I often questioned the reason behind what I was being taught but I chose to do what was expected of me to be at peace with my peers and superiors. At this point in my development, I was at the conventional stage in Kohlberg's moral development theory. I continued to be in this phase throughout high school. Though, I would often dissect the legitimacy of the moral code I was expected to live by, I rarely deviated from my superiors expectations to remain in good standing with those around …show more content…
I was then able to explore various views of moral goodness. During this time of experimentation, I have explored moral theories such as consequentialism, the ethics of care, and deontology. I find each moral theory fascinating and credible in their own right. One I find particularly fascinating is consequentialism. This theory implores that the rightness of an action is determined by its ends. Though this theory is a bit overly simplistic, it provides a notable base for simple moral decisions. The theory does not stand when moral situations become complex. The simplicity of this theory leaves me searching for something
So what exactly is morality and why does it pose such a complicated question? In the book Western Philosophy by David Papineau, it discusses the many different approaches to moral beliefs. Illustrious philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle’s take on morality are one’s personal behavior and set of inner values. Morals can also derive from a social standpoint, where the popular belief rules over all others; if most believe it to be true, then it must present itself as being true. But as stated in the book, even these interpretations can be “very narrow view[s]” (134). Morality also stems from a religious standpoint. Religion has perhaps had the biggest impact on people’s lives and the way ...
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development shows the different stages of morality as people change as they get older (McLeod). He had three levels which broke down his stages
moral development. In these stages, Kohlberg concentrates on the reasons why people act the way they do; not the way they think about their actions or what action they take, but the reasoning behind their actions.
I never really grasped a straight forward definition of morality given by the speaker. Morality to me is a person’s code of conduct that they live their life by. It is a person’s beliefs that make them feel if something is right or wrong.
“The sanctity of the oath” (Keillor 102), the controversial hot topic of this year. This is a subject that has sparked great debates not only to those in Congress, but among the American people as well. Some hold the oath as a promise of civility and humanity. On the other hand, others view the morality the oath is supposed to stand for as unreachable and unattainable. In my opinion Garrison Keillor sums it up in his essay, “The Republicans Were Right, But.” I feel this is a good essay based upon the author’s argument of morality, his use of symbolism, and the entire structure of the essay.
Immanuel Kant addresses a question often asked in political theory: the relationship between practical political behavior and morality -- how people do behave in politics and how they ought to behave. Observers of political action recognize that political action is often a morally questionable business. Yet many of us, whether involved heavily in political action or not, have a sense that political behavior could and should be better than this. In Appendix 1 of Perpetual Peace, Kant explicates that conflict does not exist between politics and morality, because politics is an application of morality. Objectively, he argues that morality and politics are reconcilable. In this essay, I will argue two potential problems with Kant’s position on the compatibility of moral and politics: his denial of moral importance in emotion and particular situations when an action seems both politically legitimate and yet almost immoral; if by ‘politics’, regarded as a set of principles of political prudence, and ‘morals’, as a system of laws that bind us unconditionally.
“Decreased moral standards and ethics related to ignorance to accepted social behavior standards”. Morality is defined as an understanding and distinguishing right and wrong and behaving according to socially accepted standards (The Definition of Morality, 2002). People can be inconsiderate and conflictful. From the assessment, it was evident that some people have lack of respect to other’s personal properties and even their own. Abandoned houses and trash on properties suggest social and moral degradations. Some of the contributing factors might be poverty, unemployment, and mental illnesses. Lack of morality might be a problem that affects other states and even countries. However, in some areas of Spokane, it is evident that people
What is morality? Merriam-Webster dictionary states that morality is/are the beliefs about what right behavior is and what wrong behavior is
Morals. Right and wrong. This is what we as everyday human beings struggle with every day. And we aren’t the only ones. Modern day philosophers study this day in and day out, especially those who study metaethics. Metaethics is the study of the foundation of ethics, what it means to be moral. Within metaethics there are three main moral beliefs that are constantly being debated between; moral realism, moral relativism, and moral skepticism. I believe that moral skepticism is the most reasonable standpoint on morality because while morals do exist, they are completely subjective. A person 's sense of morality depends on how they were raised, what they were taught to believe, who they surround themselves with and their personal experiences. After
Morality is making the distinction between doing what is beneficial or doing what is detrimental. Everything in this world is connected and depends on a sense of morality. “We care for people, billions of organisms, and myriads of habitats they support, because we now appreciate that we draw our life from each other, and that we are all mutually implicated in each other’s fate” (Wirzba 88). Our lives are ultimately connected with the state and well-being of other individuals. We discern the fate of ourselves when we care about the fate of others. If we choose to disregard the needs of our settings, we are living immorally in regard to our surroundings and ourselves.
Kohlberg’s theory of the stages of moral development has gained some popularity despite being controversial. The claim that the levels form a “ladder,” the bottom being the immature child with a pre-conventional level and the top being a post conventional ethical individual. The sequence is unvarying and the subject must begin at the bottom with aspirations to reach the top, possibly doing so. (7) Research confirms that individuals from different cultures actually progress according to Kohlbergs theory, at least to the conventional level. Kohlberg’s stages of moral development continue to provide a foundation for psychology studies of moral reasoning. (6)
The term “ethics” discusses how one’s morality needs to take acknowledge that of the rest of the members of the group or community t...
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Part One:The criticisms of Kohlberg's moral development stages seem to center around three major points, his research methods, the "regression" of stage four, and finally his goals.The first criticism that I would like to address is that of his research methods. Kohlberg is often criticized for not only his subject selection, but also the methods by which he tries to extricate data from those subjects. His initial study consisted of school boys from a private institution in Chicago. The problem with this is fairly obvious, that this does not represent a significant portion of the population to allow for generalized conclusions. In other words, how can we test some boys from Chicago and ascertain that this is how all people develop worldwide?I believe that the answer to this criticism comes from the theory that it relates to.
The concept of morality differs for every individual. Morality is one 's concept of right and wrong as defined by the individual 's society, family, religion, ethnicity and even gender. It is also subject to the individual 's interpretation and experience. This lends credence to the idea that no one 's morality is exactly the same. The next logical question to answer would be how does one develop their morality? Developmental behaviorist such as Piaget and Kohlberg developed theories for this moral development and how it progresses from childhood into adulthood (Barsky, 2010). Kohlberg 's theory centers around three levels of growth: preconventional reasoning, conventional reasoning, and postconventional reasoning. The levels progress from