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Morality is Very subjective, As an individual you decide what is Moral.
This is why we have laws to decide the perfect Morals for all to follow.

amosi 4 May 29
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16 comments

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0

Actually, we pass laws that help us live in a somewhat harmonious society. Most of our laws are more about getting along with each other than they are about actual morals.

0

Ah, would that life was so simple. First, as @Ringo6 said, I think you meant to say morality is Subjective. =]

"Perfect morals" is an oversimplification. I think Ringo stated it quite well.

1

No,
Objective - adjective

  1. (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.

Morality is entirely subjective based on popular opinion. There are no facts defining morality, there is a common agreed upon theme that is again entirely based upon the decisions of the masses and their feelings on a particular subject.

Morality is always slightly different from person to person, but every individual does not get to decide what is moral and what is not. If that was the case Hitler could have decided he was moral and the rest of humanity would have to follow his lead which is not the case. Laws are based on morality and enforced by the masses, again not decided upon by an individual. That is the problem with mixing up justice and religion and morality and laws. They are all based on man's interpretation at the time and some obsolete but none ever perfect.

There are many cases in justice which in comparison while the law was followed most people can agree the outcomes are not fair. Laws are not in any way shape or form perfect morality.

@Bobby9 I'm not confusing them, they are one and the same. Slavery used to be socially and morally acceptable, and now it's neither. To your example, neither murder nor rape are social or morally acceptable.

@Bobby9 You are giving far too much credit to the values mankind has held. Slaverly has been occurring longer in our history than it has not and you think that it was never "socially acceptable"? Slavery was allowed by law since the 18th century BC and when exactly did it end again? People owned slaves in the south of the United States and made them fight at dinner parties. You're saying those people didn't consider slavery to be socially acceptable, really? Slavery was not only condoned, but it was backed by law. I'm not confused, you're ignoring most of our history and considering the viewpoints of today to be paramount over the entirety of history. They have not been as every political or religious document said slavery was acceptable, what evidence do you have to say it was not?

[globalslaveryindex.org]

@Bobby9 I disagree and asked for examples.

1

What a conflation, indeed. There can and should always be things that are immoral but not illegal.

Basically, the legal system has the same problem as religion. No, I'm not talking about how they both tend to have unflattering robes and uncomfortable pews. The utimate truth behind any determination made in the system is akin to 'because I said so'.

In religion this is a reference to the authority of a sacred teхt. In the legal system it is typically said as "it's the law!" As it may be deadpanned by your attorney or bellowed by an officer who is questioned by those who should hardly even answer in their mighty presense.

I get the need for society to have some sort of backbone. Yet, the way we treat sex and drugs in many places seems a lot more like something perpetrated on the populace rather than the ultimate code of behavior.

0

I think that morality is objective. Everything is objective, or else it's not provable, verifiable, etc. because then it's not even certain that it is there.

Now, do people even read about morality or anything in my experience? Hell no. I live in the USA, ain't nobody reading sh%t except the New York Post or some other small talk stuff.

Let's say you are homeless on the streets and have a baby to feed but no money. I'm having lunch at a sidewalk café. I leave a tip and as I walk away I see you take the waiter's tip. I would think that is wrong. You might think taking the money to feed your baby is a act for the greater good and therefore is the right thing to do.

How is that right or wrong provable? How is your judgment objective? How is anyone's personal judgment objective?

@dare2dream

"How is that right or wrong provable?"

We need to start with axioms, then work on definitions, theorems, etc.

"How is your judgement objective?"

There is a way to affirm one's subjectivity, but that is probably just as time-consuming as the answer to the first question.

"How is anyone's personal judgement objective?"

It is done through paying attention to the judgement of a well-informed, sane, intelligent person of good sense. That person is as good as it gets as a means for discerning truth.

2

I agree. But there are also commonly shared morals, consensus morality if you will and these form our laws.

0

Morality for me is compassion and evidence

1

In the end the morality is the group of expected behavior that, when applied by huge number of people, will generate a stable and if possible continuously improving environment.
This is what we try to translate in laws and social unwritten rules.
The problem is that this environment changes, and any rule that becomes too sacred to be touched will become an anchor.

1

I think you meant subjective. I don't know about laws to decide perfect morals. I could go out and have sex with a different woman every day and be as promiscuous as can be and many would judge me immoral but there's nothing illegal about that, providing the sex was adult and consensual in all cases. Morality would be matter of opinion here but not related to the law. Many people work in professions, areas of business, that I think are immoral, like finance where they treat people badly and exploit them and get away with legal cheating, but it's still legal. I think it's immoral. So, yes there is subjectivity, but laws to define perfect morals? I don't think so.

0

Morality comes down to ‘well being’. How do your actions effect the well being of others?

KenG Level 6 May 30, 2018

I think that morality is a linguistic construct. Something is either moral or not moral if it meets the criteria for moral behavior, so that extends beyond others, and to the self, also.

@DZhukovin I think that’s circular reasoning. What is moral behaviour?

0

Morality is malleable.
More a matter of convenience than anything else.

0

Morality can have gray areas, but if you murder, torture, rape, enslave, or similarly directly harm another person then that is immoral.

Law is not morality. Driving 58mph in a 55mph zone is not immoral. Littering is not immoral. Smoking weed is not immoral. Sneaking in to a theater to see a movie is illegal but not really immoral.

Cheating on your spouse is generally considered immoral yet its not illegal. Lying is usually considered immoral but generally not illegal.

Morality and law are very different. With the exception of acts that harm others (murder, assault, theft, etc) morality should not be enforced by laws.

0

In reality, morality goes way deeper than individual decision and choice. Much of morality is culturally determined. In many senses, morality at its base is more related to evolutionary determinism, instincts. Instincts work to maximize fitness for survival. Having a cultural determinate like morals and morality allows for a population of himan's to maximize it fitness for survival. Caveat: humans have found a way to shield themselves from their own instincts and their environment, so examples of an increase of aberrant behavior that is contrary to fitness occurs with tegulsrity.

1

Some laws are not moral, but imperfect expressions of cultural biases. Some laws are to be resisted if we are moral people. Example: The Jim Crow of the American south prior to the late 1960s.

0

Morality is subjective unless of course you have been indoctrinated into a belief system. I think that morals can be fluid for some people. As an example a Christian friend who is totally against abortion because it is immoral but then her daughter gets pregnant and voila! all of a sudden it isn't against her morals in this instance. I think for me it is that many people espouse morality insofar as what others should do....you know do as I say, not as I do

2

Actually, morality is subjective. Therefore, it is not absolute (unless you are one who believes a god dictated to you what is moral). It is also relative because of changing circumstances.

We all rely on our society for our well being and therefore owe a debt to the unspoken social contract to live cooperatively.

@Bobby9 : I don't. But I think a lot of rapists justify it. Maybe they say the victim deserves it or the rapist thinks he had a higher right. It's subjective because everyone gets to decide for one's self.

@Bobby9 : Morality is not existential. It does not exist in the universe as do gravity, the speed of light or inertia. Morality is a mental construct. It is man-made. It is derived from what a person thinks OUGHT to be. We even think collectively what ought to be in society and can agree on some things.

@Bobby9 : Who is to say whose opinion is valid?

How is morality objective?

@Bobby9 : That's just YOUR opinion. Who made you the judge of the world? (No disrespect intended here.) My point is, there is no judge of the world.

You said, "Humans realized that murder, rape, theft are morally wrong." Since the times of the Barbarians, the ancient Greeks and even today, rape, murder and pillaging are systematically used in wars and conquests. You said, "There is no way murder can be justified." How about in war? How about in self defense? Murder and rape are approved depending on the circumstances and the people involved.

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