Introduction

What does it mean to be moral?

Morality: concerned with what actions are right and wrong

The Study of Morality falls under two heads: descriptive and normative.

1. Descriptive

Code of conduct of: individual or group (society, religion, nation, etc.)

Do we think putting the knife on the left side and the fork on the right is right or wrong? It does not make one immoral to do so. Morality is not the same as etiquette.

Do we think breaking the law is right or wrong? When we break the law by killing someone, clearly this is morally wrong. But: “In Memphis, Tennessee, a woman is not to drive a car unless a man warns approaching motorists or pedestrians by walking in front of the car that is being driven.” – this law seems to have no moral standing

Before the civil war, if an escaped slave came to your door and asked you for food or shelter, you were legally obliged to capture him and send him back to his master. Today, it is illegal to marry two men or two women. To break these laws is illegal, but does that make the action immoral? These laws are morally charged

So morality is not just any code of conduct held by an individual or a society.

Moreover, we can have ‘different’ moralities. A Catholic, because of their upbrining, might think it is wrong to eat meat on Fridays. A Mormon might not think it wrong to have more than one wife.

Descriptive morality differs widely from person to person, or from society to society. However, one morality is not better than another. It is simply a description of what people think is moral. Still, we should note that it is not simply any code of conduct, but governs a specific realm of ideas that we think are right or wrong.

What is the moral realm?

Imagine I had a choice: if I put the knife on the right side of the plate, a person will be killed. If I put the knife on the left side of a plate, a person will not be killed. I would break the code of etiquette in favour of this other rule. So, moral code of conduct is that which overrides all the others. It is not just a code of conduct, but it is a code of conduct that we actually follow.

2. Normative (Prescriptive)

What do these terms mean? Normative is what we ought to do. So the descriptive sense says what we do do. Normative is what we should or ought to do.

Different from descriptive: if we ought to do it, does that mean that anyone actually does it? No. So it does not actually have to be an accepted code of conduct.

Even if it were not adopted, still people must think it is a code of conduct. They must be aware of it. No. We could act immorally all the time. We could be completely wrong about how we think we ought to act.

Kinds of Normative Morality

Consequentialism: the greatest good for the greatest number

A person’s intentions are not important. It is only the consequences that determine whether an act is right or wrong.

This is intuitive. Whatever you do, so long as it makes most people happy is right. But, if I have to kill an innocent person to save 100, is this right?

Deontology: must follow the moral law

A person’s intentions determine whether an act is right or wrong. If harming another person is wrong, and it is my intention to harm a person, then the act is wrong. So it would be wrong to kill 1 person to save 100. Now, imagine I’m in Nazi germany, and I am hiding a Jewish family in my house. The SS knocks at my door and asks if I’m hiding anyone. I cannot lie.

Virtue ethics: a person should act the way the virtuous person would.

A virtuous person is the person who always does the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, etc. So my actions are right insofar as the correspond to the virtuous person’s. But, what is virtue? Hasn’t been an answer since the question was asked by Plato 2500 years ago.