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Morality Defined
Version2.1
- March 2009
By Bruce Barbour
(Please
see Disclaimer)
Morality1 is the study of the principles of our interaction with other people. It is the study of how we treat other people and how they treat us, and what defines "good" and "bad".
Like a lot of words in English, "good" and "bad" are imprecise. Something can be "good" for me without having any moral implications. If I am out in the country, enjoying the beauty of the scenery this is certainly good for me but this is not a moral good. This is because it does not relate in any way to how I interact with other people, how I treat them and how they treat me. So while my personal happiness is "good" for me, but it is not a moral "good". I have no moral claim to this type of goodness.
Similarly for "bad". If I fall over and hurt myself this is bad for me, but it is not a moral badness. However it may be morally bad if someone had intentionally pushed me, thus causing this hurt.
What is good for me (in the sense of increasing my happiness or pleasure) or what is bad for me personally (in the sense of decreasing my happiness or pleasure) has no moral implications at all, unless that "badness" is intentionally caused by other people for their personal gain or if I have gained the so called "goodness" at the expense of other people by a conscious act.
Similarly the things that
people do are not necessarily good
or bad
merely because of the nature of the act.
1. Ethics and morality tend to be used interchangeably however there are some differences. For example a professional organization can have a code of ethics, and if the members of the organization adheres to this code then they may claim to be ethical, but this is only a very narrow specific version of ethics. A bikie gang could have a code of ethics governing how they treat each other and people who are not a member of the gang. However these rules may not necessarily conform to normal understandings of morality. Ethics tends to be subjective. When talking about morality the rules tend to be thought of more objective and absolute.
