Today in psychology we talked about the princeples of morals. What exactly are morals? To many morals are the rules they live by to feel like a good person. But the true definition of a moral is a rule that determines right from wrong. Many people around the world look towards their religion for morals but one can't always accept every moral thrown at them. Your the one who has morals, your opinion on what is right or wrong differs from others. So how do we know wether we are moral or not? In all honesty sometimes we don't know, but sometimes its obvious. An example of a simple moral is wether it is moral to kill someone for no reason. Of course its immoral. But now lets flip the scenerio. Is the death penalty moral? Some will say yes and others no. Its all based on your personal belief of whats right or wrong.
We might not be able to tell wether certain morals are better than others, but what we can tell is that there are different levels of morality.
Level 1: If punishment is involved with the decision then it is the wrong choice.
Level 2: If a reward is given for choosing a certain choice, then it is right. No reward; then its not the right choice.
Level 3: You follow the rules (morals) in order to look like a good person.
Level 4: You follow the rules because you agree with them.
Level 5: You have your own rules that you follow. You don't need pre-existing rules to follow, you already have your own. You follow rules in order to improve yourself internally.
Level 6: You follow universal morals. You are the definition of being morally right. Examples of these type of people are of the highest quality, not human to be exact. People like Jesus and Buhdda.
Levels 1 and 2 are moral levels which are below what's morally expected of you. Levels 3 and 4 are levels expected to be present in everyone. Levels 5 and 6 are well above the morality expected. (This level of morality is almost impossible to find.)
So what morality do you think you are? And be honest. Leave a comment below, and like always thank you for reading :)
I like how you clear up a topic that many people don't know very much about. The format, where you list out all the levels and then explain them, helped me understand morals a lot better than I would have if you have used another format.
ReplyDeleteHow can one say that one has morals and one does not when by your definition morals are all "based on your personal belief of whats [sic] right or wrong." Then the vast majority of people on this Earth are the "definition of being morally right." Also, when you say "what's morally expected of you," you seem to imply that people are judged based on the morals of others, which is not surprising. However, you say that killing a man is obviously immoral, but because each person has their own morals, how can it be reasonable to speak for every single one of the six million people living today?
ReplyDeleteYes, everyone is by definition morally right. However they are only morally right to themselves or others with the same opinion. You don't believe me? Let me explain. Why do you believe in something? Its because you have learned through personal experience and have decided to believe in it. You grew up in a certain way that your perception of what's correct or wrong will differ from someone else. So who is correct? Some will say you and others will say the other person. In the end the most powerful and/or numerous will be considered the winners. But are they ever truly right? That is based on the perception of the observer. So by this we can conclude that one can have morals and always be right to themselves, but whether they are truly right or wrong is all based on opinion. Its like proving if a god exists or not. You can't prove he exists, but then again you can't prove he does. Since being morally right is a paradox many will have trouble accepting it. You are just one of those people.
DeleteNow it is safe to say that most writing will have some bias in it. Here you clearly see my bias peaking through. Many will look at it the same way and others wont, and that applies to the stuff in the paragraph above. The majority of the world finds killing morally wrong. Don't believe me, kill your mother, father, best friend, innocent people, ect.... No, why not? Yes why not? Bottom line most will say no and therefore it becomes the common moral thing. Now is it safe to say MOST of the world agrees? The answer is yes. Is it correct to talk for every person individually? No, but given the circumstance I find that many will change their opinion.
The "moral" is such a complex subject that can be interpreted in so many ways. It could lead to good things, or lead blindly to bad things in the name of good things. I'm curious, from what source did you get the Levels of Morality from? I think it's pretty interesting how the different ways morality can be interpreted and studied.
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