Moral: what is it, examples and everything to understand the concept of morals

Morality is a set of rules, customs and ways of thinking of a social group, which defines what we should or shouldn't do in society.

The term moral comes from Latin morals, whose meaning is “relative to customs”. It is the rules defined by morals that regulate the people's way of acting.

Every time we talk about morals, we need to think about collectivity. This is because the rules that build it are defined by a group of people, that is, by the collective.

This set of rules is established when society believes that some attitude can make the more harmonious and peaceful social coexistence, such as, for example, not stealing, helping others, between others.

So when a group of people follow these established rules, the morality, which is the moral in everyday and social practice.

However, there are two important points in the rule building process:

1. Morale can change over time. In other words, some rules and duties can be changed, depending on the social and cultural evolution of each place.

Example: Until the early 19th century, it was morally incorrect for women to be allowed to work outside the home.

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2. Morale can be different in each region. The same set of rules that exist in Brazilian society, for example, may not apply to Japanese society.

It is important to remember that within the same society, there are different social groups that have different moral values, such as different religions, ideologies, cultures, families, among others.

examples of morals

Do not take something that is not yours, even if no one is looking

Imagine that you are walking around your city and you find a pile of newspapers, with the day's editions, with no people around to collect the amount. Next to the stack is a small basket and a card with the unit value of the issue.

In this case, when deciding to take one of the editions, you can choose to put the money or not. Therefore, the decision to take the newspaper and pay for it or not is a moral issue. Morally, you know it's okay to pay, but you can choose not to.

Helping people with special needs

When crossing the street you come across a visually impaired person standing near the crosswalk. In view of morality, the attitude understood as correct would be for you to help him cross to the other side of the road. However, you can choose to do this or not, as in the previous example.

Being married to two spouses

If you know or have already known someone who is married to more than one person, then you know an incorrect case according to the moral values of contemporary Brazilian society.

In Brazil, a man having two wives, or a woman having two husbands, is totally against the morals and good customs of the country, guaranteed by Brazilian law. However, in practice, there are several cases of people married with more than one spouse, who chose to go against morals.

This case is an example of how morale can change in each region. In places like Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and Sudan, bigamy is morally accepted and part of local custom and culture.

See too 6 examples of ethics and morals.

Difference between morals and ethics

While morality is the set of rules created within a society, ethics is the study of the principles that build and ground morality.

That is, ethics is a more reflective investigation on the principles that will guide the individual's attitudes. It reflects, questions and seeks to understand moral values.

Ethics makes the individual not act just for education or because he must follow the rules. It helps the individual to understand his actions guided by his intellect and convictions.

Basically, morality answers the question, "What should we do?" While ethics responds to "why should we do this?"

Example of ethics and morals

A few decades ago, it was morally accepted for a teacher to physically correct their students, using paddles. Over time, this moral value has been questioned and ascertained through ethics.

It was from this reflection that other values emerged, bringing the perception that correction by paddle was wrong and considered morally incorrect nowadays.

understand more about what are ethics and morals.

morality according to philosophy

In philosophy, the moral is the part that deals with the values themselves and the individual's feelings and actions, guided by those values. These are the decisions that human beings, in the exercise of their freedom, make about what they should or should not do to maintain the social welfare.

Various philosophers discuss and define morals over time. Mainly how values are interpreted and how individuals act in relation to these socially constructed values.

Morals according to the philosophers Kant and Hegel

for the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), morality is based on knowledge that is inherent to human beings. In this case, he claims that individuals are able to rationally judge whether their attitudes are good or bad.

The philosopher claimed that moral principles cannot vary, much less depend on context. Therefore, Kant believed that to achieve universal moral laws, the individual must act by the reason, that is, that his action needs to be guided by the duty to fulfill something correct and that it is good for all.

What Kant defends is that before any action, the individual should think and analyze if that attitude was taken by everyone around him, it would cause social good. Thus, the individual would not stop doing something for fear of bad consequences, but would analyze the action as good or bad.

Contrary to Kant, the German philosopher Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) divided morality into two types:

the objective morality, which are the rules that build morals, created within a society, religious groups and the like,
and the subjective morals, which is the spontaneous desire of each individual to follow the rules, in order to maintain a society in a climate of harmony and peace.

Thus, Hegel, unlike Kant, defined morality as a set of rules that should have a logical explanation, so that each individual would understand the reason for each one and follow them in a spontaneous and non-imposing way.

Generally, morality is understood and analyzed as something purely sociological, that is, it does not depend on the subject. In this more sociological view, it is believed that it belongs only to society and the way it builds morals.

However, in the philosophical view, morality is also linked to the individual. This is because it needs to accept the set of rules created in order to reproduce it. That is, morality is really consolidated when the individual believes in that value, accepts and practices it.

What are moral principles and how important are they?

Moral principles are the rules and values that determine whether a person's attitude, whether in society or in their coexistence with others, is correct or not.

Moral principles such as honesty, kindness, respect, virtue, etc., determine the moral sense of each individual. These are universal values that govern human conduct and healthy and harmonious relationships.

In a society without moral principles, people would only value their feelings and desires. Therefore, each one would do what was good for himself, without any concern for the result of his actions.

Principles are important because they provide the individual with knowledge of the rules of good coexistence within a society. The study and reflection of these principles is ethics.

see more examples of moral values.

What defines someone as immoral or amoral?

Someone can be classified as immoral when they affront and do not follow the moral conventions of their region.

An individual who chooses to jump the bank line or not pay for some service, for example, is considered immoral because he has not followed the moral rules of the social group in which he lives.

Amoral people, on the other hand, are those who do not have understanding and ability to understand moral laws. That they have no sense of morality or that they have not even assimilated the moral code of the social group in which they live.

Example: people with mental disabilities, foreigners from different cultures and even children.

What does the expression “moral of the story” mean?

This expression is usually used to present some kind of lesson or teaching that a story is intended to convey. Be it the narrative of a book, series, movie or even an everyday conversation.

It is very common to find stories with moral lessons in fables. One of the best known is the Wolf in the Lamb's Skin, a very famous biblical quote, recreated by other writers, and whose purpose is to convey the moral that appearances can be deceiving.