Most of us believe that we know what it is and probably want to model our lives with moral values. Morality in an event is observed by a person who has prior knowledge of that concept.  Morality changes in an individual over time as one gathers wisdom. People do things when they were young and later wonder if those acts can pass their moral compass as a grown up.  Like all other virtues, morality can only be taught by examples as it cannot be shown as real-world objects like apples and oranges.

In order to comprehend this topic, les us delve into some critical observations of this concept of Morality.

Before we make any progress in this study at the outset, I would caution abundantly not to demean or judge the morality that is foreign to us. Caution must be exercised not to fall prey to one’s intolerance in judging morality of others.

Morals change over time

At different times different things are accepted as moral. Once owning another human being as a slave was not considered as immoral. Founding fathers of USA with all their philosophical ideology did not consider slavery is an issue.  James Madison owned slaves at his Virginia plantations, bought slaves to white house and sold them for personal profit. For such an enlightened man with wisdom to pen some of the federalist papers for good governance of society,  yet felt comfortable to own, control and sell another human being.  Similarly, one wonder how people were comfortable, cheered,  watched and accepted cruel capital punishments like burning at the stake,  hanging on the cross,  Roman punishment Damnatio ad bestias (Latin for “condemnation to beasts”)

Morals differ by  geographic regions.

What is considered abhorrible in one country is happy accepted as a norm and tradition.  Poking spears at a bull is an accepted bull fighting spectacle in Spain. Sometimes the animal falls and bleeds to death in front of cheering crowds. In most other civilized countries that would be considered as a barbaric act.  There are regions in India some people are treated as untouchables (though it is outlawed by government). This section does not require any more elaboration.  Observer will always find traditions that are unacceptable in a foreign land. Caution must be exercised not to fall prey to one’s intolerance in judging these things.

Observing Moral acts.

To observe a moral act, one needs to have the knowledge of the aspect of what is being observed. It is easy to draw wrong conclusions. I will illustrate this with an example.

A physician came to work at the hospital. First person the doctor saw is an old man begging him to take care of him. Doctor looked at him and continued with his rounds. Now at the outset this appears immoral act – not attending to the old sick man. However, if the doctor is rushing to reach to a young person who has a better chance of survival then what was immoral act a few minutes earlier can now be considered as a moral act. However, if the young person is doctor’s son or daughter than the morality can be questioned because the judgement has a bias and could be incorrect.

All our conclusions of morality could be skewed and controlled by our emotions and personal values.

Personal morality.

As a child becomes a rational being as they grow, observe and gain knowledge,  personal moral laws will be defined and stored as compartments on memory.  No two people will have the same moral behavior as the tranquility of their mind is differently perturbed for the same act of immoral nature. Each person in a household will develop their own moral compass and refine it on a continuous manner.  The moral laws one application make the basis for their ego.

Practical Morality.

This is what we use to conduct our daily life. None can apply absolute morality to all acts of life on daily basis.

Let us consider the following hypothetical situation. 

A family with children is extremely hungry. There is a fruit tree in neighbors’ backyard.  Is it immoral to pluck a couple of fruits to survive?

  1. Now should this be considered as an immoral act. Reasonable person knows it is immoral and will be hoping that there will never be another difficult situation like this.

For the person who is plucking the fruits, his ego will not allow him to indulge in partaking more fruit than to feed the hungry family.

Neighbor calls the police and get the thief arrested.

  • How good is the neighbor’s a moral behavior? 
    • Reasonable person will be reporting to police to stop this type of acts in future.
    • Reasonable person will be wishing authorities to give him just a warning.

Police arrests the thief and serves an order to appear in the court.

  • Police has no moral obligation here, just following the law and procedure. Nonetheless reasonable police will not be taking any pleasure in this act.

As illustrated in the above example, people wage a war between needs and desires of daily life and the counsel of moral judgment before an act is performed.

Chariots of Plato’s Phaedrus, for in the Phaedrus the soul is guided by two horses, a dark horse of passion and a white horse of reason. Reason is based on moral values.

These struggles are intense until such time one develops a balanced practical reasoning in harmony with one’s family and society, one that is not utilitarian morality.

Utilitarian Morality.

This is the problem of human nature and strive to maximize the pleasure and self-preservation.

Let us consider the following hypothetical situation.

A person is employed gainfully and has a comfortable living in suburbs. One day at work, he wrote with a pen and really liked the way it writes. Took a couple of pens from work to give it to his family members. He did this because he is very busy serving the company with little time to shop around. He also knows the pens are not expensive and what he contributes to the company is more valuable.

On first blush, this person may be excused because if he spends time on shopping, it may take some time away from work. However, A good moral person will always find time outside the work hours and do the necessary task to procure these pens from the marketplace. Bending the morality to gain benefits but find some reason to justify that action may fall into this category. Plucking a rose to decorate your vase from neighbors’ plant because anyway it is going to weather is another example of this.

We can become better humans  when we witness , analyze and move the fulcrum to reason and away from desire on our moral balance while conducting our daily activities.