Those who insist that the answer to everything is "morality" sort of amuse me.
Yes, if "moral" meant the same to everyone, that could fix a lot of problems. If everyone agrees on the baseline, then it's going to work even if some people break the rules.
But morality is situational ethics-- it depends on your culture, religion, and experiences. So no one even agrees what's moral-- which is why they'd rather appeal to morality than ethics, except when they use the word "ethics" when talking about "morality" (which I see a lot).
The Constitution only works to govern "a moral people", but governing others is unethical. You can't force an unethical system on people, then claim it fails because the people aren't moral enough. And, by "moral" I suppose you'd mean they don't agree with your cultural/religious notions of how everyone else is to be governed. Well, you can claim that, but you'd look dumb.
If your idea of "moral" is that everyone submit to political "authority" and pretend it's legitimate, then I absolutely reject your morality. I'll stick to being ethical instead.
I also reject the equivalence of morality and ethics. To me ethics is the distinction between right and wrong behavior and a preference for doing the right in practice while morality is just the collective social approximation of this structured so that at any particular time or place whatever is expedient for the majority is roughly adhered to. As any honest observer can attest a mere social morality can still encompass a significant degree of plainly unethical behavior. An individual who practices ethics necessarily governs themselves. To try to govern others is to rule and to rule is unethical, and as history indicates, is generally impractical and unsuccessful as well.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly how I see it.
DeleteThank you.
I hope you don't mind, but I've added your excellent explanation of the difference between morality and ethics to my "Morality vs Ethics" post linked above (with credit).
DeleteThis is the kind of thought that impresses me and enriches my life.
Thank you again!
Not at all, and thank you.
Delete