Personal View Of Morality

Personal View of Morality

By Joseph Parish

I have decided to select Deontology as my topic for discussion this evening. By its definition we find that it relates to how one may act upon their duty in disregards to the eventual consequences. I have been living this style for many years now and do not have any intent upon changing it in the future. I act on what I view as the most moral and responsible manner and accept the consequences for my actions, whether they are of a positive nor negative nature.

I have always been one to act and then to see what my results are rather than to whimper at the feet of those in charge asking to do some task that I feel I can decide upon better. Granted, everyone has superiors, but the major point would be are those superiors in the field getting their hands dirty and feet wet or are they behind a desk in a nice warm office having their usual lunch breaks and going home at their usual time. I fully intent to support my selection within the paragraphs which follow and hope that you, as the reader will agree with my assessment.

I would like to present a little background into deontology and its ethical concerns. Those followers of this philosophical theory follow that choices are either morally granted or forbidden. It is in effect a guideline which assesses our selections of actions which we accomplish. This is in direct contrast to those theories which dictate what sort of person we should be. In short, it is a means of stressing the old adage that actions speak louder than words.

These goods as defined may differ greatly according to who may be interrupting them. As an example, a Utilitarian may identify their good with desire, happiness or pleasure while a pluralist may believe that the good is distributed among all people. Some would contend that not accomplishing certain acts would constitute the desired good. As you can readily see consequentialism can easily be criticized on a number of issues. Those critical complaints are first that it is not sufficiently demanding enough and secondly as to what it will permit as actions.

During our reviews and moral studies, we have encountered Immanuel Kant and his categorical imperative which attempted to nullify all other ethical judgments. His imperative is categorical rather than hypothetical since to achieve true morality, one should not depend upon individual likes or dislikes. Several of the more vital of these imperatives is:

Act in a manner for which your actions could become a universal law

Act so as the humanity you display is an end and not just a means

Kant intended the first to mean that a need for moral principles should be universal in nature while his second indicates that a distinction should be made between persons and things with the emphasis being placed upon respect for the people. This is a prime example of a duty based ethical theory. Deontological theories judge morality by initially examining the nature of one’s actions rather than the goals which are achieved. One major rationale for moving from consequences for duties theory is that mankind simply cannot control the future. We are often praised or condemned for those actions which are within our control. Kant's line of thought was that he did not care about the outcome of one’s actions, but merely the moral evaluation concerning such actions.

Keeping in mind the idea that actions speak louder than words, I would like to relate an incident which happened to me overseas. I am a certified first aid and CPR responder and one day a lady in my apartment complex was found screaming in the hallway. It appeared that her very young child had stopped breathing. I immediately grabbed the child and started CPR while a friend got a vehicle started to rush the infant to the hospital. Fortunately, for the child and for myself, my skills were up to par and I was able to get the toddler to breathe once again. Had it been just a class to sign off a requirement and nothing more, the child may not be alive today. This is a prime sample of actions speaking louder than words. People can brag all they want that they have received training in this or that, but the proof is in the actions and nothing less.

In regards to the concept of relativism, I would like to present a short note as it relates to Sumner, Benedict and Rachels. To intelligently discuss relativism, we need to understand just what it is. At the most general level, we discover it to be a doctrine which claims that something is true or false only with its relationship to some special viewpoint or a certain perspective.

Cultural relativism has its main component based upon the idea that no single culture can be any better than another. To appreciate this, we must contend that each culture is distinct and totally different as each will attempt to solve its own problems in the best way possible. Relativism claims that morality is completely different for various people. They maintain that it is the cultural aspects of the people which make up their morality, although in this line of thought we would find no moral principles or norms which could exist between cultures. Ethical relativism however, reveals that there are no valid universal principles in existence, however they readily affirm that all moral principles represent a valid option towards cultures or to individual choices.

Herodotus provided some insight into the relativist domain when he relayed how, "Custom is king." This is the initial argument brought forth when beginning a discussion of defending the customs of various cultures.

William Graham Sumner favors ethical relativism and refers to it as the "Folkways" of a society. He contends that these Folkways are the mores, customs and traditions of the society in the discussion and that each member of that group has the basics ingrained within as to what is right and what is wrong. Now let us take Ruth Benedict, who argues the consistency of moral standards towards cultural anthropology. Benedict believes standards which are normal within a culture represent a function of that society. She argues that these standards will vary from one culture to another.

James Rachels in his book entitled The Elements of Moral Philosophy supports the idea that different societies possess different moral codes and that those moral codes of the society determine what is right and what is wrong only within that specific social group. One social code cannot be deemed better than another. It would be outright rude for us to even attempt to judge another culture rather than to develop an attitude of tolerance.

Since we have now reviewed ethical relativism, one must wonder what Herodotus meant when he proclaimed that "custom is king". To appreciate the thinking of this great philosopher we must first understand that he was a man that consistently traveled far and wide. His goal during those ventures was to observe all actions which these foreign people considered normal. He noticed how people always did things their way, regardless of whether such actions were deemed good or whether they were bad.

One of his observations was about those nations where a dictator ruled the nation. Naturally, those in the position of dictator enjoyed the privileges that went with the position and liked the status quo exactly the way it was. The victims on the other hand tended to consent to obey rather than to fight, justifying their lack of desire to change as referring to the way things have always been.

As we consider the impact which the Roman Empire had over its many conquered lands, we can understand the vast amount of differences experienced. Herodotus had observed how it failed to matter to the natives of these conquered territories who their rulers were or what the standard religions were or even how different the governments were. Each of the conquered societies retained their individual culture and still managed to distinguish themselves without the need to become totally absorbed within the Roman society. They chose to keep their culture and ideals alive and not let them die out. These eventually became known as time honor traditions, cultures, etc.

For more interesting articles visit me at http://www.wordwriter.info