What are moral standards?
Moral norms are a set of rules of behavior that are established within a particular society depending on people’s ideas about good and evil, justice and injustice. The preservation of moral standards is ensured through public approval and the internal conviction of each member of society.
All moral norms are formed from the real principles, ideals, and concepts of good and evil that people have. Thus, they all go through some kind of “social sieve” through which all norms of behavior are sifted and truly correct ones remain.
Thanks to the presence of moral norms, human behavior is regulated in various sectors and spheres of public life. First of all, we can highlight everyday life, work, family and personal relationships, intergroup and international. However, any type of interaction is determined by a specific set of moral standards. It is worth noting that moral standards differ markedly from the specific requirements of each industry in their socially all-encompassing nature, since they are mandatory for all people. They fix special requirements and constitute the basis and norm of behavior of society , determine the culture of interpersonal relations.
Any moral norm must be justified from the point of view of the value base of society, as well as its ideals, since moral norms act as a subordinate instrument of these ideals.
Control over compliance with moral standards is formed under the influence of public opinion and authorities, which cultivates in the minds of each person a position in matters of personal ideas about worthy and unworthy, moral and immoral.
The foundation for building a healthy personality
Spiritual and moral norms and values constitute the image of a person who is perfect in the sense of conforming to the pattern of piety. This is the portrait you should strive for. In this way, the ultimate goals of an action are expressed. An image such as Jesus in Christianity is used as an ideal. He tried to instill justice in human hearts and was a great martyr.
Moral rules and norms play the role of personal life guidelines for a particular person. A personality sets its own goals, in which its positive or negative side is manifested. Most people strive for happiness, freedom, and knowledge of the meaning of life. Moral standards help them regulate their moral behavior, thoughts and feelings.
Morality functions in society as a combination of three structural elements, each of which represents one aspect of morality. These elements are moral activity, moral attitudes and moral consciousness.
Examples of moral standards
Over the entire history of humankind, a huge number of different moral norms have been formed, most of them are enshrined in all modern religions and teachings. Consider the list of the most important moral norms:
- Prudence. A person must be able to be guided by his own reason, and not by sudden gusts of emotion.
- Abstinence. This basis affects not only the sphere of personal relationships, but also the culture of food, entertainment, as well as the whole range of pleasures. Since ancient times, people have come to the conclusion that material wealth is a hindrance to spiritual values. Lent is one of the manifestations of this particular moral norm.
- Justice. This principle can be characterized by the proverb “Treat others the way you would like to be treated.” It is necessary to show respect towards other people.
- Politeness. Also grows out of the need to respect other people. Politeness is the basis of diplomacy.
- Hard work. At any stage of the development of humanity, in any society, work has always been encouraged.
- Humility. Humility means the ability to pause and stop in time. A person must be able to stop his impulses in a timely manner.
How do moral standards work?
The content of a person’s behavior is determined by his moral principles, since they contain some basic algorithms of behavior in a specific situation. The set of these principles is determined by the characteristics of a particular society. They are aimed at regulating various sectors of human life, as well as his actions. At the same time, all moral norms are constantly supported by public authority, discipline and opinion, and this is also reinforced by the conviction of every person in society about the need to adhere to proper behavior in specific conditions.
It is worth noting one more feature of moral norms. They are not simply a consequence of the existing social order, but act as an ideological justification for a person’s specific ideas about proper or inappropriate behavior , both in general and in a specific life situation. This is one of the key differences between moral norms and simple customs and habits, which include celebrating a birthday, wedding, or New Year.
General concept
Sometimes moral norms are considered to have priority over other canons in certain periods of the development of society; they are characterized by universality, categoricalness, and immutability. In other cases, the absolutization of moral principles is seen as fanaticism. As a result, moral standards reflect the needs of society. Some authors of works divide the canons of morality into categories:
- basic ones that form the laws of ethics;
- secondary, arising from the structure of priority provisions.
The patterns set forth in the author's works of Thomas Aquinas refer to highly spiritual examples of moral norms. The Italian theologian and philosopher, recognized by the church as a holy teacher, called for striving for good and maximum benefit for a large number of people.
This concept is also revealed in I. Kant’s philosophy on morality (the book “The Categorical Imperative”) and reflects the categories of highly moral values. Later, the author publishes two works that are devoted to the study of spiritual ethics:
- 1785 - “Fundamentals of the metaphysics of morality.”
- 1788 - “Critique of Practical Reason.”
The basic canons of public morality remain unshakable and contain provisions on the pursuit of good and opposition to evil. General ethical principles are not to harm other individuals, regardless of social status, religious beliefs and nationality.
Classification of canons
Norms may relate to the existence of humans as a biological species; the value is the life of the individual. Actions and behavior are given such meaning that they protect being as a whole. Other canons are important for the honor and dignity of a person; they perform the functions of protecting the personal freedoms and independence of the individual.
The key features of moral norms are that their rules provide for distinctive indicators of fidelity and truthfulness. They also define justice and ethical virtues. The following types of moral norms are distinguished:
- A taboo is an unbreakable prohibition on action. Violation of rules harms society and determines the choice of behavior in social and everyday terms. This foundation in the form of a legal canon was practiced at the dawn of human development and has been preserved in some cultures to this day.
- A custom is a certain combination of actions and represents the repetition of events in certain circumstances. The significance of such actions is especially great in the traditional perception of society.
- Traditions repeat customs in the form of stable forms of behavior and are passed on to heirs. They are characterized by regular reproduction and a long period of existence.
- Moral rules represent a structure of behavioral norms that require an individual to make a conscious choice when committing an action. The appearance of a person is formed on the basis of moral self-determination.
There are differences and similarities between these concepts, since all the rules relate to human existence.
Ideals of behavior presuppose complete submission to the requirements of morality; effectiveness is achieved through general norms for the entire society. If the canons are not followed, this causes disapproval of other people, morality is formed on feelings of shame, guilt and remorse.
Law and Morality
The fields of law and morality are connected in many ways in life. The regulation of relationships is considered by social science. In both areas, rules of conduct are prescribed that are aimed at maintaining order and justice. Morality and law have features:
- moral canons are of social origin, and jurisdiction is ruled by the state;
- a person fulfills moral principles consciously and voluntarily under the influence of the social order, and legal norms relate to coercive concepts;
- for spiritual improvement there are no codes and codes, while laws are formulated in legal acts;
- morality is characterized by flexibility, abstractness, different interpretations, and the content of laws is subject to strict formulations;
- morality determines the value of behavior in the categories of evil and good, bias and impartiality, and jurisdiction regulates actions in the categories of legal and unreasonable.
Moral rules are not mandatory, violation of them is followed by public disapproval, but the person remains free, his property is not in danger.
If the rules of law are ignored, the individual is given a mandatory punishment involving imprisonment or confiscation of material assets.
Some principles of morality and law coincide, for example, the law on theft. A person does not want to steal other people's property due to fear of social censure or fear of getting a prison sentence. In either case, the individual does not commit a bad act. Sometimes the concepts fundamentally contradict each other, for example, the theft of medicine or food occurs to save the life of a loved one. In this case, legal laws conflict with moral obligations.
Consequences of violating moral standards
First of all, it should be noted the voluntary nature of compliance with moral standards. However, violation of such principles leads to the imposition of certain sanctions, manifested in a negative assessment and condemnation of the behavior of a particular person. This nature of sanctions demonstrates moral condemnation and a ban on repeating such behavior in the future. Moreover, such moral sanctions can be addressed both to a specific person and to certain social groups. Moral sanctions act as another pillar that supports and reinforces the moral requirements of social norms.
It is worth noting that some moral norms, or rather their violation, may imply much more stringent sanctions, which are determined by the norms of formal requirements existing in society. For example, if a serviceman lied to his commander, then such behavior will lead to serious consequences, which will be determined by the severity of the consequences resulting from the deception.
Moral standards can be expressed in positive and negative forms. An example of a positive one is such laws as “be honest”, “respect your elders”, “help your neighbor”. Negative manifestations imply the prohibitive nature of norms, for example, “thou shalt not steal.”
Morality past and present
These phenomena began to appear quite a long time ago. Each generation and community of people formed their own understanding of good and evil, their own ways of interpreting moral norms.
If we turn to traditional societies, we will see that there the moral character was considered as an unchangeable phenomenon, actually accepted in the absence of freedom of choice. A person of that time could not make a choice between accepting and not accepting the prevailing trends; he had to unconditionally follow them.
Nowadays, in contrast to legal norms, moral norms are more considered as recommendations for achieving happiness for oneself and the surrounding society. If earlier morality was defined as something given from above, prescribed by the gods themselves, today it is something similar to an unspoken social contract that is desirable to follow. But if you disobey, in fact, you can only be condemned, but not held to real responsibility.
You can accept moral laws (for your own good, because they are useful fertilizer for the sprout of a happy soul), or reject them, but this will remain on your conscience. In any case, the entire society revolves around moral standards, and without them its functioning would be incomplete.
How are moral standards formed?
Here, first of all, you should realize that such categories as “good” and “evil”, “bad” and “good” are very conditional and relative. Each society may have its own value judgments on this matter. Since morality is also formed on the basis of these conditional categories, it also has a relatively conditional nature, which will be inherent in a specific social group. Also, the formation of moral standards is largely influenced by centuries-old traditions and customs , which can vary significantly depending on the society.
Currently, scientists are showing great interest in the processes of formation of morality in various ethnic groups. Research of this nature is aimed at studying social evolution and is based on the fact that behavioral norms are formed in such a way as to ensure the survival of a particular ethnic group , as well as to guarantee the continuation of the race. In this case, each person will be engaged in observing the norms of universal morality, since he will feel responsible to society.
Customs, traditions and business practices
Customs are historically established rules of human behavior as a result of repeated actions and entrenched in certain norms.
Varieties of customs include rituals and ceremonies - the performance of certain symbolic actions.
Traditions are close to customs; they are also historically established rules that are passed on from one generation to another and support family, national, and state foundations.
Business customs are rules of human behavior that develop in connection with the communication of people in the production, educational, and scientific spheres.
These rules provide for a certain order in any area; they are local in nature.
For example, it is customary at school for students to stand up when the teacher appears in the classroom. Or the organization holds planning meetings at a specific time.
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Functions of moral standards
Moral standards perform several important functions in society:
- Worldview. Based on the morality of society, value orientations and categories are formed: norms, assessments and prohibitions. All individuals in society are engaged in fulfilling these guidelines.
- Cognitive. Each person is able to learn better about the cultural characteristics of his own society.
- Regulatory . Morality acts as a means of regulating people's daily lives. At the same time, it imposes some sanctions and also supports rules of behavior.
- Estimated. The humanistic approach becomes the basis for considering all surrounding phenomena and processes. This approach allows us to distinguish between such conditional categories as “good” and “evil.”
- Educational. Ensures the transfer of specific values from generation to generation.
- Motivational. The behavior of each person is determined by a wide number of factors, one of which is motivation, which pushes a person to action or inaction.
- Controlling. The individual must exercise independent control over himself, based on the condemnation of other members of society.
- Coordination. Describes the principles of interaction between people in various circumstances.
- Integrating. It lies in the unity of society, as well as its integrity in relation to the inner world of a particular person.
Purpose of morality
Morality acts as a regulator of a person’s actions, which subsequently determine his principles, personal views and beliefs. People do not need legal documents to adopt moral principles; such a decision is made voluntarily and independently.
The evaluative function of morality consists in the qualitative perception of one’s own and others’ actions, determining the meaning of actions. A person uses the acquired humanistic reserve to weigh on the scales the moral values of his steps and the deeds of other individuals. A more precise definition is given if a high level of compliance with moral standards is achieved.
The educational significance is that constant adherence to moral principles leads to the formation of social ideals in a person. An optimal combination of public and personal interests is developing. The individual achieves his own goals in a way that does not harm the surrounding space and people.
Other observers exercise unspoken control over a person's behavior, condemn him for bad actions and express positive emotions when he acts benevolently. Society monitors the living conditions of people. Morality sometimes depends on circumstances, so the environment must be worthy of a person. Morality plays an integrating role for the individual; awareness of the correctness of one’s own actions leads to internal harmonization.
How do moral norms differ from legal norms?
It is worth noting that law and morality in modern society are built on similar principles, since they guard universal human values and ideals. However, it is always worth remembering that law and morality act as different normative regulators. Each of these categories has its own characteristics and area of influence. Moreover, these categories have certain points of contact. However, there are certain differences. Let's look at them:
- Moral standards are, by their nature, rather vague and uncertain. Legal norms do not allow for different interpretations and are always definite and clear;
- The rules of law regulate the most important social relations, which are key from the point of view of human life support. Moral standards regulate all personal and social principles of behavior;
- Form of fastening. Legal norms are enshrined in laws, moral norms are deposited in the consciousness of society.
- The sanctions of legal norms are ensured by state coercion, and moral norms are protected by the possibility of public condemnation.
