Morality and ethics in modern society

February 22, 2021 It would seem that the word morality is well-known, but not everyone can immediately answer: what is it? Nevertheless, every educated person understands and can argue that the presence of such a component of human relations as morality is the key to the prosperity of society. Let's try to formulate this concept, and also figure out why morality is needed.

Society has formed certain rules of behavior, an understanding of the boundaries of good and evil. Compliance with these rules is not mandatory for members of society, however, in order for an individual to successfully integrate into this society, these rules will have to be observed. The morality of a European will most likely run counter to the morality of a representative of, for example, Muslim states.

Moral standards

Moral norms are not enshrined in law, because for a sane member of society their observance is natural. Society condemns non-compliance with moral standards. Any society has stable ideas about good, evil, justice, which are personal guidelines.

Circumstances determine the moral component of actions. So, happy laughter is normal, malicious laughter is bad. Harming another person is bad, but protecting your family, even by causing harm, is normal. Everyone cooks food at home - this is an ordinary way of life, but if you prepare food for those in need, it is a highly moral act.

Moral norms appeared much earlier than legal norms. Primitive society was formed under their influence. Moral standards contributed to the organization, accumulation of knowledge and further development of this society. The basis of the first laws were established norms and rules of behavior, dressed in a more strict, specific, logical form.

How is morality formed?

In any society, the concepts of good and evil are quite conditional. They are formed under the influence of historical circumstances. On the basis of these concepts, a morality characteristic of this particular society is formed. Traditions and customs passed down from generation to generation also influence morality. But what is acceptable among one ethnic group may cause confusion and even denial among another.

Briefly about why people need morality, we can say that its development is a sign of the development of society. Slavery, bloodshed on religious and racial grounds were once the norm for the enlightened humanity of the past. Today we understand how immoral those norms were.

Studying the process of social evolution of various ethnic groups, scientists came to the conclusion that it is the formation and observance of norms of behavior that makes it possible to guarantee the continuation of the ethnic group and its preservation. Feeling responsible to his social group, an individual is forced to comply with the moral norms accepted in this group.

Rules of morality

There are many rules that characterize morality, and we follow them almost without noticing it. Acting at the subconscious level, a person brings his mood, achievements, victories and much more into the world. Such formulations very closely embody what morality means in all its incarnations. Relationships in the world should be based on reciprocity for a comfortable existence.

By accepting these conditions, a person can learn to be kinder, more sociable and responsive, and a society consisting of such people will be similar to the ideal. Some countries are achieving this situation, and their number of crimes is significantly reduced, orphanages are closed as unnecessary, and so on. In addition to the golden rule, you can consider others, such as:

sincere conversations;
calling by name;
respect;
attention;
smile;
good nature.

What does the “golden” rule of morality sound like?

The basis of peace and culture is the golden rule of morality, which sounds like this: treat people as you would like them to treat you, or do not do to others what you do not want to receive for yourself. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to follow this, and this leads to an increase in the number of crimes and aggression in society. The rule tells people how to behave in any situation; you just have to ask yourself the question, how would you like it? The most important thing is that the solution to the problem is not dictated by society, but by the person himself.

Morality of modern society

In our time, we value the freedom of the individual, his religion, the right to self-development, self-improvement, self-realization, education, and a decent standard of living. A few centuries ago, these norms would have seemed wild. Religion dictated humility, excesses were considered sinful. The desire to achieve material well-being is the path to the Underworld.

Modern morality involves the desire to achieve general well-being. The success of an individual shapes this well-being. The primitive moral norms of the Middle Ages did not at all stipulate that happiness is not the base instinct of a person mired in sins, but the goal of the evolution of society. Currently, a number of taboos are being lifted from a person, for example, in the sphere of personal life. At the same time, freedom from prohibitions and restrictions in sexual life does not cancel society’s rejection of cruelty, chauvinism, aggression, and the treacherous imposition of one’s will.

An individual in the process of self-realization should not infringe on the rights of others, but at the same time he should be sure that he has the right to achieve happiness. Today, as in the Middle Ages, it is not prohibited to strive for the well-being of every member of society.

Functions of morality

Since human morality is a phenomenon of social and spiritual life, it must imply certain functions that people perform in turn. Without even suspecting it, these tasks always occur in any modern society and, fortunately, are beneficial. Refusal of them entails loneliness and isolation, in addition to the inability to actively develop.

Regulatory.
Cognitive.
Educational.
Estimated.

Each of them is considered a goal and an opportunity for spiritual growth and development. Considering what morality is, existence without these functions is completely impossible. Society helps to develop and grow only those individuals who can control the opportunities within themselves that give rise to these goals. There is no need to specifically train them, all actions occur automatically, in most cases for the benefit.

Man and society need morality

How harmoniously a person can exist in a particular society is precisely what determines morality. It is by no means universal, but is formed under the influence of historical facts and traditional values of a particular ethnic group. Over time, the concepts of morality become diametrically opposed. In the Middle Ages, the desire of our contemporaries for wealth would have been condemned. Today it is believed that the more rich people there are in a society, the more prosperous it is. Morality determines the quality of relationships, outlining the boundaries of good and evil, bad and good deeds. By and large, our “ego” consists of principles that determine our entire life, our attitude to what is happening around us and the world towards us.

The morality of modern society requires each of us to constantly develop, improve ourselves, look for ourselves and our place in life. Only we ourselves can walk our own path in such a way as to feel harmony with ourselves and the world, realizing our own uniqueness. And if it’s difficult to understand yourself and understand how to control your emotions and feelings in order to feel more comfortable in society and be a full part of it, you can use developmental simulators and Vikium courses. For example, you can pay attention to the course “Effective Communication”. It will allow you to do deep work on yourself and your emotions, teach you to understand people’s behavior, build communication correctly, establish connections, observing general moral standards and taking into account your own needs.

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The problem of morality in modern society.

A little reflection within the framework of a philosophical essay. Without any claim to originality and very generalized. Introduction. The characteristics of modernity cannot be unambiguous, since it will be a consequence of the analysis of many contradictory processes. The world is constantly changing, and the subject trying to analyze it changes along with it, experiencing doubts, coupled with a sense of the drama of what is happening. Established political, macroeconomic and social structures, forms of interstate relations are being transformed, alternative ones are emerging, the consequences of which are new problems that force decisions to be made that determine the future of the next generations. The main features of modernity within the framework of economics, politics, morality and other aspects tend towards globalization and cosmopolitanism (the opposite trend is historically primary, but in modern conditions is rather reactionary in nature), the devaluation of many national, regional, class-political, coalition barriers, opposing They need to understand the objective essence of the future of all humanity as a whole, in which the dominance of global problems over regional problems becomes unconditional. In social terms, these problems are a consequence of inequality in its broad sense, embodied in various planes of human existence, and also, the manifestation of natural, environmental factors has an acute influence. Such global problems pose the need to create a new vision of the world, which is impossible without the emergence of a moral and ethical paradigm that meets the needs of the era, rethinking traditional systems. The concept of this paradigm should be formed within the framework of an objective approach, based on the principle of preservation and development of humanity, at the same time not excluding, but smoothing out all its internal conflicts and contradictions, which should determine the tendency of evolutionary formation and progress. But still, the final solution to most global problems can be rationally assessed only as a natural process, and not a direct result of the formation of any concept. Conjuncture of interpretation of morality. Morality, in its broad sense, is a set of ethical views, principles and guidelines developed by humanity and forming the morality of each individual. Morality, as a special form of social and personal consciousness, is formed throughout the entire existence of human civilization, undergoing evolutionary changes along with the development of society. These changes can be characterized as a tendency to move from simple to complex, for example: from the archaic system of elementary moral logic, humanity has come to the profound axiological concepts of modernity. But at the same time, the general vector of moral development is guided by the so-called eternal values, which undergo relatively minor changes and were basically formed in ancient times. These values play a moral-forming role in the life of every person, serve as the core of moral and ethical views that develop in the process of a person’s upbringing and are often comprehended by him on an intuitive level. At the same time, these views, despite their abstractness, initially have an empirical rather than a theoretical basis. The abstract essence of moral and ethical norms and views leads to their variability, the possibility of different interpretations, even to their exclusion. For example, from the point of view of moral standards, the entire history of world politics contains an inexhaustible set of immoral phenomena of lies, deceit and unprincipledness. At the same time, strict adherence to moral and ethical principles in politics is perceived as evidence of naivety, incompetence and failure. This area seems to have its own special morality, which does not have much in common with individual morality and is guided by the ideal of success regardless of the means. But in the context of the need to maintain the stability of human existence, a completely immoral policy with tragic inevitability leads to disaster. To avoid it, it is necessary to adopt a unified interstate moral code. The traditional nature of politics, focused on achieving local benefits regardless of the means used and consideration of global consequences, leaves humanity balancing on the brink of its own security. Constructive and progressive changes in the world also require advancement in the sphere of morality. Each era generates its own moral mentality, that is, a special set of knowledge, ideas, beliefs, feelings that create a specific spiritual environment, perceived both on a conscious and subconscious level as the moral dominant of a particular culture at a certain stage of its development. On the basis of a certain cultural-historical moral mentality, the individual carries out his own reading of the imperishable moral values of the past. Differences in moral dominants and mentality of different cultural regions of the world are compensated by the presence of certain invariant eternal values. First of all, this is the value of life as such, the value of goodness and harmony, kindness, love and freedom. Such values, due to their abstractness, are not identical and not universal for each individual, and although from the point of view of the idealistic concept of being they are absolute, not everyone recognizes them as such. The result of this is the impossibility of their complete triumph, at least in the conditions of current realities. Consequently, moral and ethical norms (standards) formed on the basis of eternal values must be recognized as utopian. But this only speaks of the impossibility of achieving the ideal as a result under certain conditions known and understandable to us. At the same time, the aspiration of these norms towards the ideal is obvious and undeniable, as is their positive essence, which allows and rather even prescribes their use and implementation. Moral and ethical principle of responsibility in human activity. The moral and ethical principle of responsibility can be characterized as an individual’s subjective awareness of the cause-and-effect relationships of his own actions with their results and, at the same time, the acceptance of the obligation to be responsible for his actions to himself, to other people and to society as a whole. The principle of responsibility is a direct consequence of freedom of activity and thought, and is also proportionally dependent on it; The higher the degree of freedom, the higher the degree of responsibility. The principle of responsibility of each individual person and also of all humanity, in the realities of the modern world, built on the law of personal freedom, becomes a particularly urgently necessary condition for the successful coexistence of free individuals in a single organism of society. For example, science, once restrained by religious and ideological dogmas, has today practically freed itself from this kind of external restrictions, which, as a result, has significantly increased its effectiveness, at the same time increasing the responsibility of each of its figures, and this responsibility should now act as a natural internal limitation in all science. Also, the personal responsibility of the individual is necessary as a guarantor of freedom of activity and thought (conditions for progress and evolutionary development of society), as mutual, equivalent and most importantly safe freedom. For example, the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant can successfully serve as a basis (guideline) for the moral and ethical principle of responsibility, despite its obvious existentiality: “... act only in accordance with such a maxim, guided by which you at the same time can wish that it becomes a universal law” ( Kant I., Soch., vol. 4, part 1, M., 1965, p. 260) and “... act in such a way that you always treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of everyone else, as a goal and would never treat it only as a means” (ibid., p. 270). Such a concept, ideally, should lead to the emergence of a special interpersonal and intercultural ethics of relationships, stipulating the achievement of mutual understanding as a principle of coexistence. Mutual understanding of countries and peoples, with all due respect to their uniqueness, should be built on the recognition of certain universal values of peace, natural and environmental safety, human health and individual rights. Awareness of universal responsibility must be established in the sphere of international and interethnic relations, and the natural desire of each nation for freedom must be embodied, taking into account the well-known thesis that the freedom of one person is limited by the freedom of another person, because the common good is above all. Conclusion. The qualitative change in life that followed rapid scientific and technological progress, as well as globalization and the accompanying social and political changes, provoked another unintentional subjective revision of the value guidelines of human existence. Man had a premonition of domination over nature, material abundance and unlimited personal freedom for everyone. Science gave the illusion of omniscience, and technology - omnipotence. The main psychological prerequisites for the shift in the value system were radical hedonism, selfishness and the thirst for possession with the impossibility of fully satisfying one’s needs. Coupled with all these factors, there is a prevailing ignorance of the understanding of the uniqueness and significance of each individual; counting oneself among humanity, as among the general mass of people, was reflected by a loss of faith in man and one’s own strength. The decisive factor in human identification and self-identification is the totality of differences between people. This is natural, as a consequence of the properties of the mind and the structure of the psyche, and also as a necessary condition for individualization. But at the same time, humanity is united biologically, as a species, and is also united areally, as a species existing on one planet, in one environment. Consequently, to ensure the conditions for survival and development, it is necessary to bring existence to balance and harmony, which can only be achieved through overcoming conventional barriers between individuals, through overcoming the disunity of humanity and its spiritual unification. Each person now needs to realize himself as an effective part of the universal whole, and based on the experience of civilization, the heritage of world religions, the principles of humanism and common sense, develop his own value guideline that will allow the whole society to coexist peacefully, and society, in turn, must project this the principle back on the person, treating it as an individual good in part of the whole.

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Modern world

Currently, the trend of weakening the main functions of the family - reproduction and socialization of children - is causing concern. The deterioration of the demographic situation, the increase in the number of children born out of wedlock, the number of divorces, as well as significant changes in views on marriage, on the role of mother and father in the spiritual well-being of the child - all these factors are of a steadily regressive nature.

In addition, deception reigns everywhere, a culture of deception, corruption has penetrated into all aspects of life, counterfeit products have flooded the market, even medicines are counterfeited, not to mention low-quality food products. In the modern world, almost everything is bought and sold, even honor and human life.

You can buy exams, diplomas, sports victories... You can’t list it all.

Add to this the violation of ethics and legal fraud, and we are faced with a moral crisis of unprecedented scale.

Of course, the world is not without good people. However, you can often hear: “What will this give me? What will I get from this? The spirit of selfishness has become the principle of life.

Widespread selfishness and immorality contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire and other civilizations. Given the current state of affairs, humanity must think about what consequences can be expected.