Morality

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Morality (novella), Morality (The Armando Iannucci Shows), Morals (film), and The Immoralist. Not to be confused with Morale, Molarity, or Molality.
Allegory with a portrait of a Venetian senator (Allegory of the morality of earthly things), attributed to Tintoretto, 1585

Morality (from Latin moralitas 'manner, character, proper behavior') is the categorization of intentions, decisions and actions into those that are proper, or right, and those that are improper, or wrong.[1] Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of conduct from a particular philosophy, religion or culture, or it can derive from a standard that is understood to be universal.[2] Morality may also be specifically synonymous with "goodness", "appropriateness" or "rightness".

Moral philosophy includes meta-ethics, which studies abstract issues such as moral ontology and moral epistemology, and normative ethics, which studies more concrete systems of moral decision-making such as deontological ethics and consequentialism. An example of normative ethical philosophy is the Golden Rule, which states: "One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself."[3][4]

Immorality is the active opposition to morality (i.e., opposition to that which is good or right), while amorality is variously defined as an unawareness of, indifference toward, or disbelief in any particular set of moral standards or principles.[5][6][7]

  1. ^ Long, A. A.; Sedley, D. N. (1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers: Translations of the Principal Sources with Philosophical Commentary. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 366–67. ISBN 978-0521275569.
  2. ^ Stanford University (2011). "The Definition of Morality". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  3. ^ Antony Flew, ed. (1979). "golden rule". A Dictionary of Philosophy. London: Pan Books in association with The MacMillan Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-0333262047. The maxim 'Treat others how you wish to be treated'. Various expressions of this fundamental moral rule are to be found in tenets of most religions and creeds through the ages, testifying to its universal applicability.
  4. ^ Walter Terence Stace argued that the Golden Rule is much more than simply an ethical code. He posits that it "express[es] the essence of a universal morality." The rationale for this distinction occupies much of his book The Concept of Morals (1937). Stace, Walter T. (1937). The Concept of Morals. New York: The MacMillan Company; reprinted by Peter Smith Publisher Inc, January 1990. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-8446-2990-2.
  5. ^ Johnstone, Megan-Jane (2008). Bioethics: A Nursing Perspective. Vol. 3. Elsevier Health Sciences. pp. 102–03. ISBN 978-0-7295-3873-2. PMID 2129925. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Superson, Anita (2009). The Moral Skeptic. Oxford University Press. pp. 127–59. ISBN 978-0-19-537662-3.
  7. ^ "Amorality". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2010-06-18. "having no moral standards, restraints, or principles; unaware of or indifferent to questions of right or wrong"