November 15, 2005

• What Is Morality? A Socrates Cafe Topic

  One of the topics for Socrates Cafe this week is “What is morality?” On the surface, that seems pretty simple. Morality is doing the right thing, right? That’s where things get a bit slippery. What is the right thing?

  Killing another human being is wrong, right? Oh! Except in self defense, of course. That is OK, isn’t it? And some people think that capital punishment is justified, at least in some circumstances. And then there is war. You can’t avoid killing during war, and war is always the other guy’s fault, anyway. When you really begin to think about it, there are exceptions to just about any moral principal you can name.

  We measure morality with all kinds of yardsticks. A few weeks ago, I remember hearing one of the other instructors at the college where I teach saying that he had convinced one of his students who comes from a country where polygamy is practiced that polygamy is wrong. I was really a little horrified to hear that. In our culture, polygamy is wrong, or, at least it’s illegal. But is it universally wrong? The Mormon Church might have a differing opinion about whether or not it is actually morally wrong.

  Since I have thrown in the topic of legality, if something is legal, does that make it morally right? If it is illegal, is it then morally wrong? All one has to do is listen to the heated discussion on issues like abortion and stem cell research to know that legality does not equate to morality in the eyes of many people. Those debates are also strong evidence that there is not universal agreement on what is and is not moral, even within our own culture.

  When other cultures are included in the mix, the waters get even murkier. The Kamikaze pilots of World War II believed that it was an honor to die for the Emperor. That would seem to make their acts moral. Likewise, the suicide bombers of today believe that they are dying for a holy cause. Within the contexts of their belief systems or cultures, their actions are moral.  Few people in our culture would accept those actions as moral, however.

  There, I think, we find the real definition of morality. It is dependent on the ideals of the culture within which it exists and cannot be removed from that culture. It is living by a code of right and wrong that is defined by a culture, a family, or a society. It does not necessarily translate to other systems. As we know it, it does not exist as a separate entity.

  Sometimes morality even creates the dilemma of having to go against the cultural mores in order to do what the individual sees as right. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck reaches a point where he struggles with the conflict between helping the slave Jim escape to freedom, which Huck feels is the right thing to do, and honoring the social mores of the time which said that slavery was acceptable and that a runaway slave was to be returned to his/her master for whatever punishment was deemed fit.

  There is a point in the book where Huck’s conscience tells him that he needs to write to Jim’s owner, Miss Watson, and tell her where Jim is. Huck believes that it is the right thing to do because his culture tells him that it is. He even writes the letter. Then …“got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n, ‘stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and suchlike times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now …” And Huck tore up the letter. He had learned the worth of Jim, a black man. He no longer saw him as a slave, a possession, but as a worthy human being, a friend. He had to go against his culture and help Jim to be free, even though he thought that he might go to hell for it.

  Everyone is confronted with situations that force a choice between the values of a culture and the personal sense of morality. Those choices are how morality develops; how concepts such as owning other human beings become unacceptable. I think that some caution is necessary, though. I don’t think that all mores can be ignored or that each person can write his/her own moral code. It can be very challenging to differentiate between ideas that really need to change or be left behind and the simple desire to do whatever we want whenever we want. So being moral can be a challenge.

  Because I believe in God and practice a religion, I tend to believe that right and wrong do exist in and of themselves. I believe, however, that we are not able to grasp the full meaning of right and wrong and therefore of morality because we are hindered by the system in which we function. Since I believe in survival after death, I think that I will understand what morality really means in the next state of existence. In the meantime, I think that being moral means doing the best I can to live according to the mores of my culture, while understanding that even within that culture, there may not be complete agreement or understanding of what those mores should be.  I also think that moral behavior carries with it the responsibility to be accountable for my own actions, to work to change outdated mores, and to respect the right of others to have differences in belief.

  • 8:18 am
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