What is morality?

Generally, it’s a made up concept on a personal level. There isn’t a strict, universal definition – rather it’s a flexible concept that reflects the speaker’s views on the world.

Morality is often used as a means of disparaging what other people do (i.e. calling other people immoral), or patting ones self on the back (that was a moral decision I made).

If you have 20 people in the room, there will be 40 definitions of what morality is.

My desktop dictionary says “morality (noun), pl. moralities. 1. The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct. 2. A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct: religious morality; Christian morality. 3. Virtuous conduct. 4. A rule or lesson in moral conduct.”

It defines moral as “adjective. 1. Of or concerned with the judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character: moral scrutiny; a moral quandary. 2. Teaching or exhibiting goodness or correctness of character and behavior: a moral lesson. 3. Conforming to standards of what is right or just in behavior; virtuous: a moral life. 4. Arising from conscience or the sense of right and wrong: a moral obligation. 5. Having psychological rather than physical or tangible effects: a moral victory; moral support. 6. Based on strong likelihood or firm conviction, rather than on the actual evidence: a moral certainty.”

“Moral noun. 1. The lesson or principle contained in or taught by a fable, a story, or an event. 2. A concisely expressed precept or general truth; a maxim. 3. morals. Rules or habits of conduct, especially of sexual conduct, with reference to standards of right and wrong: a person of loose morals; a decline in the public morals. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin moralis, from mos, mor-, custom.]”

“SYNONYMS: moral, ethical, virtuous, righteous. These adjectives mean in accord with principles or rules of right or good conduct. Moral applies to personal character and behavior, especially sexual conduct, measured against prevailing standards of rectitude: ‘The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot’ (Mark Twain).

“Ethical stresses conformity with idealistic standards of right and wrong, as those applicable to the practices of lawyers and doctors: ‘The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants’ (Omar N. Bradley).

“Virtuous implies moral excellence and loftiness of character; in a narrower sense it refers to sexual chastity: ‘The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous’ (Frederick Douglass).

“Righteous emphasizes moral uprightness and especially the absence of guilt or sin; when it is applied to actions, reactions, or impulses, it often implies justifiable outrage: ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much’ (James 5:16). ‘He was . . . stirred by righteous wrath’ (John Galsworthy).”

The American Heritage Dictionary

It is made up of your personal ethics. Generally, it is not something you have to think about; it is ingrained.

You can’t go wrong if you simply follow the maxim “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

All the rest is just clarification.

My operative definition is action guided by compassion. In practice, this isn’t a definition that I have to keep in my head because it’s not a cognitive, rule-driven process. I don’t have to stop and reason out a solution to moral problems. I only have to put compassion in the driver’s seat and let my actions flow from that. This leads to actions that minimize suffering and favor well-being; which is what compassion urges.

@Bill1939 Interesting that the American Heritage Dictionary defines it in terms of the Christian religion in the second definition. Wow.

From the OED (which mentions Christianity only in a theological definition, at 7c):
1. Ethical wisdom, knowledge of moral science

2. In pl. Moral qualities or endowments

3.a. Moral virtue; behaviour conforming to moral law or accepted moral standards, esp. in relation to sexual matters; personal qualities judged to be good
b. humorous or ironic. A person who habitually assumes an air of virtue. Also used as a mock title with possessive adjective

4. a. Moral discourse or instruction; a moral lesson or exhortation. Also: the action or an act of moralizing
b. A moral of a fable, event, etc.; the moral interpretation or sense of a text or passage
c. Moral truth or significance. Rare.

5. a. In pl. Points of ethics; moral principles or rules
b. The branch of knowledge concerned with right and wrong conduct, duty, responsibility, etc.; moral philosophy, ethics
c. A particular moral system or outlook; moral thought or conduct in relation to a particular form of activity
d. The ethical aspect of a question. Rare.

6.a. A literary or artistic work expounding or inculcating a moral lesson; †a moralizing commentary, a moral allegory. Now rare.

7. a. Conformity of an idea, practice, etc., to moral law; moral goodness or rightness
b. Theol. The property of certain enactments of the Mosaic Law by which they belong to the moral (as opposed to ceremonial, etc.) law and therefore retain their validity under the Christian dispensation
c. The quality or fact of being morally right or wrong; the goodness or badness of an action.

My answer is here

Even though you can’t expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That’s morality, that’s religion. That’s art. That’s life.
—Phil Ochs

I’m with @elbanditoroso on this one, it’s a made up concept. Then we as society generalize them and come up with a few we can agree on based on culture and whatnot and set them as norms. True, their are a few instinctive ones but that’s just what they are. Instincts.

I’m with @rojo. The Golden Rule should suffice in every culture, regardless of race, religion, and politics. Regardless of social stature, income, or influence.
“Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”

@rojo @GloPro Agreed, but I prefer “do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.”

In modern American society, morality is weakness. Either that or adhering to an agenda that most people would consider extremist.

I wish I were being sarcastic.

~do onto others before they do onto you.

@jerv I wish you were being sarcastic also.

How did we come to this?

Thanks all! And thank you @Espiritus_Corvus for the link, I must have missed that question when I was reviewing the existing questions. All the answers make it clear why I find it so difficult to understand another person’s use of the word morality. Living through an era of high moral flux makes it hard to assess what a moral actually is. Thanks to @thorninmud for simplifying, it helps.

Yes, my definition of morality has greatly changed with time. Before I believed that morality came down to a basic set of rules/dos and don’ts. Call it objective morality if you will.

These days morality to me can only be based off of the ability to emphasize with others. I believe even altruism has to have a deeper meaning since to me the motivation for one’s actions/inactions mean everything to me. I also don’t believe even sympathy has any real meaning without empathy too. The ‘rules’ are still there to me to a more limited extent, but I view most ‘rule’ following and breaking by considering motivation and mitigating circumstances more often now than I did before.

Sure, I know what morality is.