The Painful Understandings of Morality

The Painful Understandings of Morality

  • Submitted By: hchoi89
  • Date Submitted: 01/21/2009 10:48 PM
  • Category: Philosophy
  • Words: 1292
  • Page: 6
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The Painful Understandings of Morality

Morality can be a much-dreaded word due to the fact that it can never be easily defined. Each individual has his or her own take on the definition which makes it that much more difficult to express what it truly is, in a consensual manner. I suppose one could safely describe it as the fundamental and somewhat instinctual standards of what an individual views as right and wrong based on his or her lifestyle and others that are involved in their life. How does one differentiate between morals and ethics? Differences? What differences? There are virtually no differences between the two words…or so I thought. I contemplated more about the two terms and came to this particular conclusion: the terms ethics and morality are often used interchangeably and can mean the same in casual conversation, but ethics are more based on standards that are set by society, rather than the individual, on what is and is not socially acceptable
Have you noticed how our morals change as time passes by and we get older? That is what makes the morality a very interesting topic to dissect from a psychological standpoint. A developmental theorist by the name of Jean Piaget has a theory ,called the two-stage theory, in which he discusses how children younger than ten years of age think about moral dilemmas differently than children older than ten. Younger children regard rules as fixed and absolute. They believe that adults (or even God) hand down rules and that one cannot change them. The older childrens’ view is based more on relativity. They understand that it is acceptable to change rules if everyone agrees. Therefore, younger children base their moral judgments on consequences, whereas older children understand the meaning of the underlying intentions of an occurrence. For instance, the young child hears about a boy who broke fifteen cups trying to help his mother and another boy who broke only one cup trying to steal cookies; the...

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