Reflection Paper - Essay Example

This morality is then an ambiguous word. The commonality between these two definitions is that in both places morality refers to not causing harm to others. When we talk about morality, people have two views; some think that morality is objective, while others thing that it is a subjective phenomenon. The objective morality is that there is an external morality which exists in human beings i.e. it exists independently. The second view says that morality is only the opinions human beings hold about different things and topics related to this world.

In the social environment, morality may be referred to as human welfare, justice and rights. Both individuals and societies have a morality, but societies have a morality only if a large number of people within the society have high moral values. Socially moral behavior goes hand in hand with socially conventional behavior; these two factors govern an individual’s behavior and the social order of the society. In our religion and society morality hold a lot of importance. To cause harm to another human being is illegal.

A normative or a prescriptive theory is one that rests upon ethical commitments and things or behaviors to be prized, preferred and valued. Normative theories can either be agent neutral or agent centered. Theories are agent neutral when the same thing applies to everybody in the same way. Thus everybody’s aims are fulfilled in accordance with other people’s aims. The agent centered theory is specific to every individuals needs. It may prescribe something to one person and the total opposite to another person.

Thus one’s aims will be achieved at the expense of another person’s aims. The basic focus of the normative theory is for every individual to focus on his or her own aims in an agent centered approach while in an agent neutral approach the focus is on the greater happiness of all people. In normative theories we judge everything