Moral Code of an Individual - Essay Example

?Morality, a term often used interchangeably with ethics, principles, virtue and goodness, is essentially a sense of one’s own behavioral conduct. Itdefines and at the same time clearly distinguishes intentions, decision, actions, and deeds between those that have been deemed good( or right) and those that have been deemed bad( or wrong) by the society. In today’s world a Moral code is a unique and well-known system of Morality defined by its own specific religion, culture or philosophical background. A moral is any individual practice, action or teaching that is carried out within the individual’s defined Moral code. The word Morality carries the concept of: moral standards, with respect to behavior; moral responsibility, referring to one’s own conscience; and a moral identity, that is one who can differentiate between his right and wrong actions. Morality defines the boundaries that have been set forth in our society and following them can only lead to harmony and respect within the society. It’s one of the core founding pillars of a sophisticated society as it not only characterizes what is right and wrong but also instills a sense of guilt within individuals. This makes sure that no matter how badly one wants to commit that action, morality takes over and stops one from doing that bad or unfavorable deed. For example, if a pharmaceutical company has decided not to withdraw a medicine from the market that causes severe side effects just because they will endure huge losses if they do so, it can clearly be stated as unethical. As playing with the lives of thousands of innocent people is not justified it is thus established as being an immoral act in society. Ethics, also termed as moral philosophy, is a prominent branch of philosophy that caters to questions about morality and its concepts, such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc. Ethics can be broadly divided into three categories namely: Meta ethics, Normative ethics and Applied ethics. Meta ethics inquires about the roots of our ethical principles and how they came into being in our society. It usually deals with questions related to the role of reason in ethical judgment, the will of God and the issues of universal truths. Normative ethics on the other side takes a more practical task in determining the moral standards that set apart the right from the wrong. This often includes pursuing good habits in general, following duties that are considered favorable and the consequences that others might face because of one’s actions. Lastly, Applied ethics simply involves examining specific controversial issues, such as abortion, animal rights, environmental protection, homosexuality, capital punishment and chemical or nuclear wars. Although this branch looks quite simple but it has the highest opposition since opinions differ from person to person. For example, If a country starts discriminating against the immigrants of another country on the basis of race or religion than it is highly unethical of them in this developed world. Since the immigrants hold their rights to live freely there, basing differences on religion or on one’s race is prohibited in the civilized world. It is very important to know that reason is not the root for every answer. Although being rational and reasonable might help to achieve understanding of a certain situation but every situation at hand demands a different perspective. People argue that every right thing can be determined through reason, nevertheless that is not the case. It is futile to reason against something that is already established as a norm unless there is ample evidence that a change is needed. There are a lot of wrong things that need no reason, for instance hurting a human being or animal, using harmful means to acquire money or disrespecting elders. Likewise, there are uncountable right things that need no reason to perform, for instance loving and caring for ones parents, treating others respectfully, caring for human lives, living a healthy life and the list goes on. Nobody gives an explanation of why performing these actions is good or bad, it’s more innate, since the time we were born we have been taught in what to do without being given a reason why to do it. Besides reason there are other factors such as one’s culture, traditions, norms, society values and most important of them all an individual’s own perspective on things. It is very common to notice that all around us people commit actions and perform behaviors that they know are wrong but still go ahead with it thinking they’ll get away with it or will do something good to make it up for the bad they are doing. Even after knowing the boundary between good and bad people render into the wrong territory and then at the end blame that they got strayed or were blinded at the moment. For example, hospitals often make patients wait in long queues in order to get the form filled even though they know the more time they waste lives are at stake. Since it is against moral standards to make a patient wait helplessly when his life is at stake it is clearly immoral. Nevertheless, this is something healthcare institutions do on a massive scale after knowing the fact that the right thing would be to treat the patient first and then get the form filled later. They justify it by saying that they need to follow certain rules and procedures to maintain accord and discipline in the running of the institution. Justification for something immoral needs no reason, one can just do something wrong and then say he was misguided by others. But the main question is will it be substantial? Only if through proper evidence it can be proved that doing something unethical was for the greater good of humanity at the expense of a few others than it is viewed as an overall positive scenario. These cases are rare, but if somebody contradicts this and justifies that it was done for personal benefits than it is clearly immoral and unethical. On one instance if a senior executive fires his sub-ordinates in order to retain his own job it will be viewed as immoral, but at the same time if he fired the sub-ordinates to get rid of the less productive employees it will be viewed as an overall benefit to the company and the other employees who will in turn get better rewards and pays. Evil is the name given to things that are considered sinister, menacing, ominous and threatening to the existence of mankind on this planet. It can be in the form of actions, behaviors, attitudes and intentions. Evil breeds evil and leads to destruction that will ultimately affect everyone in one way or the other. Posing a threat to a fellow human is what can easily be classified as evil. Is taking the lives of other humans at the gain of personal benefits not an evil? It is indeed! Read More