Morality

Morality, in the strictest sense of the word, deals with that which is regarded as right or wrong. The term is often used to refer to a system of principles and judgments shared by cultural, religious, secular (eg. Humanist) and philosophical commmunities who share concepts and beliefs, by which people determine whether given actions are right or wrong.

These concepts and beliefs about right and wrong are often generalized and codified by a culture or group, and thus serve to regulate the behavior of its members. Conformity to such codification may also be called morality, and the group may depend on widespread conformity to such codes for its continued existence.

Individuals who choose to conform in this way are popularly held to possess "Moral Fibre", whereas those who lack "Moral Fibre" may be labelled as socially degenerate. A "moral" may refer to a particular principle, usually as an informal and general summary with respect to a moral principle, as it is applied in a given human situation.

Morality can thus also be seen as the collection of beliefs as to what constitutes a good life. Since throughout most of human history, religions have provided both visions and regulations for an ideal life (through such beliefs characterized by 'the god(s) know what's best for us') morality is often confused with religious precepts. In secular situations morality can now be used in reference to such things as lifestyle choices, as these tend to represent an individual's conception of a good life, and the individual usually conforms to a set of beliefs within the lifestyle's community of like-minded people.

The systematic study of morality is a branch of philosophy called ethics. Ethics seeks to address questions such as how one ought to behave in a specific situation ("applied ethics"), how one can justify a moral position ("normative ethics"), and how one should understand the fundamental nature of ethics or morality itself, including whether it has any objective justification ("meta-ethics").

For example, in applied ethics, the question of abortion being morally permissible is a current issue in United States society and politics. A common question in normative ethics is how one would go about justifying a lie, given that they think they are morally justified for the sake of protecting someone from harm. Do the terms "good", "evil", "right", and "wrong" make sense? Meta-ethics asks, how do we justify the existence of "good," or is it all relative and is morality simply a statement of one's preferences (i.e. through "cultural relativism")?

Of course, in any society there is a divergence between the notion of how we ought to behave and the reality of how we behave; so there is a difference between hypothetical punditry and real morality.

The law considers itself independent of morality, even if the law happens to reflect or intends to reflect morality. (Of course, it is not difficult to argue that societal morality is inevitably encoded in law)

In some judicial systems, the word morality concretely means a requirement for the access to certain charges or careers, or for the obtaining of certain licenses or concessions, and generally consists of the absence of previous records on (e.g.) crimes, bankruptcy, political or commercial irregularities.

In some systems, the lack of morality of the individual can also be a sufficient cause for punishment, or can be an element for the grading of the punishment.

Especially in the systems where modesty (i.e., with reference to sexual crimes) is legally protected or otherwise regulated, the definition of morality as a legal element and in order to determine the cases of infringement, is usually left to the vision and appreciation of the single judge and hardly ever precisely specified. In such cases, it is common to verify an application of the prevalent common morality of the interested community, that consequently becomes enforced by the law for further reference.