Caleb Heussner
Philosophy Paper 3
5/4/2014
Morality Existing Morality is a word that has multiple definitions. It is seen as principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. Morality can also be seen as a particular system of values and how to act towards others. It becomes in that sense a way of reality. It is the extent to which an action is right or wrong. That exact extent has been debated on for centuries because of the grey area. True objective morality has been contested because can one bad act really never be done? If you say never murder anybody no matter the circumstances, what do you do if your life is threatened and you must kill to protect your family. That choice can only be made by the individual depending on who they are at that point in their life and shows why morality does exist and how it is relative to the individual on deciding right from wrong. I believe that morality exists and that it exists in regards to relativity. To say that there is a universal code that every human in the world should follow is impossible. Even the will to survive can be disputed with self-sacrifice and protests like monks burning themselves in villages. However even with this there still remains that people know right from wrong. They make the decision for themselves because they have the free will to make their own decision. The individual will think it’s right or wrong depending on their upbringing and their own personality traits will influence as well. Every person can have a feeling of what is right or wrong. Some may disagree on what is or isn’t but they can still come to the conclusion that something is right or wrong. Sometimes there is a distinct answer on what is wrong. For example the killing of Jews by Nazis was wrong and people can come to that conclusion logically. But it still happened for some reason. That is why morality is relative to what the individual decides as okay because of various factors affecting the individual. Some of the various factors in what an individual chooses to do are because of their surroundings. The people who live with you and live around you play a big role in the kinds of choices that you will make. You can be more violent because you see it around you all the time; person fall into the trap of social learning. Gang mentality can be implemented in high risk neighborhoods and bad decisions like killing and stealing are seen as okay behavior. The individual choice is affected by surroundings and the culture around the individual. Relative morality is dictated by the individual thought and some of the surroundings of the individual. The person can still choose right from wrong, for example non-Jewish people hiding Jews in their house away from the Nazis. They saw all around them that persecution of Jews was okay but they made their own individual choice on what to choose. Relative morality can be attacked by egoism and how everyone universally, does what is for the betterment of them. Morality does not exist because people only act what is in their own best self-interest. Even in regards to self-sacrifice an egoist thinks that the person did that to be the hero and to look good and send a powerful message. Bad things happen because people do what is their own best self-interest. If a psychopath thinks that killing makes them feel good, they will keep killing people even though killing is seen as a universal bad thing to do. Everyone has the chance to act with