What is philosophy of morality?
Philosophy of ethics or morality explores fundamental questions regarding
– what is right or wrong,
– how to determine what is right or wrong ,
– do we need religion to practice ethics or morality and
– Is morality subjective or it exist objectively independent of human beliefs and opinions
Let’s discuss philosophy of morality with different perspectives given by different philosophers.
How to determine what is right or wrong
Immanuel Kant gave following principles and tests to determine what is right or wrong :
1. Universalizability – It means while doing an action, ask yourself whether it would be morally acceptable if everyone (whole world) were to act in same way in similar situation.
For example – If you want to lie, consider picture of a world where everyone would lie easily.
See whether this scenario is logically consistent or it leads to contradiction. You will see that if everyone lie in this world, lying would become ineffective because no one would believe each other. There will be distrust in society everywhere.
So, lying is ineffective as it cannot be consistently applied as universal law. Hence it is immoral.
2. Principle of ends – Human should not be treated as a means to your end. They should be an end itself. Ask if your action affect dignity of individual for your own benefits. Treat everyone as a human. They all are individual consciousness. They are not means for your personal desires.
3. Rationality – Whether your actions are driven by rationality or your emotions. Moral actions should be done out of duty not for selfish reasons.
Do we need religion to practice morality
Wisdom is more important for morality than religion. Religion have set rules and principles that apply in certain context and circumstances. We cannot use them everywhere.
The problem in religious morality is that people blindly believe in it. People do not follow religion in parts. They follow everything. And that includes both right and wrong. It is ok if people use their judgement and follow good things from religion and discard the bad things. But people generally do not do this. They believe that everything written in religious scripture is right and unquestionable.
And that could be called as slave morality. And it becomes dangerous too. We know how many people have been killed in name of religion across the world.
Religious morality is sustainable only if people judge what is written in scriptures before practicing it.
Another problem with religion is that it becomes one’s identity. And that is the reason humans do not want to be free from it. Religion should be means to end but it generally becomes end to means.
A rational religious person should make humans as an end and religion as means not the other way.
Is morality subjective or objective
Well! It’s a debatable issue. Let’s see what different philosophers said about this.
According to Immanuel Kant, morality is objective which apply universally to all beings. It does not depend on individual emotions or circumstances.
David Hume, who was a Scottish philosopher argued that morality is not result of reason or rationality. It is deeply grounded in human sentiments and emotions and it changes from culture to culture.
No one can reach any conclusion whether morality is subjective or objective.
We can just put our ideas which do not let us anywhere. But at least these ideas help us in developing our intellect.
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