Table of Contents

MORALITY.......................................................................................................................2
DESCRIPTIVE DEFINITION........................................................................................................2
Normative Definition..................................................................................3
MORALITY IN DAILY LIFE.........................................................................................3
Abortion………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Homosexuality…………………………………………………………………………...3
Dog fighting hypocrisy………………………………………………………………….3
Murder…………………………………………………………………………………...4
Human rights …………………………………………………………………………….4
LEVEL OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT…………………...…………………………..5
MORALITY IN BUSINESS………………………………………………………….....5
MORAL SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS…………………………………………………….6
Morality of self interest........................................................................................................6
................................................................................................................................................
Morality of accounting…………………………………………………………………….6
Morality of generosity……………………………………………………………………..6
MORALITY AND MARKET MODELS........................................................................6
DECLINE OF MORALITY IN SOCIETY.....................................................................7
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................8
DEFINITION:
The term “morality” can be used either

1. Descriptively to refer to a code of conduct put forward by a society or,

a. some other group, such as a religion, or
b. accepted by an individual for her own behavior or
2. Normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified
conditions, would be put forward by all rational persons

DESCRIPTIVE DEFINITION:
When “morality” is used in this descriptive way, moralities can differ from
each other in their content and in the foundation that members of the society
claim their morality to have. A society might have a morality that is
primarily concerned with practices not related to other persons, e.g., which
days must be devoted to certain rituals, and might claim that their morality,
which is concerned primarily with ritual, is based on the commands of God.
Or a society might have a morality that is concerned primarily with sexual
practices, and claim that their morality, which has this concern, is based on
human nature. Or a society might regard morality as being concerned
primarily with practices that minimize the harms that people suffer and
claim that their morality, which has this concern, is based on reason. Many
societies have moralities that are concerned with all of the above and that are
claimed to have all three of the above foundations. But, in this sense of
“morality,” regardless of its content, or the justification that those who
accept the morality claim for it, the only universal features that all moralities
have is that they are put forward by a society and they provide a guide for
the behavior of the people in that society. In this sense of “morality,”
morality might allow slavery or might allow some people with one skin
color to behave in ways that those with a different skin color are not allowed
to behave. In this sense of “morality,” it is not even essential that morality
incorporate impartiality with regard to all moral agents, those people whose
behavior is subject to moral judgments, or that it is universalizable in any
significant way.

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NORMATIVE DEFINITION:
When “morality” is used in its universal normative sense, it need not have
either of the two features that are essential to moralities referred to by the
original descriptive sense: that it is a code of conduct that is put forward by a
society and that it is used as a guide to behavior by the members of that
society. Indeed, it is possible that “morality” in the normative sense has
never been put forward by any particular society, by any group at all, or
even by any individual who regards it as overriding. “Morality” is thus an
ambiguous term; the features that account for what it refers to in any of the
descriptive senses are not the features that account for what it refers to in its
normative sense. The only feature that the descriptive and normative senses
of “morality” have in common is that they refer to guides to behavior.

MORALITY IN DAILY LIFE

Topics for everyday living
Abortion:

An abortion is the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the

uterus, resulting in or caused by its death. The moral and legal aspects of
abortion are subject to intense social debate in many parts of the world.
Aspects of this debate can include the public health impact of unsafe or
illegal abortion as well as legal abortion's effect upon crime rates, and the
ramifications of sex-selective practices

Homosexuality:

It is totally immoral and a threat to the existence of humanity. Even those

who do not believe in God, accept that it is unnatural.

Dog fighting hypocrisy:

Many people claim to sharply oppose dog fighting and cock-fighting.

Undeniably, dog fighting is an unjustifiable abuse of animals. But do these
same people express apathy or approval for boxing, wrestling, and other
violent human sports. It would be ludicrously hypocritical if anyone
condemned animal fighting and nevertheless approved of human fighting.

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Murder:

Murder is the unlawful killing of a human person with malice aforethought.

It is illegal. No one has the right to deprive anyone of his life.

Human rights:

Liberty is defined in America as the right for individuals to act as they

choose without restraint as long as their actions do not interfere with the
equivalent rights of others. These “rights” usually consist of the so-called
freedoms such as the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom
of the press, freedom to marry, freedom to business etc

Morality is the ethical code we each choose to guide us in our daily lives, in
accordance with our respective values. Note that the root of this definition
lies in the verb “choose.”

Ordinary people make the choice in their daily lives to give to charities,
donate time and money to schools, mentor children, open businesses, or
protest against animal cruelty. These are moral choices. However, when
these same policies are promoted using the force of government, they nullify
any claim to choice, and therefore morality, altogether. Every person who
hopes to function rationally in a society has to make choices every minute of
the day. The sum of our choices can fairly be said to define our particular
“morality. Proposing that those of us who oppose the welfare state are in any
way “immoral” lacks logical credibility. Morality requires choice, which
means the right to choose differently from our fellows, or even wrongly.

How, then, does such an approach to morality deal with the murderer, who
may choose to kill people? Does his particular “morality” deserve respect as
well? Like the use of government force, private force is a negation of choice,
not an extension of it. One cannot claim to be acting in the name of morality
when imposing his will by force. The purpose of government, then, is not to
make people moral, but to make morality possible by discouraging the use
of force in human relationships

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BUSINESS AND MORALITY
Level of Moral Development
Level Description
Selflessness Willingness to inflict harm upon self
(Love) in way of protecting others
Righteous Committed to overriding principles
(a Judge) of Individual Rights & Safety, even
when contrary to the law.
Principled Committed to particular ethical
(Lawyer) and/or legal principles as guides for
all decision-making (assuming
principles are caring and
responsible).
Conventional Committed to what seems
(Kids) appropriate at the time
(e.g., leave enough cookies for
everyone to eat)
Preconventional Committed to dictates only to avoid
(Young Children) punishment
(e.g., take a cookie when no one is
watching)

BUSINESS:
Carrying on a commercial or industrial undertaking of any kind or nature, or
providing professional, personal, or other services for the purpose of gain or
profit.

MORALITY IN BUSINESS:
A business will not behave morally or properly unless it has to. The purpose
of a business is to make money. That's not wrong.

Profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behavior and

business decisions, but rather the test of their validity.

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Business needs to be restrained from doing harm. Business cannot be made
moral; it cannot be made to do what's right. But it can and must be kept from
doing harm. Or at least, too much harm.

Businesses must be made to treat employees with a certain minimum

dignity. That's the purpose of labor laws (and unions, whatever those are
these days.) Businesses must be made to treat investors to a minimum of
disclosure, so that at the least an individual can educate oneself enough to
beware the risks of buying a part of the company. And, of course, businesses
must be made to pay a minimum of respect to the integrity of the resources
that it is depleting or polluting.

MORAL SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS:

We can approach everything through one of three moral systems:

- Morality of self-interest. This gives us "owning", "domination", etc. The
Old School. Industrial Age concept. Still prevails in many business plans
that are just for killing other companies.
- Morality of accounting. Business balances everything. "Paying debts",
"owing favors". This is our system of justice, by the way. It's all about
accounting. (Note the scales of justice symbol.)
- Morality of generosity. Businesses say that we give. We are open. We love
without expectation of reward, or even accounting. (In fact, when you bring
in accounting, you compromise it.) Think about how we give to our spouses,
our children, without strings. It pays off, too. But that's fundamentally not
what it's about

Morality and market models:

These three moralities also map somewhat to the market model that looks
like this:

• Relationship
• Conversation
• Transaction

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We need transaction, need conversation but relationship is what actually
makes markets. I'm talking about real markets here: places where we do
business and make culture. Relationship takes the passions we put into
creating businesses and makes them work in the social context we call a
market. (Did anybody ever go into business because they were looking for a
way to please stockholders?)
You have to be generous in relationships.
So, we are talking about corporate generosity and corporate altruism and
corporate relationships with customers. It is still economics, I think. It is a
kind of giving that does not hurt the giver because what is given is a tiny
drop in the bucket compared with the giver's total wealth

Decline of Morality in Our Society:

We have allowed media to flood our homes with garbage sitcoms and
movies that endorse and glorify these strange values. And we have allowed
the alternative lifestyles to be taught to our children as acceptable, because
God forbid we ever be called Homophobes by the Left thinkers.

And in this age of technology and mass media where we have to power and
ability to use these things for the good of our society, we use them for its
corruption and degradation. And we see the battle everywhere now, in
our homes, in the office, in schools, in the court systems, and in our politics.
And for anyone who has a sense of decency and morality, this is heart
breaking at best.

Conclusion:

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There is a connection between learning academically and the development
of mental power and the learning of moral values and the development of
strength of character. The development of the intellect and of moral
character are intimately related
Teachers represent an important adult authority figure in students’ lives
and are therefore capable of making a huge impression upon students.
Additionally, teachers spend a large portion of the day with the students,
often more than even the children’s parents do with their kids. Therefore the
teacher has ample opportunity to educate children not only in important
academic subjects, but in character and values as well.

It is in this atmosphere that students are expected to learn about morality. In

the absence of actual moral behavior, this seems to be a formidable task.
Instead, it seems far more likely that students will learn that moral behavior
is irrelevant. As the old saying goes, "Actions speak louder than words."