"The Moral Construct" by Emily F

 

Everyday we are forced to make a variety of decisions based on our interpretations of right and wrong; this is known as our moral construct. Morality is more commonly defined by the perception of common place laws and how one governs their life by them; however, it cannot accurately be interpreted through one set of circumstances as each person is responsible for self-governing. As a concept of determining what is fair, morality is divided into three subcategories: legal, religious, and situational, each with their own diverse perspectives on right versus wrong.

 

To begin, Legal Moralism is the act of basing your decisions on the premise that they could be criminalized if carried out through immoral means. Their moral compass is driven solely on the construct of laws and regulations. The main focus of this branch is known as The Harm Principle, written by John Stuart Mill, a common era philosopher. According to Mill’s principle, any act that causes another person harm will be considered unlawful and immoral whether or not it breaks any actual laws.

 

Concurrently, Religious Moralism consists of decisions based on laws given by authoritative figures and/or religious texts. Their moral compass is motivated by the idea of preserving the soul and spirit. This branch contains many subcategories within itself as each religious affiliation comes with its own set of rules, traditions, and goals. Although broad, the main focus of this branch is to uphold your religious duties and apply them to the operations of societal functions.

Furthermore, the most common type of morality, Situational Moralism, is defined by evaluating decisions based on the context of a situation. This code of ethics is based on in-the-moment decision making and true intentions. This branch does not affiliate with any laws or broad spectrum beliefs as it is entirely personal to the individual. As Situational Moralism is built off the principle of intrinsic-motivation it differs based on each person’s will and is subject to change on a daily basis.

Additionally, the previously defined subcategories can be applied to a simple social experiment and used to determine your moral influence. Take for example, the “Shopping Cart Theory”, a common test used to see whether a person will return their shopping cart to its docking station or leave it wherever it feels convenient to the shopper. If a person were to return the shopping cart based on societal acceptance and standard procedure they would be categorized under Legal Moralism, while someone who decides to return the shopping cart based on inner-motivation and self-standards would be classified under Religious Moralism. Moreover, when accounting for Situational Moralism they could fall under either aforementioned category, under a selfless motivation to do good, or under the situation of not returning the cart based on selfish convenience. This demonstration proves that, just like Oscar Wilde said, “Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.” All in all, morality is not purely a social construct used to encourage lawful behavior, but an abstract concept used to determine a person’s willingness and motivation to carry out a selfless act even when no one is watching.

 

Works Cited

 

Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/legal-moralism-definition-lesson.html.

 

Naomi Ellemers, Jojanneke van der Toorn. “The Psychology of Morality: A Review and Analysis of Empirical Studies Published From 1940 Through 2017 - Naomi Ellemers, Jojanneke Van Der Toorn, Yavor Paunov, Thed Van Leeuwen, 2019.” SAGE Journals, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1088868318811759.