Morality: A Pillar of Societal Norms and Behavior

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In society today there are many religions and cultures that each in their own way preaches different values. Morality is a subject that is often studied and analyzed to evaluate how people act and why they act in that manner. Being moral refers to “what persons ought to do in order to conform to society’s norms of behavior” (Beauchamp, 1997, p.2). Without morality it would be very difficult to have expectations on how people would act within society. This would in turn impact day to day interactions with strangers as with no morals of how one should act to their neighbor, there would be no mutual trust. If someone questions the conventional customs and laws of their culture and religion, why should they be good? If someone does not want to conform to the norms of their religion, they will have little to no …show more content…

As human beings who interact in a society with other humans, we care a great deal about what others think about us. These judgements of others on someone are made from how you speak to them, your body language towards them, and especially your actions. As people want to uphold a good reputation, they will want to act good and moral. Additionally many religions emphasize what happens to your spirit in the after life. They preach that where you go in your after life is decided by the good and bad you do in your time on earth. This enforces many to act morally as they want to be happy in their after life. Also we all have a moral conscience that we use every single day to make decisions. Kant eluded that we feel “compelled to pass moral judgements on ourselves” (Wren, 1991, p. 22). Nobody truly wants to believe that they aren’t a good person. Therefore in order to pass positive moral judgment on one’s self, they act good and conform to society’s ideals and in turn are a valuable member of their

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