Subjectivity Vs. Objectivity Morality

Grace Lennick
Prof. Berg
ENL 101-022
September 19 2017
Subjectivity vs. Objectivity Morality
In our generation, there is so much ability and freedom to do what appeals to each person as an individual. With all this freedom, we often forget to stop before acting, and question if our choices are ethical. What exactly are ethics? Ethics are according to Oxford Dictionary "Moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity." Taken down to its essence, to be an ethical person, one must have morals. What are morals? Again, pulling from Oxford Dictionary "Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior." With these definitions given, morality becomes subjective. But really

Well now that you understand what comes from subjective morality, let's look into objective. Objective morality is the view on life that there are rules in regards to morality, about a person's behavior. There are 2 ways you can come about these moral rules; religiously or scientifically. Let's first look at morals from a religious point of view. More specifically Christianity. The purpose of Christianity is to follow the teachings of Jesus, and obey what He says. Within this belief system God is ultimately good. And to be good you must become more like God. What are Gods attributes? Goodness, righteous hate, justice, knowledge, love, rationality, mercy, speech, truthfulness, and wisdom. We can see that if a person did these things we have a perfectly good person. Let's now take a step back. Addressing what evolution, and science has to say about objective morality. The ironic thing is one of the things evolutionists and Christians can agree on. That morality isn't subjective. As for the moment there is a developing theory on humans containing a moral gene. Previously within evolution it was always assumed parents and religious practices taught right from wrong. This was more of a subjective view. As of the last decade or so there has been new developments on digging deeper into where truly morality comes from. There have been multiple primatologists and biologists supposing a theory that morals have originated from our ancestors, and have been evolving over time. Do to the social behaviors of apes and other species. The apes showing empathy, and having essential mammal group behaviors. It translates into simplistic moral behaviors of apes. Nicholas Wade, a writer on psychological maters for The New York Times, spoke on such matters "Marc D. Hauser, a Harvard biologist, has built on this idea to propose that people are born with a moral grammar wired into their neural circuits by evolution." Wade