Philosophy Paper
What makes an action morally right?
When asked what actions are considered morally correct it’s hard to answer because everyone has their own thoughts of what is morally correct. Everyone is brought up or born in different environments which have effect on what they believe is moral. A huge part of what makes these decisions is society and culture. Every society has different views of what they accept as morally correct. What’s morally acceptable in one society or culture can be frowned upon in another.
1. Everyone has their own morals which they believe to be correct
2. Where people come from and how they grow up is what creates their ideas on morals
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3. Therefore society and culture decide what is morally correct.
Much like the argument above, ethical Relativism has the same ideas on the topic. Ethical Relativism considers an action morally right if the action agrees with the moral standards of their culture. It implies that there are no correct moral standards that apply to all individuals. There are morals that are right in one culture but wrong in another. Ethical Relativism has no way to determine which culture is correct in deciding moral standard, therefore the culture is what makes an action of a person morally sound or not. However, when looking at morals not all arguments agree with society and culture.
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When looking at morals it is a fact that not every culture lives by the same moral standards, but there are many arguments in deciding what makes an action morally sound. For example, there is the Utilitarianism argument. Utilitarianists believe that a right action is an action which creates the most happiness for humans. That an action is morally correct if this action creates more happiness for all of humanity than any other action available. Unlike my argument utilitarianism is that each person should act to bring out the most happiness in people, and according to Utilitarists standards of maximizing happiness, applies universally to all individuals regardless of what culture they are in. This would arise the objection of the truth of my premise 2; where people come from and how they grow up is what creates their ideas on morals. According to Utilitarists something that is morally correct is an action which creates the most net happiness and that happiness is universal to everyone. Therefore it would not matter where people grow up or come from which created their ideas on morals, because morally correct would be creating happiness which is universal not different in cultures. This also contradicts with the truth of my conclusion; Therefore society and culture decide what is morally correct.
When looking at this objection, it shows a valid point. However, it is hard to say that happiness is universal for all people. Utilitarism tends to ignore how happiness is dealt out to individuals and also how it is produced, when looking at the overall net happiness created by a certain action. Therefore, I still would say the conclusion is still true that society and culture decide what is morally correct.
The next argument on what makes an action morally correct is Kant’s. He believes that it is not what we accomplish with an action but what we intend to accomplish by making the actions that determines whether the action is right. When looking at his work universal law shows an objection to my argument. This is that there is a universal law for what is considered morally correct and it is our duty to uphold these standards. It is a law that everyone must follow.
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When looking at this, it would contradict my first premise; everyone has their own morals which they believe to be correct. With Kant’s argument everyone must follow a law, which then makes my premise false for no one has their own ideas on what is morally correct. It also questions the truth of my conclusion; that society and culture decide on what is morally correct. This would be incorrect to Kant since there is a universal law which would not change from society to society. This objection is relative for the first premise because there are some universal laws that must be upheld by societies and cultures. However, it is true that cultures and societies have their own moral standards which means that not all laws are universal, making my conclusion still relative.
When looking at my argument, and being like Ethical Relativism, there are some down falls with my argument. For example, it reduces moral consideration to an exercise of democracy, where people decide on what is morally right in culture. Another problem would be where the moral standards of culture can change over time, where over time many cultures revise what is now morally correct from what was morally correct many times becoming an absurd manner. A final problem in determining if the approach is adequate would be a logical nature. Some cultures follow the moral standard whether there is any reason for doing so. Therefore implying that “anything goes” where no matter what a cultures moral standards are or why they follow them, or how awful they are, they are accepted. This includes slavery, rape, murder, and many other awful things that are accepted in different cultures.
A better answer to this question would be that the individual decides what is morally wrong. Society cannot control everyone and all the diversity from cultural backgrounds that enter it. If the action someone makes gives them grief or guilt, it probably was not morally correct. They need to be happy with what action they decide, not try to make everyone happy because that is impossible; someone will always be unhappy. There should however be a universal law where certain things are forbidden like slavery, rape, murder, and many other awful things, which are immoral.
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