Morality and Ethics: Shaping Our Lives

Morals and Ethics

Moral: It is a dimension of individuals and societies according to which we are able, within certain limits, to choose how to guide our lives as persons.

Moral: Lived and Thought

Morality is what people and societies live daily. Ethics is the philosophical reflection on morality.

Morality concerns life; ethics is moral philosophy, which has to respond to the following three questions:

• A) What is morality?
• B) How is it founded?
• C) How does this apply to our daily lives?

What is Being Moral?

Morality is not a science but a dimension of people and societies. It is a "moral dimension" that requires a task: to acquire a habit, to forge a character from which to devise and plan one's own life, and to forge a good character.

Being moral is being trained to respond to any challenge with human height. An evil person is immoral. We know with what elements we build a good character.

To be moral is to be trained to respond to any challenge with human height. An evil person is immoral. We know with what elements to forge a good character.

Knowledge to Guide Our Lives

A) Learning to Live

Unlike animals, whose existence is determined by their nature (that is, from birth), people are naturally disoriented. We can live in many different ways; we need to conduct our lives and build them. We need to learn to live, which is an essential knowledge.

B) Where do we shape policy and law?

Legal and political decisions are aimed at achieving the common good of a particular political community and have an individual and a social aspect.

Morality and its Goal

Morality helps us build the relationship with ourselves and with others, in order to reach our self-realization.

How Religion Guides Us

Morality, politics, and law pursue our self-realization and the common good, but we have other aspirations.

The desire for immortality and ultimate meaning exceeds misfortune and causes religious experience. The religious response is an invitation to happiness and comfort. Suffering, disease, natural disasters, etc., require compassion and loving support.

Although religions have rules, the most important thing is the experience of compassion and love for others to form a whole endowed with meaning, awaiting salvation through their relationship with God.

Values

Values are qualities of things that make them attractive to the person (beauty, value, etc.). We are attracted to positive values; negative values repel us. Some values are higher than others.

Values are very important to define our identity, so we know a person by the values they prefer and choose daily. Values have a rational component (they move sentiment; they are reasonable) and an experiential component.

There are various types of values: aesthetic (beauty, elegance, etc.), economic (quality, effectiveness, etc.), religious (sacred, etc.), but the most important values for the person are moral values.

Moral values must satisfy the following requirements:

• Moral values are those we incorporate into our lives with more or less effort to be fully human: solidarity, honesty, etc.
• Moral values are personal qualities of people or their actions or relationships. Moral values only belong to free beings.
• Human values are universal, and every person should appreciate them. Anyone who intends to live as a full person should value justice, equality, and solidarity, and try to perform them.