320 Years of History
Gold Member
Where do adults acquire their "morals, ethics and standards"? Genetically? Socialization? Nature or nurture?...I think that all adults have morals, ethics and standards. I think that the ones most adults have are too damn low. I could present an argument for what constitutes "too low" and how and why "too low" is deleterious to social wellbeing and progress; however, I'm not right now in the mood to do so. (I suspect several members are grateful for that. LOL)
From whence they come is irrelevant to my remark, and I right now have no willingness to discuss from where morals, ethics and standards come. My remark asserts the extancy of morals, ethics and standards in everyone and that I don't find that everyone's morals, ethics and standards acceptable, not with where they come from. I repeat. I have no desire to discuss where they come from.
Frankly, I don't really care if one's morals come from one's parents, teachers, Plato or Bugs Bunny. The fact is that every adult at various points in their lives is called to make choices based on their morals, standards and ethics. That they make the choice is clear evidence that they have some sort of morals, ethics and standards. If their moral compass says, for example, "screw the other guy before he screws you," well, that's what it says. You may consider that to be immoral, so might I. Your's and my judgment of the quality of another's morality does not remotely establish that the other person indeed lacks any morals. Our judgement that another is immoral merely indicates that we don't find their morals acceptable vis a vis our own.
More than a handful of folks have pondered and posited the source of morals, ethics and standards. Google is your friend and relying on it, you'll find ample material that coherently and cogently explains how individuals and societies come to have the morals, ethics and standards they do. Here are two writers' thoughts on the matter to get you started.
- Moral Reasoning (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4295&context=mulr
Just in case I wasn't clear enough. I am unwilling to discuss the ideas you'll find at either of those links.
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