LESSON 2:
MORALITY AND MORAL STANDARDS
In the first lecture I have tried to explain you the concept of
Business Ethics, its importance in the organization, and
arguments against its implementation. Along with that we did a
small activity so as to make everything clear. In this lecture I shall
talk about morality and moral standards.
Points to be covered in this lecture:
• Meaning and characteristics of morality
• Meaning and origin of moral standards
Morality
What do you actually mean by morality?
Morality can be explained in all these ways:
• Morality can be defined as the standards that an individual or a
group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil.
• Moral quality or character; rightness or wrongness, as of an
action; the character of being in accord with the principles or
standards of right conduct.
• Not imposed from outside, but innate and can even be
unconscious. We have a fundamental urge to connect.
Ultimately, it’s our moral qualities that force us to live in
harmony with the unconscious; doing so is the highest form
of morality. Morality is individual; the morality of a group
decreases as its size increases.
• Morality is an informal public system applying to all rational
persons, governing behavior that affects others, and has the
lessening of evil or harm as its goal.
• Morality is a complex of concepts and philosophical beliefs by
which an individual determines whether his or her actions are
right or wrong. Often, these concepts and beliefs are
generalized and codified in a culture or group, and thus serve to
regulate the behavior of its members. Conformity to such
codification is called morality, and the group may depend on
widespread conformity to such codes for its continued
existence. A “moral” may refer to a particular principle, usually
as informal and general summary of a moral principle, as
applied in a given human situation.
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Characteristics of Morality
• To say that morality is a public system incorporates the
essential feature that everyone who is subject to moral
judgment knows what kinds of actions it prohibits, requires,
discourages, encourages, and allows. It also guarantees that it
is never irrational to act morally.
• It would take considerably more space than is appropriate
here to show that defining morality as a public system that
applies to all rational persons also results in morality being a
universal guide to behavior that all rational persons would
put forward for governing the behavior of all moral agents. I
should make clear that the claim that all rational persons
would put forward this system only follows if limitations are
put on the beliefs that rational persons can use and if they are
attempting to reach agreement with similarly limited rational
persons.
• To say that morality is an informal system means that it has
no authoritative judges and decision procedures that provide
unique answers to all moral questions. When it is important
that disagreements be settled, societies use political and legal
systems to supplement morality. These formal systems have
the means to provide unique answers, but they do not
provide a moral answer to the question.
Example: An important example of such a moral question is
whether, and if so under what conditions, to allow abortion.
There is continuing disagreement about this moral question,
even though the legal and political system in the United States
has provided fairly clear guidelines about the conditions under
which abortion is allowed. Despite this important and contro-
versial issue, morality, like all informal public systems,
presupposes overwhelming agreement on most moral ques-
tions. No one thinks it is morally justified to cheat, deceive,
injure, or kill simply in order to gain sufficient money to take a
fantastic vacation. In the vast majority of moral situations,
given agreement on the facts, no one disagrees, but for this very
reason, these situations are never discussed. Thus, the over-
whelming agreement on most moral matters is often
overlooked.
• The claim that morality governs behavior that affects others
is somewhat controversial. Some have claimed that morality
governs behavior that affects only the agent himself/herself.
Examples of behavior that supposedly affects only oneself,
often include taking recreational drugs, masturbation, and
developing one’s talents.
• The final characteristic of morality — that it has the lessening
of evil or harm as its goal — is also somewhat controversial.
The Utilitarians talk about producing the greatest good as
the goal of morality. However they include the lessening of
harm as essential to producing the greatest good and almost
all of their examples involve the avoiding or preventing of
 harm. The paradigm cases of moral precepts involve rules Points to Ponder
which prohibit causing harm directly or indirectly, such as Till now we have discussed what is ethics, business ethics,
rules prohibiting killing, causing pain, deceiving, and morality and moral standards, but students you should always
breaking promises. Even those precepts that require or remember that what is right and moral for you may be wrong
encourage positive action, such as helping the needy, are and immoral for me or to any other person sitting in the class.
almost always related to preventing or relieving harms.
In a way we can say that Ethics is a very subjective matter. Ok,
Moral Standards tell me one thing that how are you now going to react when you
will see a person lying in a pool of blood on the road. Are you
going to help him or will avoid him because of the fear of
Delhi police? Hope now you will start using your conscience and
will do what you feel is right and there will be no hiccups before
taking any action.
Overview
• Morality can be defined as the standards that an individual or
a group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil.
• Moral standards include the norms we have about the kinds
of actions we believe are morally right and wrong as well as
the values we place on the kinds of objects we believe are
morally good and morally bad.
Activity
Define morality. Discuss some characteristics of morality.
Moral standards include the norms we have about the kinds of
actions we believe are morally right and wrong as well as the values
we place on the kinds of objects we believe are morally good and
morally bad. Moral norms can usually be expressed as
general rules, ie. “Always tell the truth.” Moral values can usually
be expressed as statements describing objects or features of
objects, ie. “ Honesty is good.”
Origin of Moral Standards
During childhood moral standards are absorbed from family,
friends and various societal institutions. Later in life experiences,
learning and intellectual development help a person in forming
these standards.
Moral Standards Vs. Non-Moral Standards
• Moral standards deal with matters, which can seriously injure
or seriously benefit human beings while it is not the case with
non-moral standards. Examples of non-moral standards
include the standards of etiquette by which we judge manners
as good or bad, and the standards we call
“law” by which we judge legal right and wrong.
• Moral standards are not formed or changed by the decision
of particular authoritative bodies and the validity of these
standards lies on the adequacy of the reasons that are taken
to support and justify them.
• If a person has the moral obligation to do something, then
the person is supposed to do that even if this conflicts with
other non-moral values or self-interest.
• Moral standards does not evaluate standards on the basis of
the interests of a particular individual or group, but one that
goes beyond personal interests to a universal stand point in
which everyone’s interests are impartially counted as equal.
• Moral standards are associated with special emotions and a
special vocabulary. If a person tells a lie so as to fulfill a
purpose and then afterwards he starts feeling guilty or
ashamed of his behavior.

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