Moral Agent

A moral agent is a person who has the ability to discern right from wrong and to be held
accountable for his or her own actions. Moral agents have a moral responsibility not to
cause unjustified harm.

Traditionally, moral agency is assigned only to those who can be held responsible for their
actions. Children, and adults with certain mental disabilities, may have little or no capacity to
be moral agents. Adults with full mental capacity relinquish their moral agency only in
extreme situations, like being held hostage.

By expecting people to act as moral agents, we hold people accountable for the harm they
cause others.

So, do corporations have moral agency? As artificial intelligence develops, will robots have
moral agency? And what about socially intelligent non-human animals such as dolphins and
elephants?

Indeed, future philosophers and legal scholars will need to consider moral agency as it
applies to these situations and others.

https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/moral-agent

MORALITY
Many people find morality extremely useful. Not everyone has the time and training to
reflect on the kind of life they want to live, considering all the different combinations of
values, principles, and purposes. It’s helpful for them to have a coherent, consistent account
that has been refined through history and can be applied in their day to day lives.

Many people also inherit their morality from their family, community or culture – it’s rare for
somebody to ‘shop around’ for the morality that most closely fits their personal beliefs.
Usually the process is unconscious. There’s a challenge here: if we inherit a ready-made
answer to the question of how we should live, it’s possible to apply it to our lives without
ever assessing whether the answer is satisfactory or not.

We might live our whole lives under a moral system which, if we’d had the chance to think
about, we would have rejected in part or in full.
Law
The law is different. It’s not a morality in the strict sense of the word because, at least in
democratic nations, it tries to create a private space where individuals can live according to
their own ethical beliefs or morality. Instead, the law tries to create a basic, enforceable
standard of behaviour necessary in order for a community to succeed and in which all
people are treated equally.

Because of this, the law is narrower in focus than ethics or morality. There are some
matters the law will be agnostic on but which ethics and morality have a lot to say. For
example, the law will be useless to you if you’re trying to decide whether to tell your
competitor their new client has a reputation for not paying their invoices, but our ideas about
what’s good and right will still guide our judgement here.

There is a temptation to see the law and ethics as the same – so long as we’re fulfilling our
legal obligations we can consider ourselves ‘ethical’. This is mistaken on two fronts. First,
the law outlines a basic standard of behaviour necessary for our social institutions to keep
functioning. For example, it protects basic consumer rights. However, in certain situations
the right thing to in solving a dispute with a customer might require us to go beyond our
legal obligations.

Secondly, there may be times when obeying the law would require us to act against our
ethics or morality. A doctor might be obligated to perform a procedure they believe is
unethical or a public servant might believe it’s their duty to leak classified information to the
press. Some philosophers have argued that a person’s conscience is more binding on them
than any law, which suggests to the letter of the law won’t be an adequate substitute for
ethical reflection.

The difference between a moral issue and a non-moral one.

One of the first tasks of moral philosophy is to be clear on what makes an action moral
and differentiate between moral and non-moral judgments. Clearly, telling a friend that
she should buy the red coat I have just seen in a shop is not a moral judgment, whereas
telling her that she shouldn’t buy a red coat made by child slaves in India is. But how
can we explain the difference between the two?

Think about it in the next activity.

Moral Standards and their
Characteristics
Moral standards are norms that
individuals or groups have about
the kinds of actions believed to
be morally right or wrong, as well
as the values placed on what we
believed to be morally good
or morally bad. Basically, moral
standards promote what is “the
good” like the welfare and well-
being of humans as well as animals
and the environment. Thus, it
prescribes what humans
should do in terms of rights and
obligations.
According to some scholars, moral
standards are the sum of combined
norms and values. In
other words, norms plus values
equal moral standards. On the one
hand, norms are understood
as general rules about our actions
or behaviors. For example, we may
say “We are always
under the obligation to fulfill our
promises” or “It is always believed
that killing innocent people is
absolutely wrong”. On the other
hand, values are understood as
enduring beliefs or statements
about what is good and desirable
or not. For example, we may say
“Helping the poor is good” or
“Cheating during exams is bad”.
According to many scholars, moral
standards have the following
characteristics, namely: 1)
moral standards deal with matters
we think can seriously injure or
benefit humans, animals, and
the environment, such as child
abuse, rape, and murder; 2) moral
standards are not established
or changed by the decisions of
authoritative individuals or bodies.
Indeed, moral standards rest
on the adequacy of the reasons that
are taken to support and justify
them. For sure, we don’t
need a law to back up our moral
conviction that killing innocent
people is absolutely wrong; 3)
moral standards are overriding,
that is, they take precedence over
other standards and
considerations, especially of self-
interest; 4) moral standards are
based on impartial
considerations. Hence, moral
standards are fair and just; and 5)
moral standards are associated
with special emotions (such as
guilt and shame) and vocabulary
(such as right, wrong, good,
and bad)
Moral Standards and their
Characteristics
Moral standards are norms that
individuals or groups have about
the kinds of actions believed to
be morally right or wrong, as well
as the values placed on what we
believed to be morally good
or morally bad. Basically, moral
standards promote what is “the
good” like the welfare and well-
being of humans as well as animals
and the environment. Thus, it
prescribes what humans
should do in terms of rights and
obligations.
According to some scholars, moral
standards are the sum of combined
norms and values. In
other words, norms plus values
equal moral standards. On the one
hand, norms are understood
as general rules about our actions
or behaviors. For example, we may
say “We are always
under the obligation to fulfill our
promises” or “It is always believed
that killing innocent people is
absolutely wrong”. On the other
hand, values are understood as
enduring beliefs or statements
about what is good and desirable
or not. For example, we may say
“Helping the poor is good” or
“Cheating during exams is bad”.
According to many scholars, moral
standards have the following
characteristics, namely: 1)
moral standards deal with matters
we think can seriously injure or
benefit humans, animals, and
the environment, such as child
abuse, rape, and murder; 2) moral
standards are not established
or changed by the decisions of
authoritative individuals or bodies.
Indeed, moral standards rest
on the adequacy of the reasons that
are taken to support and justify
them. For sure, we don’t
need a law to back up our moral
conviction that killing innocent
people is absolutely wrong; 3)
moral standards are overriding,
that is, they take precedence over
other standards and
considerations, especially of self-
interest; 4) moral standards are
based on impartial
considerations. Hence, moral
standards are fair and just; and 5)
moral standards are associated
with special emotions (such as
guilt and shame) and vocabulary
(such as right, wrong, good,
and bad)