Morals
Morals are the prevailing standards of behavior that enable people to live cooperatively in groups.
Moral refers to what societies sanction as right and acceptable.
Most people tend to act morally and follow societal guidelines.
Morality often requires that people sacrifice their own short-term interests for the benefit of society.
People or entities that are indifferent to right and wrong are considered amoral,
while those who do evil acts are considered immoral.
While some moral principles seem to transcend time and culture, such as fairness,
generally speaking, morality is not fixed.
Morality describes the particular values of a specific group at a specific point in time.
Historically, morality has been closely connected to religious traditions,
but today its significance is equally important to the secular world.
For example, businesses and government agencies have codes of ethics
that employees are expected to follow.
Some philosophers make a distinction between morals and ethics.
But many people use the terms morals and ethics interchangeably
when talking about personal beliefs, actions, or principles.
For example, it’s common to say, “My morals prevent me from cheating.”
It’s also common to use ethics in this sentence instead.
So, morals are the principles that guide individual conduct within society.
And, while morals may change over time,
they remain the standards of behavior that society uses to judge right and wrong.