If society evolves, does morality evolve with it?

[carrot red]

Do you think people really know in their heart what right and wrong is?
Morality itself being a constant, what changes is who is moral and how much morality the average person has.

I think today's big problem is that some people act irresponsibly seeking instant gratification. We live in a society where wants have mostly replaced needs. Our biggest risk is becoming too self orientated and ceasing to care about people around us, society in general and the world as a whole…

Also, how is morality shaped by our environment? Has it been shaped specifically or does the environment affect our assimilation of a 'constant' morality?

[Coder GT]

Ah yes, Morality. Sometimes we know what is right and wrong. Not always, most of the time after making a decision (whether good or bad), we think back on it. If it was bad, we try to correct it. And if it was good, we are happy with ourselves.

[Lilith]

Morality is all gray area. Bitches <3

[AlexMax]

It does, as it should. Just because we had to follow some bullshit rules 2,000 years ago for our own safety means that said rules are appropriate, or even necissary, in this day and age.

Which is why I love neocon's. They're so adament about keeping "old fashioned morals.", yet they don't seem to figure out that no matter how much they rant and rave, women will get the right to vote, gays will be able to marry, abortion will stay legal and so on. It's only a matter of time.

[Starkist]

It was C.S. Lewis that said the ultimate hypocrisy is assuming that society today is more moral and better off than any society that preceded it. People today, especially those who claim to be progressive, consider the current mores of our society to be the paragons of virtue and humanity. Every past civilization, even our own, is viewed through these lenses and deemed to be unacceptable.Here is my question to those who want to change the world: What will you do when your children decide to change the world you gave them?

[DarkDragon]

I care about the people around me only to the extent that my overall happyness is increased by keeping friendly relations with those I interact with regularly. Otherwise, what others do is not my problem one way or the other. If everybody in Wisconsin decides to sodomize and murder each other tomorrow morning, more power to them, as long as my cheese prices don't rise intolerably. Similarly, if my body were wired to detonate a nuclear device in every major city the minute of my death, I wouldn't particularly care.

[DsS Game]

We live in a society based on one principal. "Making money by any means, necessary." They know right from wrong, it's just that paper is what is driving them. Not only that, but some gangs as well. And I really mean some gangs, cause what I'm hearing is some gangs like the bloods and crips, have cooled down and are actually letting go there past differences.

So to answer your question, yeah people do know. Morality exists in everybodies heart.

[carrot red]

Similarly, if my body were wired to detonate a nuclear device in every major city the minute of my death, I wouldn't particularly care.
Even if you were to be survived by wife and kids?

(Welcome back to the posting world, Brian.)

[DarkDragon]

As I have neither at the moment I can't adequately answer your question; but since I wouldn't be around to either view or regret the consequences of my death I'm tempted to think I wouln't give it too much thought.

[slef]

I believe a person's morality/personality comes from three things
1. their soul
2. their upbringing
3. their culture

I/my religion believe that before a peron is born, they are alive without a body up in that heaven place, with a personality and such. all before they come to earth.

when we come to earth, we dont remember anything about premortal life, and so even though we have a basis of personality already, our upbringing and culture are prominent concerning how we think, act, etc. I was born in the U.S. I go to school everyday lalala, normal american kid. thats the culture here, and thats how I was brought up. go to school, learn, spend time with friends, all that stuff. also, I go to church every week and I dont smoke or anything like that because of my parent's infulence. If I had been born in Iraq or somewhere with an extemely different environment, I would be rather different, even with the basis of personality that everyone has.

[Steezy20]

Some people have no morals. Everyone sets certain limits for themselves that they will not cross. People acted irresponsibly in days gone by, but its not accepted as much these days. The increase in wants as opposed to needs in recent times may be due to the steady economic boom / recovery. Most people feels that they are more free with less constraints. Go to a third word country and see if its the same.

[Lutraphobiac]

As I have neither at the moment I can't adequately answer your question; but since I wouldn't be around to either view or regret the consequences of my death I'm tempted to think I wouln't give it too much thought.

I don't believe in the afterlife, but I do believe that the effect we had on the world is equivalent. Do you really want your mark on the world, your last hint of existence to be cowardly nuking major cities to kill millions?

[ShadowTiger]

(IMHO, of course.) If you wouldn't be aware of any such mark on your name, would you really care? :shrug: If you don't care, you're invulnerable to it. (That is, of course, only an expression.)

To be frank, that's rather close to how I feel. After you've had about ... ... I don't even remember, ... about twenty one people that you know and love die around you in the past three years, you tend to grow accustomed to such things, and they begin to either mean less and less to you, or more and more of something else entirely.



If society evolves, ... (Really, WHY isn't this in the Think Tank? You always come up with such great threads, CR. :highfive: Major Kudos.) ... will the standard individual be dragged along as well? Naturally, such a thing takes time, and isn't exactly a noticeable instant. There are a myriad of individual factors to be considered, with which to create a list of would be unfathomably tedius and time consuming. Those must be considered along with the length of time with which society is evolving, and where it is evolving to. If you're referring to an evolution to the Industrial Revolution, where people can be thought of as industrial workhorses for powering the new nation, that's one thing. If you're referring to the fairly recent sexual revolution and the internet revolution, ... ... Who can say for sure.

(Related to the above.) If a person who saves an elderly person from getting run over by a truck goes directly home and pleasures himself to pr0n, is that moral? Is it moral to do what one wishes in the privacy of one's home? Is it moral to develop a new way of expressing oneself? ( ---> :waggle: & F*ck, etc.) Am I a moral person for censoring it? Is someone else who does not censor that word still moral for helping me discover how to censor it?


... Too many questions, right? Sorry, I just have a problem with discovering the meaning of relativity. XD I mean, it's freakin HUGE! O_O All-encompassing!