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The Definition of Morality: Morals and Laws

Laws and morals both aim to regulate behavior in a community, founded on autonomy and respect. However, legal thinkers differ on the relationship between the two. Some see them as independent, while others view them as interdependent, requiring laws to be consistent with moral norms and secure individual welfare for the good of all. Certain acts like adultery may be legally permitted but considered immoral by some. Additionally, minor speeding is generally legal but not necessarily viewed as immoral. There are also cases where breaking the law could be seen as the moral choice, such as stealing food to prevent starvation.

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23 views2 pages

The Definition of Morality: Morals and Laws

Laws and morals both aim to regulate behavior in a community, founded on autonomy and respect. However, legal thinkers differ on the relationship between the two. Some see them as independent, while others view them as interdependent, requiring laws to be consistent with moral norms and secure individual welfare for the good of all. Certain acts like adultery may be legally permitted but considered immoral by some. Additionally, minor speeding is generally legal but not necessarily viewed as immoral. There are also cases where breaking the law could be seen as the moral choice, such as stealing food to prevent starvation.

Uploaded by

Aruba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Morals and Laws

Both laws and morals are meant to regulate behavior in a community to allow people to live in
harmony. Both have firm foundations in the concept that everyone should have autonomy and
show respect to one another.

Legal thinkers interpret the relationship between laws and morality differently. Some argue that
laws and morality are independent. This means that laws can’t be disregarded simply because
they’re morally indefensible.3

Others believe law and morality are interdependent. These thinkers believe that laws that claim
to regulate behavioral expectations must be in harmony with moral norms. Therefore, all laws
must secure the welfare of the individual and be in place for the good of the community.

Something like adultery may be considered immoral by some, but it’s legal in most states.
Additionally, it’s illegal to drive slightly over the speed limit but it isn’t necessarily considered
immoral to do so.

There may be times when some people argue that breaking the law is the “moral” thing to do.
Stealing food to feed a starving person, for example, might be illegal but it also might be
considered the “right thing” to do if it’s the only way to prevent someone from suffering or
dying.

A Word From Verywell


It can be helpful to spend some time thinking about the morals that guide your decisions about
things like friendship, money, education, and family. Understanding what’s really important to
you can help you understand yourself better and it may make decision making easier.

The Definition of Morality


First published Wed Apr 17, 2002; substantive revision Tue Sep 8, 2020
The topic of this entry is not—at least directly—moral theory; rather, it is the definition of
morality. Moral theories are large and complex things; definitions are not. The question of
the definition of morality is the question of identifying the target of moral theorizing.
Identifying this target enables us to see different moral theories as attempting to capture the
very same thing. And it enables psychologists, anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, and
other more empirically-oriented theorists to design their experiments or formulate their
hypotheses without prejudicing matters too much in terms of the specific content a code,
judgment, or norm must have in order to count as distinctively moral.
There does not seem to be much reason to think that a single definition of morality will be
applicable to all moral discussions. One reason for this is that “morality” seems to be used in
two distinct broad senses: a descriptive sense and a normative sense. More particularly, the
term “morality” can be used either

1. descriptively to refer to certain codes of conduct put forward by a society or a group


(such as a religion), or accepted by an individual for her own behavior, or
2. normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be
put forward by all rational people.

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