“A man does what he must- in spite of personal consequences, in spite

of all obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of
human morality.”
- John F. Kennedy

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

 discern between good and evil by using the well-
formed conscience;
 explain what Law means and its use in daily life; and
 apply the norms of morality positively in daily life.

In the previous lessons we came to understand that morality is

refers to the goodness or badness of an act. Formally, morality may be
defined as the quality of things or acts manifesting their conformity or
non-conformity with the norm or criteria.
A norm or criterion is a Standard of Judgement. “It is a rule or
standard by which principles, facts, statements and conduct are
tested, so as to form a correct judgement concerning them”. In ethics
a moral criterion is a rule or standard by means of which we are able
to discriminate between what is morally good and morally evil and to
arrive at a correct judgement that a particular act is morally good or
morally evil.
The moral criterion presupposes the existence of an objective
moral ‘standard’ or norm with which the particular act can be
compared. With the moral norm, human beings can test the morality
of the act and judge whether it be good or evil. In general a norm is an
authoritative standard, which gives as a pattern or model to which
things of similar nature must conform. Thus a judgement can be
described as a comparison of an act
with the standard or norm. When the act conforms to the norm of
morality, we judge the act to be good and when we find that the act
deviates from the norm, we judge the act to be evil.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE NORM

2. The Norm needs to be Unchangeable
3. The Norm needs to be Universal
4. The Norm needs to be Accessible to all
5. The Norm needs to be Applicable to all Conditions of Life
6. The Norm needs to be of single Standard

In ethics we can find two kinds of norms:

 the subjective norm of morality’ and the
 objective norms of morality.
In the subjective norm of morality, the moral authority dwells
within the individual. In ethics, conscience can be understood as the
subjective norm of morality.
Objective norm is the standard for an objective evaluation of the
human acts. In this group we can see Intuition, Law and Pleasure as the
objective norms of morality.

CONSCIENCE AS SUBJECTIVE NORM OF MORALITY

Conscience is the subjective norm of morality in which we trace
the moral authority inside the individual. It is not something that
directs from outside. Conscience is an ‘inner voice’ as described by
Mahatma Gandhi which directs one by telling what to do or what not to
do. Conscience can be defined as the subjective awareness of the
moral quality of one’s own actions as indicated by the moral values to
which one subscribes.
Acts of Conscience
The feeling of remorse has always been connected with
conscience. It is a deep regret for a wrong committed. Conscience not
only makes judgement over certain actions that we have done as right
or wrong, but it arouses a peculiar feeling of pain that is extremely
unpleasant. This pain of conscience or feeling of remorse is identified
by moralists as one of the reasons of avoiding wrong actions.
Antecedent and Consequent Conscience
Conscience can be divided into antecedent conscience and
consequent conscience. Antecedent conscience deals with future
actions whereas consequent conscience deals with the past actions.
Conscience that acts as a guide to future actions, prompting to do
them or avoid them can be defined as an antecedent conscience.
Division of Conscience
2. Correct Conscience
3. Erroneous Conscience
4. Certain Conscience
5. Perplexed Conscience
NORM AS GIVEN BY INTUITION

In intuition, the basic human reasoning process is questioned. An

Intuition can be defined as ‘the immediate apprehension of an object
by the mind without the intervention of any reasoning process’. A
moral intuition is one that apprehends some moral objects
immediately, without there being any reasoning about it. Ethical
intuitionism is here taken to be the view that normal human beings
have an immediate awareness of moral goodness and moral values.
Some of the exponents of this theory have contended that the
awareness in question can only be conceived satisfactorily as a form of
sense perception.
There are three possible objects of moral intuitions:
a. Perceptional or Individual Intuitionism
b. Dogmatic Intuitionism
c. Universal Intuitionism

LAW AS NORM
A law is defined by St Thomas Aquinas as an “ordinance of
reason directed toward the common good and promulgated by the one
who has the care of the community”
Kinds of Laws:
a. From the viewpoint of Obligation
i. Affirmative
ii. Negative
iii. Permissive
iv. Punitive
b. From the viewpoint of the Legislator
i. Divine law
ii. Human laws
c. From the viewpoint of Duration law
i. Eternal
ii. Temporal
d. From the viewpoint of Promulgation law
i. natural
ii. positive
PLEASURE AS NORM
 From the very beginning of human history there had been
people who considered pleasure as the supreme good of human life.
For them pleasure is the only norm of morality. They believed that
every human activity is prompted by a desire of seeking pleasure.

For you to answer the activities later, kindly go through the

details of this topic by clicking
the link,
http://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/38263/1/Unit-4.pdf

Determinants of Human Morality

The three moral determinates of the human act are the:
 Object
 The end (or intention), and
 Circumstances
Read more on the determinants of human morality by opening the
links given below.
https://thinkingthroughthesumma.wordpress.com/
2011/08/07/object- end-and-circumstance-the-determinants-of-
moral-action/