Moral norms are similar to legal ones in that they both play the role of the most important mechanism by which human behavior is regulated. Morality standards are unwritten laws that have developed over the centuries. In law, laws are legally enshrined.
Moral culture
Moral norms, values are the practical embodiment of morality. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that they determine the consciousness and behavior of people in all areas of life: life, family, professional activities, interpersonal relationships.
Moral standards are a set of rules that determine human behavior, the violation of which causes harm to a society or group of people. They are formulated in the form of a specific set of actions. For instance:
- need to give way to those who are older;
- Greetings when meeting another person;
- be generous and protect those who are weaker;
- to arrive on time;
- speak culturally and politely;
- to wear this or that clothes, etc.
The foundation for building a healthy personality
Spiritual and moral norms and values make up the image of a person who is perfect in the sense of conformity to the pattern of piety. It is to this portrait that one must strive. Thus, the ultimate goals of this or that act are expressed. The ideal uses such an image as Jesus in Christianity. He tried to lay justice in human hearts, he was a great martyr.
Moral rules and norms play the role of personal life guidelines for a particular person. The personality sets its own goals, in which its positive or negative side is manifested. Most people strive for happiness, freedom, knowledge of the meaning of life. Norms of morality help them regulate their moral behavior, thoughts and feelings.
Morality operates in society in the form of a combination of three structural elements, each of which represents one of the sides of morality. These elements are moral activity, moral relations and moral consciousness.
Morality in the past and present
These phenomena began to appear quite a long time ago. Each generation and community of people has its own understanding of good and evil, their own ways of interpreting moral norms.
If we turn to traditional societies, we will see that there the moral character was seen as unchanged, actually accepted in the absence of freedom of choice, phenomenon. The man of that time could not make a choice between accepting and not accepting the prevailing tendencies, he had to unconditionally follow them.
In our time, unlike legal, moral standards are more regarded as recommendations for achieving happiness for oneself and the surrounding society. If earlier morality was defined as something given from above, prescribed by the gods themselves, today it is something like a tacit social contract, which it is desirable to follow. But if you disobey, in fact, you can only be condemned, but not called to real responsibility.
You can accept moral laws (for your own good, because they are a useful fertilizer for the sprout of a happy soul), or reject it, but it will remain on your conscience. In any case, the whole society revolves around moral norms, and without them its functioning would be inferior.
Variety of moral standards
All moral norms and principles can be divided into two groups: requirements and permissions. Among the requirements highlight obligations and natural responsibilities. Permissions can also be divided into indifferent and super-long.
There is a public morality, which implies the most unified framework. There is an unwritten set of rules in force in a particular country, company, organization or family. There are also installations in accordance with which an individual personality builds his line of behavior.
In order to know moral culture, not only in theory but also in practice, you need to do the right thing, which others will accept and approve.
Perhaps the meaning of morality is exaggerated?
It may seem that following moral standards puts a person in a narrow framework. However, we do not consider ourselves prisoners, using the instructions for a particular radio device. Norms of morality - this is the same scheme that helps us to properly build our lives without conflict with conscience.
Most moral standards coincide with legal ones. But there are situations when morality and law come into conflict. Let us examine this issue using the example of the “do not steal” norm. Let's try to ask the question, “Why will this or that person never go to steal?” In the case when fear is the basis of the court, the motive cannot be called moral. But if a person does not steal, on the basis of the conviction that theft is bad, then the act is based on moral values. But in life it happens that someone considers it his moral duty that, from the point of view of law, is a violation of the law (for example, a person decides to steal a medicine in order to save the life of a loved one).
The Importance of Moral Education
Do not wait for the moral environment to develop on its own. She also needs to be built, to learn, that is, to work on herself. Simply, along with mathematics and the Russian language, schoolchildren do not study the laws of morality. And, getting into society, people can sometimes feel as helpless and helpless as if they were in the 1st grade and went to the blackboard and were forced to solve an equation that they had never seen before.
So all the words that well-being binds, enslaves and makes a man a slave are true only if moral standards are perverted and adjusted to the material interests of a particular group of people.
Social hunger strike
Nowadays, the search for the right path in life worries a person much less than social discomfort. Parents care more that the child becomes a good specialist than a happy person in the future. It becomes more important to enter into a successful marriage than to know true love. Having a baby is more important than realizing the true need for motherhood.
Most moral requirements do not appeal to external expediency (if you do so, you will succeed), but to moral duty (you need to do it in a certain way, as it is dictated by duty), thus having the form of an imperative considered as direct and unconditional command.
Moral norms and human behavior are closely interconnected. However, thinking about the laws of morality, a person should not identify them with the regulations, but fulfill them, guided by his own desire.