Morality and social responsibility essay

The ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, Mill, and Kant developed philosophical perspectives and morality theories that have contributed to the understanding the role of human beings in the society. We all seek to understand what motivates people to act responsibly? What is the basis of their ethical behavior? Are there limits to the moral obligation to act responsibly? When a child is born, there are various factors that come into play that culminate to the habits and individual portrays. Our cultures play a significant role in enabling us develop moral standards and social responsibility. The culture is a broad collection of the people we live with, where we live, our everyday activities and the experiences we derive from them (Wilson, 1991).
According to Aristotle, all human activities or undertakings aim at some ‘ good’ from which humans derive happiness in return thereby making the ‘ good’ a means and happiness an end. However, there is no universal definition of what this happiness is, and it can only be interpreted by analyzing peoples’ circumstances and the life they live. This means what one considers happiness is different from another’s conception of the same (Loeb, 2010).
In my culture, individuality is a core value of the society. Every person aims at being different in their right that can only be achieved by developing personal and independent goal that guides the search for happiness. While to some happiness is visible and tangible such as wealth or fame others consider it an intrinsic pleasure. Following Aristotle’s school of thought, people in pursuit of their goal should the evaluate the good their activities aim at achieving and determining if it is consistent with their concept of happiness (Wilson, 1991). In his concept of morality, he believes people should apply practical wisdom to restrain their desires to only what is good and this way they develop good habits which he calls virtues.
According to Kant, there are certain features of moral actions that have intrinsic value in themselves, and it is through intuition that members of the society recognize their duty to act morally (Scalet & Arthur, n. d.). For instance showing respect to older members of the society. Despite there the informal lifestyle that we live there are limits that we only recognize by intuition. It is rude for a young person to refer to an elderly person by a nickname that age mates of this person use. It is polite for a young person to let a senior citizen have a seat in a bus or train. According to Kant, for actions to have moral worth and goodwill people must willingly undertake them as a duty rather than compulsion. This makes our actions categorical imperative. The test of the moral duty in our actions is to consider our consistent willingness to act in that fashion were it to become a universal law of conduct. If we are willed to act like so, then the action is moral and if we are not the action is immoral (Loeb, 2010).
Mill developed utilitarianism theory that evaluates an action as right or wrong depending on the consequences (Scalet & Arthur, n. d.). Those actions are morally right result to best overall consequences. My culture encourages working hard which I believe is a universal cultural value of any country. However, its application the importance attached to the value of time is different. People work hard and have the competitive spirit to surpass their records and those achieved by others. The reason I think this cultural value is in agreement with mill’s utilitarian theory is because he state that there are higher pleasures and lower pleasures. These pleasures are dependent on the levels of accomplishment which is a direct result of hard work.

References

Loeb, P. R. (2010). Soul of a citizen: Living with Conviction in challenging times (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin.
Scalet, S. & Arthur, J. (Eds.) (n. d.). Morality and moral controversies: Readings in Moral, social, and political philosophy (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Wilson, A. (Ed.). (1991). The golden rule. In World scripture: A comparative anthology of sacred texts. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House.