Quote:
Originally posted by MuadDib
Morals and laws are highly similar and related. First, they are both methods for institutions to influence individual behavior. Laws are the government/political influences on behavior and morals are the religious/societal influences on behavior. They are further related because religious and societal influence the people in politics that create laws. Laws in every society have always reflected that societies morals as a method of codifying a culture or way of life.
|
Unfortunately, 'societal morals' can only be defined to what most consider to be an unacceptable level of detail.
Actually, let me start again. I tend to think of morals as an individual affair. One person can believe killing is morally right, while another person might exactly disagree (even to the point of killing the other person ... life, thy name is irony). Because we are, in fact, individuals, or at least would like to believe we are, our opinions and beliefs vary greatly from person to person.
Thus, the term 'societal morals' is either oxymoronic or misleading - perhaps the 'morals of the majority' is more accurate? I'm not sure. Regardless, I agree with you that whatever name we wish to call them, the set of 'universal morals' is a mechanism to define culture and lifestyle.
Laws are a method of control - to make a population manageable. 'Unjust' or 'immoral' laws will survive so long as the population which believes the law unjust lacks the power to instigate change. A law does not have to be moral in the eyes of the people to exist - though that is usually how revolutions come about.
Additionally, laws do not deal directly with right and wrong; morals do - in fact, morals are essentially a
definition of right and wrong from a personal standpoint. Laws simply outline crime and punishment, cause and effect. They do not state, even implictly, that lawbreaking is wrong - only that you will be punished for it. Laws are a social contract - you agree to abide by the laws and their related punishments so long as you are a member of society.
And another thing - morals are always with you, whereas laws are as transient as you make them. Killing someone in a no-man's land far away from prying eyes is not privy to any law but the laws of physics and biology.