is morality absolute?

Question

How can you prove that a moral code applies to all people, all places and at all time periods?

Answer 1

You can't. I think it was Socrates who said that we all think it right to return a borrowed possesion to it's owner...unless the owner is suicidal and you borrowed his sword!

Answer 2

That's a tough question because it's based on presumptions that have no absolutes. Different cultures have differing views on morality, in some cultures clothing is not worn by anyone. To others this is immoral. In other cultures, if one belches or burps, after a meal, it is considered a compliment to the food preparation. Others do not allow it at all.
I could go on and on but what I am trying to say is NO, there can be no absolutes about morality and a moral code for all can not exist. Throughout history, what we, as a country, found to be immoral, was considered the opposite in other cultures.
My two cents worth.
Rick

Answer 3

Yes. There is no need for an epideictic "proof" or amateur citation from scripture when an individual can easily understand by observing nature. For present purposes, though, what knowledgeable commentators would offer is the "band of robbers" model. Without a minimal code amongst themselves, the robbers will not successfully carry out the purpose for which they banded together.

The code is recognized as "outside the individual". Just why an individual would subordinate to it is uncanny. By uncanny, I mean to imply that it is impenetrable to frivolous inquiries by all people, at all places, and during all periods of time

Answer 4

"There are no absolutes," they chatter, blanking out the fact that they are uttering an absolute.

"The first question that has to be answered, as a precondition of any attempt to define, to judge or to accept any specific system of ethics, is: Why does man need a code of values?
Let me stress this. The first question is not: What particular code of values should man accept? The first question is: Does man need values at all - and why?

"Ethics is an objective, metaphysical necessity of man's survival..."

"The standard of value of the Objectivist ethics - the standard by which one judges what is good or evil - is man's life, or: that which is required for man's survival qua man.
Since reason is man's basic means of survival, that which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good; that which negates, opposes or destroys it is the evil."

"You who prattle that morality is social and that man would need no morality on a desert island - it is on a desert island that he would need it most. Let him try to claim, when there are no victims to pay for it, that a rock is a house, that sand is clothing, that food will drop into his mouth without cause or effort, that he will collect a harvest tomorrow by devouring his stock seed today - and reality will wipe him out, as he deserves; reality will show him that life is a value to be bought and that thinking is the only coin noble enough to buy it."

"A moral code is a system of teleological measurement which grades the choices and actions open to man, according to the degree to which they achieve or frustrate the code's standard of value. The standard is the end, to which man's actions are the means.
A moral code is a set of abstract principles; to practice it, an individual must translate it into the appropriate concretes - he must choose the particular goals and values which he is to pursue. this requires that he define his particular hierarchy of values, in the order of their importance, and that he act accordingly."

Answer 5

WOW... talk about one heck of a question. No moral code can apply to all people, all places, all times because of the culture. A middle Eastern Culture would not work in Britain or the US. Do we wish there could be? Oh i think so, but, that is a real dream.... You are asking from something that, no matter what, would always have its problems and "rabble rousers".

Answer 6

I don't believe you can prove an abslute moral code for humanity. We pass laws to identify an acceptable set of rules to govern society. Then we elect or appoint judges to determine how these laws apply to each individual case. So our moral codes are not absolute and will never be unless we become more than human, say like gods,ha! T4

Answer 7

That's easy! It depends what you hold as the standard of value; what is considered to be the good.

"An ultimate value is that final goal or end to which all lesser goals are the means—and it sets the standard by which all lesser goals are evaluated. An organism's life is its standard of value: that which furthers its life is the good, that which threatens it is the evil."

We are not discussing opinions here, not a perception or a feeling or a wish - what actually in fact benefits your life is good, moral...

Answer 8

Actually there is a morality that is absolute.

It Preceeds the "codes" we usually refer to as moral codes.

Not that I am advocating the bible, but I believe that the story in Genesis outlines the moral code that God intended the people who happen to live on this planet (and I believe, this sector of the universe, 7 or 8 galaxies large) to use as their guideline for living life as immortal souls and thereby having a particular type of game to play.

In Eden there were No Rules ( I will elaborate in a second, for those who are now objecting) only the direction to "Adam" to "tend the garden".

There are those who say that Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden for disobeying God, because they "ate of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil."

Gen 2:16 says the Lord God commanded... if you look up the word command in the American Heritage you will see that the derivation of the word command is " to entrust with"
NOT "demand that".

I say God was giving not a directive to be absolutely obeyed, but rather a bit of advice. That entry in the bible finally says "... in that day....thou shalt surely die." He did NOT say " I, GOD, will kill you" , he said "YOU shall die"

Further, mankind ate of the tree of Good and Evil. Look at that. MAN decided that some things are good and some things are evil.

God created this planet with ONLY ONE RULE.

THERE ARE NO RULES.

ALL other moral codes are MAN'S creation and therefore removed from the original. If you look at man's moral codes, yes there is no absolute, but God's is. "God" only dictated a code to Moses AFTER man had already decided

not to use God's code.

All the best to all

ADDED July 26, 10:50 am:

I'm not a level 2 yet so I can't do the good/bad answer vote. There are several I like. One reached me by pointing out, if i understood him correctly, that a moral code is something that is ok whatever it contains, so long as it is only applied to the person who created it. Or those who agree to it.

Answer 9

Morality is absolute. Mans translations are not.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
this is a foundation for a civilized people who wish to live.
You cannot apply morality to a people bent on destruction of others, without twisting the meaning.
Love and Truth are for people who can live moral lives. Those societies who will not embrace this will destroy themselves and others.

Answer 10

it can't our morality is given to us by our society, beliefs are different depending on the society we are brought up in.

For example it was normal to have sex before marriage in the 15 century, as there was a sort of try before you buy attitude, but as time went on we became more prudish, although now we are back to sex before marriage again.

Not sure if I am making any sense here but i think our moral code applies to the people who shape it.

Answer 11

I don't think I can... Moral relativity has been argued FOREVER!!! There is no answer... not from letters of screw-tape, nor from people like Descartes (well, both WERE former play boys and drunks) which makes them the worst kind. The, "I HAD to change- you HAVE to CHANGE!!!"