Paper Example on Human Nature and Ethics: How Decisions are Made

Human beings are moral by nature and their judgments, actions, as well as decisions, are ascribed to ethics. The works of humans can be evaluated as good or bad, right or wrong. The question of how individuals reach to a conclusion that the vital judgment, that the action is right or wrong is paramount. The analysis is often based on cultural diversity and ethical codes of the people. Even though some decisions are based on individual's intuitions, variety of cultures takes the center in the arguments of many philosophers. Ordinarily, actions are said to be right or good when it respects or follow some principles. On the other hand, when the activities do not support or adhere to some beliefs, it is termed as wrong or bad. Therefore, this kind of justice is not arrived at by separating the people from the environment they live in. People are the first then followed by the unit or agent of moral transmission they belong, which can be a family, the religion affiliated to, peer group, state, or the vast society. Philosophers have tried to provide criteria that could be employed by individuals to attain morally sound judgments or decisions. There are four fundamental perspectives from which individuals view morality that include absolutism, subjectivism, objectivism, and relativism. Therefore, being in support of moral objectivism that it is more plausible and a logically consistent way of determining what is morally right or wrong, good or bad. Also, I hypothetically believe that moral relativism complements moral objectivist.

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Many theories by philosophers have been made in the attempt of reconciling moral relativism and moral objectivism oh how people judge or decide on what is right or wrong, good or bad as far as ethical perspective is concerned. Moral objectivism says that there are objective moral norms and values that transcend to both the culture and individual whereas moral relativism, conversely, claims that there are no actual moral norms and values that transcend either culture or individual instead moral claims are just intuitions that are opinions, personal preferences, cultural laws or emotional exclamations. An individual is part of one environment or another and is often seen to be influenced by the asymmetric relationship between agent or units of moral transmission and the norms. Consider a person who is from a particular ethnic community with a specific culture, affiliate to a particular religion, a family, a nation, peer group or school all with norms that accurately ascribe to their situation. It is evident that confusion is experienced since the objectivist and relativist under such circumstances cannot be both right and wrong from the same perspective and time. According to Beckwith (1996), moral relativism and moral objectivist look to be consistent with observations and intuitions we make. Thus, we are able to differentiate between the upright individual for example from a social misfit in a manner that the two perspectives, moral relativism, and moral objectivism, would not violate or confuse the value of deeds of two individuals as either right or wrong, good or bad.

Moral values originate from the cultures or the society we live in, religion, and individual himself or herself. Moral objectivist argues that the link between agents of transmission and norms determines the judgment on what is morally right or wrong, good or bad. According to moral objectivist, says that harmony of interests exists among rational individuals. Thus the benefit of one individual does not come at the expense of another person suffering. Therefore, there is a possibility of mutual respect and benevolent independence in life because one person happiness does not come at the cost of another person. The purpose of moral objectivism is to define set code of values such as wealth, love, satisfaction in work, education, artistic inspiration, loyalty, integrity, among others in support of human life. Moral objectivism highlights individual cardinal values in support of his or her own life as reason, purpose, and self. First is the reason, it's our way of acquiring knowhow, and only through production is how we survive. Second is the purpose; each individual has a free will and must focus towards their own chosen goals via a specific life path. Finally is the cardinal value of self, an individual without self-esteem lacks self-motivation and so cannot find ways to continue.

Moral values come from cultures. Objectivist such Pojman says that different cultures have a different set of rules or maxims, and there is a set of rules from one culture that is better than another. The purpose of culture set of rules is to establish moral values aimed at enhancing the survival of the society, eliminating suffering, ensuring happiness and satisfaction of human life as well as resolving conflicts of interest. Therefore, by obeying the norms or set rules of culture, they will be no harm to others either physically or psychologically, no murder of innocent persons, no corruption and so on, and with such norms or principles people will live in a harmonious society enjoying many benefits and guarantee of survival of their society as compared when each person aims on egoism.

Moral values create a basis for our judgments or decisions on what is good or bad, desirable, or undesirable. Thus, moral values are said to be those standards of good and evil, that guides and control the behavior and the choice of a person. When an individual possesses moral values goes against it, he or she feels guilt. Hence, these values are things people care about and motivate our behavior. Religion is also where moral values are derived. Most religious grounds have developed a list of do's and don'ts, a set of codes upon which every individual should adhere to and live with them. Believers or followers of a particular religion will automatically live according to the behavioral laws or rules of that specific religion. Moral values are aligned to primary human emotions and encounters that motivate us in distinctive means. For instance, the unfair and injustice feelings we experience when treated poorly while others are given better treatment for no good reason, the positive attitudes towards guaranteed freedom to make own choices and future decisions, the shame we feel when we go against the codes or maxims, the empathy and sympathy we encounter when we think the suffering others are going through as well as the sense of loyalty and duty we feel towards our peer groups, family, or community which we live or belong to. These personal emotional feelings will enable us to adopt and adhere to ethical, moral values in order to determine if our actions are right or wrong, good or bad, with a focus of improving human life. Therefore, religion codes will impact on the choices upon which its adherents make.

According to objectivist, the environment upon which we live, such as the society, community, schools, and homes are where individuals like children outsource morals. Virtues are important in building up the character of a person. For instance, teaching moral values such as love, truthfulness, compassion, honesty, integrity, hard-work, among others, is the universal mandate of a teacher. For example, is a child misbehaves or lies; the parent and teacher are blamed because they are the immediate people the child relate to its adulthood. It is hard to impart moral values to an adult as compared to a child because an adult might display emotional distress and overreaction to such ethics. Therefore, when we work with honesty and integrity, when we love and be compassionate with one another, when we learn to do what is right and good and avoid the wrong and bad, automatically we make our lives worthy and transformed into a better human being. Moral values are crucial in shaping the personality and the character of a person, and thus, it is of essentiality in all levels of human relationships in life.

The strength of moral objectivists is that they support the role of reformers who might be perceived as subjectivist, but their act is their approach to moral norms and values. Reformers go beyond their limits to reinforce the existing objective norms and values which are getting destroyed by controversial doings or abandoned altogether by the society at large. The main reason why objectivist support reformers are because they are not concerned about themselves but all that are morally bound in the principle. For example, reforms on the abolition of the slave trade because such actions put the dignity of humans ta stake. Therefore, objectivist champions for reforms that improving human life by observing dignity, rationality, independence, integrity, among other values and principals. In all cultures, scorn in morality is taken as a vice, and thus any individual who goes against the maxims is seemed to be a threat to other people life. Human knowledge and values are objective meaning that we should be able to evaluate our actions as right or wrong, good or bad based on the transcend of culture and individual. Finally, objectivist moral values should govern as to make the ideal judgments or decisions of our actions on what is desirable and good in order to better humanity and no with a selfish gain.

Conclusion

In conclusion, moral objectivism displays the truth that norms and principles can be said to be universally binding in a moral view. The excellent flexibility characteristic of moral objectivist that is the reinforcement of norms and principles as a result of prevailing situations makes it very suitable and compatible with the dynamic nature of human beings. Objective norms and principles are paramount, no matter the dynamic nature of human beings and cultures. Hence moral objectivist argued that moral norms and principles could be used as a constant variable within which persons should appraise their moral continuity.

The correctness and accuracy as evidenced through moral objectivism is that the moral norms and values seem to be the aim, and objective people strive to attain, by promoting the dignity of individual, achieving life sanctity, life satisfaction through hard work and endurance, achieving personal and community integrity via honesty, attaining loyalty and self-esteem virtues, as well as getting interpersonal relationships justice. Therefore, these moral values act as the standard variables upon which individuals can evaluate their actions and appraise them. Hence, moral objectivism is the best perspective for people to determine whether their actions are morally right or wrong, good or bad based on objective norms and values.

Works Cited

Beebe, James R., and David Sacks. "Moral objectivism across the lifespan." Philosophical Psychology 29.6 (2016): 912-929.

Polzler, Thomas, and Jennifer Cole Wright. "Empirical research on folk moral objectivism." Philosophy Compass 14.5 (2019): e12589.

Vardy, Peter. The puzzle of ethics. Routledge, 2016.

Sytsma, Justin, and Wesley Buckwalter, eds. A companion to experimental philosophy. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.