essays on moral

• About Project
• Testimonials

Business Management Ideas

Essay on Moral Values

List of essays on moral values, essay on moral values – short essay for kids and children (essay 1 – 150 words), essay on moral values – written in english (essay 2 – 250 words), essay on moral values – for school students (class 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 standard) (essay 3 – 300 words), essay on moral values (essay 4 – 400 words), essay on moral values –  importance in society and challenges (essay 5 – 500 words), essay on moral values – how to cultivate and inculcate it in human beings (essay 6 – 600 words), essay on moral values (essay 7 – 750 words), essay on moral values – long essay (essay 8 – 1000 words).

Moral values are the key essence of life and it is these values that come along with us through the journey of life. Moral values are basically the principles that guide our life in the righteous path and do not allow us to do any harm to others.

Audience: The below given essays are especially written for kids, children and school students (Class 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 Standard).

Moral values define the humankind. Moral values empower us to stand as the most unique creatures in the whole animal kingdom. These values are the basis to almost every religion. Thousands of years ago, Buddha described the essence of moral values in his sermons and spread it all over the world.

Since our childhood, we are taught about the good habits and their powers by the elders at home and school. Some of the most significant moral values are kindness, honesty, truthfulness, selflessness, compassion, and love.

The things we learn as a child mould us as an adult. That is why it is crucial to inculcate the pious values in the children. For the younger generation to be transformed into citizens with mighty characters, they must possess strong ethical and moral values. Only then, we can dream of making India great and emerge as an ethical leader in the world.

So, from where do we get these moral values?

Moral values are the first thing that every child learns from their homes . What is right and what is wrong is something that we see and learn from our parents as well as from our own experiences. Many religions preach moral values are part of their belief systems.

Importance of Moral Values

Moral values are very important to each and everyone because it is these values that transform us into better human beings.

i. Without knowing and learning moral values, we will not be able to differentiate between good and bad.

ii. Moral values define us and help us to be surrounded by good people.

iii. One who practices moral values will have courage to handle any situation in life.

Role of Parents

Parents of today think that providing all luxuries to their children is their only responsibility. But they miss to offer them the most important wealth – moral values. When parents deny this, they fail in their duty to give a good human being to the society.

Honesty, kindness, truthfulness, forgiveness, respect for others, helping others etc., are some of the moral values that every parent must teach their children.

“It is not what you do for your children , but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings” – Ann Landers.

Moral Values are the practices followed by human beings to be good and to live in a society. Moral values or ethics, are taught to us by our parents and teachers. These include being honest, kind, respecting others, helping those in need, being faithful and cooperating with others, to name a few, are good moral values.

What are Moral Values?

The norms of what is right or good and what is wrong or bad, define the moral values which are based on many factors like region, society, religious beliefs, culture etc. These defined norms tell the people how they must act or behave in different situations and expect similar behaviours form others.

Importance of Moral Values:

Moral values give an aim to life. Knowing difference between right and wrong is the foundation to imbibe moral values, which are taught from the birth, and bring out the best in individuals.

Moral Values in Workplace:

In every workplace, people look for individuals with good moral values. For a job interview, the interviewer looks for a candidate with good moral values. Every organization has a defined ethical code of conduct that the people in the organization are expected to follow, in addition to basic societal moral values. Organizations with people having good moral values runs more systematically and efficiently.

Moral Value in coming Generations:

People are not aware or conscious about moral values and have different outlook towards life. Parents and teachers are too busy to inculcate moral values in younger generations.

Conclusion:

Moral values are a type of law defined by the culture, society or other factors, to guide individuals on how to or not to behave in daily life. Sometimes, one may have different views and feel the moral guidelines too harsh or wrong. Such guidelines should be advocated for the good of the society.

Moral values are those characters or values seeded in a person’s mind and behavior towards oneself, others and on the whole. It can be the way a person consider other person’s life and space or the way they value each other’s feelings. The basic moral values like honesty, kindness, respect towards others, helpful mannerism, etc., will be the keys to be noted to judge a person’s character.

Moral values are the main characteristics that define the goodness in a person. These should be taught by the parents and teachers to the kids from their childhood. Moral values will help everyone in taking better decisions in life and attain the heights in an ethical way.

Instead of just thinking about our success and goals, moral values will give us the courage to take into account other’s happiness too. A person with better moral values is motivated and finds all possible ways to spread good vibes in and around them as well. Suppressing the people around you for attaining the goals you desire is the most dangerous violation of moral values.

Importance:

A person without moral values is considered to possess a bad character and the society will start to judge the person due to this behavior. This competitive world of ours has made every moral value in a person to die for their own development and growth. Such inhuman and unethical activities like dishonesty, telling lies for your own benefit, hurting others and even worst things, should be avoided.

Inculcating the importance of moral values in a kid from their growing age will help them in sticking to those values forever. It is a necessity of our society to bear such responsible youths and younger generations with good moral values so that they will help our nation to attain better heights.

This society of ours is filled with immoral people who find every scope to deceive others through their activities. The young ones learn more things by observing their elders and they mimic the way their elders behave. It is the responsibility of elders like parents, teachers, etc., to grow a future generation with more moral values seeded in them by improving their own behavior.

Moral values can be taught to students by making them listen and understand more moral stories and the rewards they will get if they show it to others as well. Such way of teaching will help them grab the importance easily rather than taking mere lectures on moral values.

Introduction:

The society helps individuals to grow in culture and learn through experiences of all aspects of life. Societies instill culture, religion, economy and politics in individual because as people grow up, they tend to pick something from dynamics of life and the societal opinions on certain aspects of life. Moral values are also instilled by a society. The values that a person grows up with are the values that will be displayed in his or her character. Society plays a big role in influencing moral values of individuals. Moral values are a set of principles that enable an individual to distinguish between the proper and improper things or right versus wrong. The moral values that are highly valued in the society are integrity, honesty, loyalty, respect and hard work.

Importance of Moral Values in the Society:

In a society, there is interactions among people and the possession of moral values is important in those interactions. Establishment of good relationships is reliant on good moral values. Values like honesty, trust, faithfulness and loyalty are essential in establishment and sustainability of good relationships. Lack of those values causes strained relationships and misunderstanding among members of the society.

Moral values are important in building the economy. Through determination and hard work, people are able to conduct activities that contribute largely to the economic growth of a society. Also through establishment of good relationships, trade is conducted smoothly and there is teamwork in trade and performance of business transactions. The growth of the economy is important in the life quality in the society.

Moral values also play a role in prevention of conflict and ease in conflict resolution. Good relationships seldom end in conflict and whenever conflict arises, it is minimum and can be resolved easily. In a society that peace thrives, there is growth and development which results in an improved quality of life.

Challenges:

The society is required to thrive in good moral values. Development of moral values is challenged by migration and interactions between different cultures and societies. The interactions dilute the morals of one society through adaption and assimilation of a different culture e.g., westernization in Africa.

Poverty is a challenge to the moral values because it creates vices like theft and deceit among members of the society. In poor economic status, everyone struggles to keep up with the hard times and moral values become a thing of the past due to strive for survival.

Education is both a challenge and promoter for development of moral values. Depending on the environment of education, students pick either good or bad morals. In modern education, students tend to pick immorality because of peer pressure.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, it is evident that moral value are an important consideration in the development of the society. Moral values go a long way in impacting the lives of an individual and the entire society. The development of moral values varies with the environmental exposure in societies. Each society should strive to uphold good moral values.

Moral values cultivated by human beings dignify the worth of human life. The morality existed from time immemorial and sustained among the communities. It amalgamated into the cultures which made the life of human beings secure and advanced. We can observe the ethical integrity in all the aspects of the individual as well as societal discourses. The moral values have been evolving with the inter-personal relationships between human beings as well as intra-personal relationships.

What are the moral values cultivated among us?

Religions have played a vital role in formulating and promoting moral values. The fundamental human values of love, respect, trust, tolerance, compassion, kindness are commonly practiced among people. Love and respect are significant in family relationships.

Love and respects are the cornerstones for the relationship between husband and wife, parents and children, elders and children. The sharing and caring qualities should be encouraged among children to make them compassionate personalities in the future.

The integrity and trust plays a prominent role in maintaining professional relationships. Similarly, kindness and empathy are the two powerful units to measure the gravity of human values. Patience and forgiveness are the right symbols of a human being’s dignity.

The Relevance of Moral Values:

Nowadays, humans tend to be more focused into self-centered life. Whatever happens outside the family roof is least mattered to the modern people. The social commitment of humans towards their community gets ignored for their personal conveniences.

The compassion, brotherhood, and love are hardly found. We do not have time to spend with our parents or even have time to look after our old and sick parents. Husbands leaving their wives and vice versa have become common these days. The increased number of divorces, old age homes, and orphanages clearly show where our compassion and love stay.

The social values like secularism, religious tolerance, and universal fraternity are the most threatened moral values these days. Religious fanatics have made the lives of ordinary people terrible in many places. The violence by the fanatics are the denial of the fundamental rights of people. People do not identify the fellow beings as brothers and sisters instead they seem to recognize others on racial, economic, gender, caste, and religious terms. It affects the balance of our social system.

The increasing terrorism, revolts, violence against children and gender inequalities are the instances of the denial of fundamental rights. The refugees who wander from nations to nations, the war for food and water, robbery, child labor are still prevalent in today’s civilized society. The civilization and culture acquired through education have made our lives more primitive considering the aspect of moral values.

How to inculcate the values among the children?

Although we acquired many information and knowledge, skills and technical knowledge through our education, our curriculum gives less importance to teach human values and moral values to our children. Nowadays, children become addicted to electronic gadgets, social media, and other entertainment modes.

It is our responsibility to teach our children and students human values within our family as well as through the education system. We should help grow moral values like sharing, helping, caring, and being considerate and tolerance in our children and encourage them to practice those at an early age.

Though various cultures have different perspectives towards moral values, the fundamental human values remain the same in every culture. It is relevant to project the human values and cultivate them in our daily lives.

Moral values demand to have conviction, integrity and rational sense to dissect between right and wrong. It is not just a technical understanding of right and wrong. It is more than that. In life, even if things happen against the morale of our best belief, we tend to manage the situation which may be the right decision of the occasion. We can say morally is wrong but it is morally right too, because a concession in the moral standard might have saved a situation here.

Moral values are relative. Standing firm to the moral values should be the motto in everyone’s life. It should satisfy your conscious even if it is disadvantageous. Moral values are subject to change, and it should continue to change upon the progression of society. It should reflect on what we are standing and the kind of impact it can create on others.

Moral values can be said to simply mean the values that are good that our teachers and parents taught us. Some very important moral values include being kind and honest, always trying to help those who are in need, show respect to other people, working with others when there is a need to and faithfulness to a partner or friend. When we imbibe moral values that are good, we are building ourselves to become very good humans. A very good character is synonymous to moral values that are good. Moral values can be basically defined as values that are defined by our society so that they can help in guiding people to live a life that is disciplined. Moral values that are basic like cooperative behaviour, kindness and honesty are most times constant, some other values can change or get modified over time. Other habits that portray good moral values include integrity, helpfulness, love respectfulness, compassion and hard work.

The importance of good moral values in our lives:

Life is full of many different challenges. Each day we live, morals are very necessary in helping us differentiate between things that are wrong and things that are right. Our morals and moral values affect both us and the society around us. Good moral values can help us improve our decision making in life.

Aspects of moral values:

Moral values cut across every area of our lives and even the society at large. For us to be able to have a good society and environment, it is important for each and every one of us to have solid and good moral values. It is important that we respect each other irrespective of the age or social status of the individual we are relating to. This can help in gaining good relations in every aspects and area of life whether it is in the workplace, family or the society. Good moral values can also help us in discovering our true purpose in life.

If it is true that moral values and habits are extremely important and beneficial to us humans, why then do we have a lot of people that do not have any of the moral values and do not follow the rules of morality in this world. Why do we have a lot of crimes happening all around us in the world today? Why is there so much disbelief and distrust among all of us?

The world we live in is an extremely tempting place and there are quick fixes for all of the problems facing us and this eventually turns our attention back to the main problem. Abiding to moral values in this life requires a lot of patience and also sacrifice but eventually, it helps one in analysing the difficulties and problems one faces and help in getting a solution to them.

Overall, someone who is ready and very determined to do their best in following a life that is meaningful in a patient way ends up following moral values without any fear of the person getting judged and such person ends up standing out from among the crowd.

Imbibing and inculcating good moral values:

The best time to imbibe good moral values into a person is when the person is still young and can still learn new characters and habits. Therefore, teachers and parents should endeavour to put in their best efforts into helping students and their children imbibe very solid moral values. Most children are very observant and they copy and learn habits and behaviours of their elder siblings, parents and teachers.

Children are bound to pay solid attention to the manner of action and behaviour of people older than them and they simply do the things they do. Children tend to speak only the truth if they have noticed that the elders around them are always truthful no matter the situation.

Likewise, it is important as elders to not be engaged in any form of bad behaviour as the children tend to assume they can also do these things and that they are not wrong because the elders around them are doing it. We should try to always demonstrate good and solid moral values to children around us. The best way to teach children good and solid moral values is through our own actions and habits.

It is very important for us as human beings to bear good and solid moral values like helping others, honesty , righteousness, decency, and even self-decency. People that have great moral values are very indispensable asset to others and even the society at large.

Moral values are the models of good and bad, which direct a person’s conduct and decisions. A person may adopt moral values from society and government, religion, or self. They are also inherited from the family as well.

In past ages, it was uncommon to see couples who lived respectively without the advantage of legal marriage rules. Of late, couples that set up a family without marriage are about as common as conventional wedded couples. There has been a shift in the moral values from time to time. For instance, in earlier times, the laws and ethics essentially originated from the cultures of a family and society as a whole. As society moved into the advanced time, these have largely disintegrated and people today tend to sue their own morals they want to follow.

Definition:

Moral values, as the name says, implies the significance of the moral qualities in the conduct of the kids, the youth and everyone one in life. Primarily the moral values are the qualities which one gains from life through the journey of life. They also depict the standards of what is right and what is wrong for us which we learn in the schools and in the workplace and from our surroundings as well. The beliefs which we gain from the family and the society that directs us how we lead our lives is what moral values are all about.

Moral Values in India:

India is a country which has been known for its values since the ancient times. We start to learn moral values from our family. In India, children are taught to respect their elders, greet them properly whenever they meet them. This a way of showing respect towards the elders. A child knows that he is supposed to obey whatever is asked by the elders. Such a moral value inculcates obedience in the mind of a child. Moral values are important for all of us in order to make us live a life of a good human being.

Important Moral Values in Life:

Although there are numerous moral values which one should follow in life, there are some of them which should be followed by almost everyone in the world. Firstly, always speaking the truth is one such moral value. We should never speak lies no matter what the circumstance is. Also, we should respect our elders. Our elders have seen and experienced the world better than us. It is always good for their blessings and advice in our important decisions. Loyalty towards our work and integrity are other such moral values which should be practised by one and all.

Examples from History:

There have been many examples from history which have depicted the importance and rightful following of moral values in life. One such example which we all are familiar with is from our epic Ramayana. Lord Ram was asked to go to fourteen years in exile just because his father King Dasaratha had granted a wish to the queen Kaikeyi. He could have refused it as well as it was not he who had granted the wish. But just to keep his father’s words he accepted the exile graciously and went into exile. Not only this, his wife Sita and his younger brother Laxman also followed his footsteps as they believed that it was their prime duty to follow him.

The Scenario Today:

Such was the moral value depicted during that period. But, now things are so different. People seem to have forgotten their moral values and are more focused on modern life. There are a number of instances every day where parents are left alone by their children to live a lonely old life. Many of them even die in isolation and there is no one to look after them during the last years. Apart from this, there are frequent quarrels between families over petty matters which could have been avoided if the people remembered the moral values our ancestors stood for.

Nowadays, people smoking and drinking and that too in front of their parents and children is a common sight. This is so against our moral values. We should not teach our children the evils ,such habits can do harm them in later years of their life.

The Remedy Available:

Since there has been a strong drift in the moral values of the people, the government has initiated to make the students learn about moral values in life and their importance to us. In order to execute this, schools of today teach moral values to the children in a greater sense. This is important as the students are the future of tomorrow. If the schools and the families alike teach the children such values from childhood, they shall turn into good human beings when they grow up.

Moral values depict our character to the outer world. They are of extreme importance in our lives. In earlier times, people were so determined to follow these values inherited from our ancestors. Such was their determination that once committed they never went back on their words. But with modernisation and urbanisation, we have seemed to have lost our moral values somewhere. Children disrespecting their parents are a common sight nowadays.

But, we should not blame the children for this. It is perhaps our own upbringing which has led to such immoral practices all over. It is we who should inculcate the moral values in our life first. Children will follow what they observe around them. If they shall see people living in joint families together and respecting each other, even they shall do so when they grow up. If we speak lies to our children even they shall do so. For the children imbibe the habits they see in their parents, teachers, peers at school and others around them.

So, it is we who have to take the first step forward. The children shall surely follow us. Moral values give us character and strength. If each one us practice some moral values in life, there would be peace and harmony all around. Moreover, we shall have a bright future for our next generations as well.

Moral Science , Moral Values , Values

Get FREE Work-at-Home Job Leads Delivered Weekly!

Join more than 50,000 subscribers receiving regular updates! Plus, get a FREE copy of How to Make Money Blogging!

Message from Sophia!

Like this post? Don’t forget to share it!

Here are a few recommended articles for you to read next:

• Essay on Discipline
• Which is More Important in Life: Love or Money | Essay
• Essay on My School
• Essay on Solar Energy

No comments yet.

Leave a reply click here to cancel reply..

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Billionaires

• Donald Trump
• Warren Buffett
• Email Address
• Free Stock Photos
• Keyword Research Tools
• URL Shortener Tools
• WordPress Theme

Book Summaries

• How To Win Friends
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• The Code of the Extraordinary Mind
• The Luck Factor
• The Millionaire Fastlane
• The ONE Thing
• Think and Grow Rich
• 100 Million Dollar Business
• Business Ideas

Digital Marketing

• Mobile Addiction
• Social Media Addiction
• Computer Addiction
• Drug Addiction
• Internet Addiction
• TV Addiction
• Healthy Habits
• Morning Rituals
• Wake up Early
• Cholesterol
• Reducing Cholesterol
• Fat Loss Diet Plan
• Reducing Hair Fall
• Sleep Apnea
• Weight Loss

Internet Marketing

• Email Marketing

Law of Attraction

• Subconscious Mind
• Vision Board
• Visualization

Law of Vibration

• Professional Life

Motivational Speakers

• Bob Proctor
• Robert Kiyosaki
• Vivek Bindra
• Inner Peace

Productivity

• Not To-do List
• Project Management Software
• Negative Energies

Relationship

• Getting Back Your Ex

Self-help 21 and 14 Days Course

Self-improvement.

• Body Language
• Complainers
• Emotional Intelligence
• Personality

Social Media

• Project Management
• Anik Singal
• Baba Ramdev
• Dwayne Johnson
• Jackie Chan
• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Narendra Modi
• Nikola Tesla
• Sachin Tendulkar
• Sandeep Maheshwari
• Shaqir Hussyin

Website Development

Wisdom post, worlds most.

• Expensive Cars

Our Portals: Gulf Canada USA Italy Gulf UK

Privacy Overview

• Skip to main content
• Skip to secondary menu
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

A Plus Topper

Improve your Grades

Moral Values Essay | Essay on Moral Values for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Moral Values Essay: Moral values are the positive teachings and ethicals values that define Humankind. Buddha made use of the essence of these values in his teachings. These are ethical values that every parent wants their children to imbibe. It helps tread the right path and a responsible person capable of differentiating between right and wrong.

Moral values empower an individual to perform better with human intentions, motives, acts, and relationships with other individuals. Moral values form the basis of all religious practices.

Values such as perseverance, self-control, respect, honesty, generosity, politeness, kindness, integrity, etc. help a person to become a better individual and a citizen. Thus, these values help people become successful human beings.

You can read more  Essay Writing  about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Long and Short Essay on Moral Values for Students and Kids in English

Below we have provided a Long, descriptive Essay on moral values and a Short, brief Essay on moral values. The extended essay on moral values consists of 400-500 words and is a guideline to help students with their essay topic. The short essay contains 150-200 words to help and guide children and kids.

Long Essay on Moral Values 500 Words

The long essay on moral values is for students belonging to classes 6,7,8,9, and 10, and competitive exam aspirants. The essay is a guide to help with class assignments, comprehension, and competitive examinations.

Society disseminates values, religion, culture, politics, and economy in an individual. People tend to pick up certain things from societal opinions and the dynamics of life from society. The community disseminates moral values. Moral values are habits and values that provide great importance in a person’s life.

Moral values hold great significance in an individual’s life. The establishment and sustainability of good relationships in society are dependants on moral values. Lack of these values causes misunderstandings and misconceptions among people.

Moral Value Attributes

Moral values hold the same significance across cultures and centuries. However, moral values are center-specific to a particular age or society. With time, specific moral values change. For instance, the ancient times considered women who did not voice their opinions and stayed home as those with ethical-moral values; however, today, practices have evolved.

Society and culture determine moral values. Moral values remain without any change; however, in time, people leave behind their ethics and values. The modern-day generation sees no time in building their character through moral values. It is often forgotten that these values reflect a person’s overall attitude and personality.

Role in society

A society holds multiple interactions for which Moral values are highly essential to build relationships. Moral values teach an individual the right and wrong in society. For instance, while talking with elders, one uses reverence, love, and compassion that molds good moral character.

Moral values play the role of peacemaker through conflict resolutions and prevention. It builds good relationships and helps to resolve conflicts. Through the establishment of relations, a society’s economy is also established. It conducts smooth trade business transactions among the people of the nation. Thus, in a community blooming with peace sees the improved quality of life and productive development.

Society is established through moral values. However, the growth and development of these values remain challenged by interactions and migration from diverse cultures and societies. These interactions dissolve morals leading to the assimilation of multiple or a hybrid culture.

Education and Poverty are the two main challenges to moral values. While school gives a child the option between good and wrong values, Poverty creates vices such as deceit, theft, struggles, and a strive for survival.

Moral values in a student’s life

A student’s life is a cycle of challenges and changes. As a child grows, he or she imbibes a lot of lessons and moral values. While some may get forgotten, some stick till the rest of life. Therefore, it is highly essential to inculcate moral values in students’ lives as their hands lie in the future. Students with ethical values become responsible and accountable people, while those spoiled become a threat to the society or culture.

In short, moral values aid a person to make the right choices and decisions in life. It directs an individual’s behavior and makes him or her make clear goals. A person embracing moral values such as loyalty, honesty, compassion, consistency, kindness, reliability, efficiency, courage, and determination, build a better character.

Short Essay on Moral Values 200 Words in English

The short essay on moral values below is helpful for classes 1,2,3,4,5and 6. The essay on moral values is to help with essay assignments, comprehension, and school events.

Moral values are the values journey with an individual as the vital essence of life. Moral values are the basic principles that guide the path and relationships in life. It helps a person behave with good motives and thoughts that do not harm the other.

Every Parent takes pride in his or her kid’s good moral character. Most Indian families follow strict instructions to imbibe ethical values. They highlight the importance of moral values and teach them at an early age. However, today’s society experiences the slow degradation of moral values with time.

A person’ s moral values, behavior, and beliefs should be based on culture or society. It molds the overall personality, conduct, and practice of an individual. My values and beliefs are based on the regulations, education, religion, and law of society. Moral values help to distinguish between right and wrong, thus affect our behavior and attitudes.

Thus, to become a competent, responsible human, it is essential to keep moral values as a top priority. It not only mold their personality but also makes them better citizens of the society.

10 Lines on Moral Values Essay in English

•  Moral values are positive teachings that help one to do the right things in life. Moral values differ from one individual to another.
•  Moral values are imbibed through people—cultures, religion, teachers, traditions, society, and parents.
• One keeps learning and improvising himself or herself by receiving new moral values.
• Moral values find peace through conflict resolutions and prevention and healthy relationships that resolve conflicts.
• Moral values direct the path, build a good character and better society, and help people make the right choices and decisions.
• Education provides children with multiple options with moral values. Poverty in a country creates struggles, a strive for survival, and harmful habits such as deceit and theft.
• The practice of moral values helps an individual to build good relationships in their professional and personal life. It also molds the overall personality, conduct, and preparation of an individual.
• Moral or Ethical values help a person resolve challenging situations and issues. It also helps them with self-motivation.
• However, today’s society experiences the slow degradation of moral values with time. The youth of the day do not hesitate to practice immoral values such as cheat, lie, steal, etc.
• Today’s society requires competent, responsible humans to keep moral values as a top priority.

FAQ’s on Essay on Moral Values

Question 1. What is Moral Value and state an example?

Answer: Moral values are those excellent values that empower and define human beings and are obtained from religion, parents, cultures, traditions, etc. These values help an individual behave with good motives and thoughts that do not harm the other.  For example,- we respect, love, obey our elders.

Question 2. How do moral values help us?

Answer: Moral values help you make the right decision, direct the path you need to choose. It builds a better society and helps to develop one’s overall personality.

Question 3. How do you differentiate between good and wrong Moral values?

Answer: Ethical, moral values help a person to become a better individual. It helps people respect elders, show gratitude, help people in need, honest, and encourage others to keep up their values while wrong moral values make a person harm the other.

Question 4. What are the moral values one should develop?

Answer: A person should develop values such as respect, honesty, gratefulness, kindness, helping nature, compassion, justice, and compromising quality. These moral values help him/her become a better person.

• Picture Dictionary
• English Speech
• English Slogans
• English Letter Writing
• English Essay Writing
• English Textbook Answers
• Types of Certificates
• ICSE Solutions
• Selina ICSE Solutions
• ML Aggarwal Solutions
• HSSLive Plus One
• HSSLive Plus Two
• Kerala SSLC
• Distance Education

Access your Commentary account.

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

• September 2024

The monthly magazine of opinion.

Essays on Moral Development, by Lawrence Kohlberg

Essays on Moral Development, Volume One: The Philosophy of Moral Development. by Lawrence Kohlberg. Harper & Row. 441 pp. $21.95.

Lawrence Kohlberg is a Harvard psychologist who has been insisting for two decades that the study of children’s moral reasoning can guide society in distinguishing right from wrong. His work has been influential—it has supplied much of the impetus behind “moral education” courses that are appearing even in elementary schools. The present collection of essays is concerned with the moral and pedagogical consequences Kohlberg draws from his empirical findings about children, from cross-cultural studies, and from “longitudinal” studies of given subjects at different ages.

Kohlberg discerns six “stages of moral development.” The first four are uncontroversial, extending from the child’s obedience out of fear of punishment to the “my station and its duties” mentality attributed to J. Edgar Hoover. Stage 5, the “official morality of the U.S. Constitution,” recognizes obligations based on contract, plus basic rights like life and liberty. Stage 6—to which this book is a sustained hosannah—adds “justice,” interpreted as “rationally demonstrable universal ethical principles” based on “respect for the dignity of human beings as individuals.”

What distinguishes stage 6 from stage 5 is, in effect, the willingness to disobey laws that conflict with these principles. Kohlberg estimates the number of stage 6’s to be 5 percent of the American population, but his only sustained example of a 6 is Martin Luther King, Jr. Socrates sometimes rates a 6, but is elsewhere demoted to a “5B,” apparently for taking the laws of Athens too seriously. (Kohlberg repeatedly compares King with Socrates as a “moral teacher” executed by the society he made uncomfortable, as if James Earl Ray were a legally appointed executioner.) Lincoln and Gandhi are accorded 6’s in passing.

_____________

What makes a later stage a higher stage? Part of Kohlberg’s answer is the irreversibility of the sequence of stages: while most people become “fixed” at a stage lower than 6, no one ever retreats from a later stage to an earlier one. Ultimately, however, Kohlberg equates later with better because, he says, each stage resolves conflicts that remain unresolved at earlier stages. Thus, Kohlberg reports that his stage-5 respondents disagreed among themselves about whether a man may steal an expensive drug to save his wife’s life, whereas his stage-6 respondents unanimously approved of stealing the drug. Stage 6 is hence the summit of morality because it is the most “formally adequate,” “integrated” level of morality. Not only does it address every moral dilemma, but all who reach it will agree in their answers.

Kohlberg defends this patent absurdity—Socrates, King, Lincoln, and Gandhi would hardly have seen eye-to-eye about, say, homosexuality—by referring to John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice , “the newest great book of the liberal tradition,” which “systematically justifies” stage 6. In resting his own case on Rawls’s, Kohlberg is virtually asking the non-philosophical reader to accept his claims about stage 6 on faith. Still, the basic outlines of Kohlberg’s position are clear.

According to Rawls, when you truly apply the Golden Rule to a problem, you are not distracted by your own preferences or the natural human tendency to put your own interests first. The principles you come up with will be genuinely fair, or just, principles. Rawls’s basic idea is to devise a model situation in which people are really thinking along golden-rule lines. He has us picture rational egoists who have temporarily forgotten their actual places in society. In deliberating about principles that will govern their society, such self-regarding amnesiacs would imagine a principle’s impact on people of every status, and so not slight any person or position, however humble. And Rawls adds an extra twist: his egoists pay most heed to how the worst off will fare, since (for reasons Rawls never quite clarifies) each is obsessively afraid that he will turn out to be the worst off when the “veil of ignorance” lifts.

Kohlberg illustrates the supposedly computer-like operation of this “method of musical chairs” with the issue of capital punishment. Rawls’s model people would reject it, he says, because, while each recognizes the deterrent advantages of capital punishment, each thinks, “what if I were a murderer?” Each then realizes that the murderer would not want to be executed, and hence renounces capital punishment. Lest the reader accuse me of imputing to Kohlberg a position too preposterous for anyone to maintain, here are his own words: If we “assess the death penalty from the point of view of someone who takes into account the possibility of being a capital offender himself [we see that] the capital offender, obviously, would claim that he should be allowed to remain alive. . . . In short, at stage 6 the rational capital offender’s claim to life would be given priority over the claim of maximal protection from crime asserted by the representative ordinary citizen.”

Something has gone wrong. Kohlberg’s magical argument against capital punishment really works against any punishment; presumably he would repudiate parking tickets for according double-parkers insufficient respect. Kohlberg has apparently confused what one would want in a difficult situation with what one would claim he should be allowed to have. Were I a murderer in the electric chair I would hope for a pardon, a power failure, or anything else that would save me, but I would hardly suppose I had a “rational claim” to a right to live that offset the claims of innocents saved by my execution.

This confusion between what people would be willing to do and what they would claim a right to do skews Kohlberg’s understanding of the drug-stealing case, which he sees as a collision between “capitalist morality” and the “sacredness of life.” While it is true that I would stick at almost nothing to save my wife’s life, I would never claim a right on my part or my wife’s to do what I would do. Nor would I do those things to save a stranger, even though, on Kohlberg’s view, the issue involves a generalized right to life the stranger shares with my wife. (I think my attitude makes me a 3.)

Actually, far from resolving every hard problem, “equal respect under universal principles of justice” is an empty truism. Should Churchill warn Coventry about the planned Nazi bombing or remain silent to protect the secret that the British had cracked the Enigma code? Can British counterespionage frame an honorable U-boat captain to damage German morale? Any choice dooms someone, and avoiding the problem (“I don’t want anybody’s blood on my hands”) amounts to choosing to spare the captain and risk extra Allied lives. Whatever the solutions to such dilemmas, the incantation of “equal respect for everyone” will not reveal them.

Indeed, it quickly becomes clear that Kohlberg is just making up stage 6 as he goes along. He scales the peak of arbitrariness when he counsels a stage-6 wife dying of cancer to concur in her own mercy killing: “If the wife puts herself in the husband’s place, the grief she anticipates about her own death is more than matched by the grief a husband should feel at her pain.” Kohlberg does not disclose how to determine the pain the wife will feel, the pain the husband “should” feel, or, indeed, what has become of the “sacredness of life.”

In fact, there is no stage 6. Kohlberg fudges this by combining stages 5 and 6 in his statistics. Astonishingly, he admits in a candid paragraph that

our empirical findings do not clearly delineate a sixth stage. . . . None of our longitudinal subjects have reached the highest stage. Our examples of stage 6 come either from historical figures [conveniently unavailable for answering questionnaires] or from interviews with people who have extensive philosophic training. . . . Stage 6 is perhaps less a statement of an attained psychological reality than the specification of a direction in which, our theory claims, ethical development is moving.

This trumpery shows Kohlberg’s program of “moral education” for the instrument of propaganda it really is. Kohlberg’s proposal begins modestly enough, with Dewey’s insight that children learn best when challenged by problems that strain their current concepts. To this Kohlberg adds Piaget’s discovery that certain key concepts are learned only in a definite order of maturation. What results is a general educational strategy of helping children through natural cognitive stages by posing stimulating problems. Kohlberg now applies this to morals: since a child is disposed to pass through the levels of morality anyway, the teacher should boost him along with provocative tales about theft and murder.

Kohlberg dismisses the idea that schools, especially public schools, should leave ethics to others with the admonition that a “hidden moral curriculum”—of conformity—always lurks behind official postures of neutrality. But Kohlberg’s own pedagogy is anything but the Socratic midwife to a child’s autonomy. Those tales of mercy killings and the like, a “hidden moral curriculum” if there ever was one, are designed to push children along a specific policy agenda that has nothing to do with any natural bents, let alone with “rationally demonstrable universal ethical principles.”

Beneath the platitudes and the jargon, Kohlberg’s morality comes to a specious egalitarianism. It is hard to believe Kohlberg really thinks that any desire, however base or outrageous, deserves as much “respect”—i.e., satisfaction—as any other. But whatever “stage-6 morality” is, it is not synonymous with respect for persons as understood in the Kantian moral tradition Kohl-berg claims to be following. Kantian respect means allowing each person to choose his actions freely and to accept the consequences of his choices. Such respect has nothing to do with satisfying the desires of the autonomous beings who are said to deserve it.

After interviewing a captured Nazi, the hero of Nicholas Monsarrat’s autobiographical novel The Cruel Sea thinks to himself, “These people are not curable. We’ll just have to shoot them and hope for a better crop next time.” Hardly stage-6 thinking—which is why today I am alive to write this and you to read it.

The Diaspora Tragedy of Philip Roth

Joan Didion From the Couch

Brush Off Your Shakespeare

Scroll Down For the Next Article

Type and press enter

• More Networks

• Essay On Values

Essay on Moral Values

500+ words essay on moral values.

Moral values are considered an essential aspect of human life. Moral values determine one’s nature, behaviour and overall attitude towards life and other people. In our lives, our decisions are primarily based on our values. The choices we make in our lives impact us and our society, organisation and nation. It is believed that a person with good values makes wise decisions that benefit everyone. On the contrary, people who have no moral values think only of themselves. They don’t care about others’ needs or society and make choices based solely on their needs. They create an unfriendly and sometimes unsafe environment around themselves.

Importance of Moral Values

The value of a person reflects their personality. Moral values help us understand the difference between right and wrong, good and evil and make the right decisions and judgements. They empower and drive a person to be a better human being and work for the betterment of society. Some moral values a person can inculcate in themselves are: dedication, honesty, optimism, commitment, patience, courtesy, forgiveness, compassion, respect, unity, self-control, cooperation, care and love. A person becomes humble and dependable with good values. Everyone looks up to a person with good values, whether personally or professionally.

If a person has good values, he spreads love, joy, and positive vibes. A person with good values works for the upliftment of society, along with taking care of their life. Such people are always considerate of the needs of others and understand the importance of unity and teamwork. They don’t lose their temper very easily and forgive others. People with good values are an asset to the organisation they work in and the society they live in.

Values Must Be Imbibed

We need to imbibe good values to function as humans and live in a society. Good values include dedication towards work, honesty, respect, commitment, love, helping others, taking responsibility for others’ deeds and acting responsibly. All these values are essential for the positive growth of an individual.

If you want to become a true leader and inspire others, you need to have good values. People always show respect and love to a person with good values. Additionally, they’ll trust and depend on a person of good values because they get proper advice and opinion from such a person.

Ethics Must Be Followed

A person with good values behaves ethically. We often hear of an ethical code of conduct. These are a set of rules or codes an individual is expected to follow. For example, talking politely with others, respecting elders/co-workers, handling difficult situations calmly, maintaining discipline and acting responsibly. Following these ethics helps create a healthy and safe work environment. So, it is essential for everyone to follow the ethical code of conduct.

The Role of Parents and Teachers

Moral values are not just born in a person but must be taught and inculcated right from childhood. When we talk about raising or nurturing children with good values, the credit goes to parents and teachers. It is their responsibility to teach children good values and should make them understand why it’s necessary to follow ethical behaviour. Schools should also take the responsibility to have a separate class dedicated to teaching ethics and moral values from the beginning. They should also train the students so that they imbibe these values.

An individual should imbibe good moral values to do well both in their professional and personal lives. A person with good values is also recognised among the crowd and is always appreciated for his behaviour and attitude towards others. On the contrary, people who lack good values often get into trouble and are not accepted in society. So, we should make sure that we teach our children good values and ethical behaviour from an early age. It is our responsibility to make our future generation learn moral values and ethics. This will help them become good human beings and upstanding citizens of the world. Additionally, it will give them the strength and courage to achieve great things in their lives.

The importance of moral values cannot be overstated. A nation with a high proportion of good values will undoubtedly progress and develop more rapidly than where people lack values. Moral values nurture us individually, build strong character and help create a better world around us.

We hope you found this essay on moral values useful. Find more CBSE Essays on various topics at BYJU’S. Also, get access to interactive videos and study material to ace the exams.

Register with BYJU'S & Download Free PDFs

Register with byju's & watch live videos.

• Table of Contents
• Random Entry
• Chronological
• Editorial Information
• About the SEP
• Editorial Board
• How to Cite the SEP
• Special Characters
• Advanced Tools
• Support the SEP
• PDFs for SEP Friends
• Make a Donation
• SEPIA for Libraries
• Entry Contents

Bibliography

Academic tools.

• Friends PDF Preview
• Author and Citation Info
• Back to Top

Locke’s Moral Philosophy

Locke’s greatest philosophical work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , is generally seen as a defining work of seventeenth-century empiricist epistemology and metaphysics. The moral philosophy developed in this work is rarely taken up for critical analysis, considered by many scholars of Locke’s thought to be too obscure and confusing to be taken too seriously. The view is not only seen by many commentators as incomplete, but it carries a degree of rationalism that cannot be made consistent with our picture of Locke as the arch-empiricist of his period. While it is true that Locke’s discussion of morality in the Essay is not as well-developed as many of his other views, there is reason to think that morality was the driving concern of this great work. For Locke, morality is the one area apart from mathematics wherein human reasoning can attain a level of rational certitude. For Locke, human reason may be weak with regards to our understanding of the natural world and the workings of the human mind, but it is exactly suited for the job of figuring out human moral duty. By looking at Locke’s moral philosophy, as it is developed in the Essay and some of his earlier writings, we gain a heightened appreciation for Locke’s motivations in the Essay , as well as a more nuanced understanding of the degree of Locke’s empiricism. Further than this, Locke’s moral philosophy offers us an important exemplar of seventeenth-century natural law theory, probably the predominant moral view of the period.

1.1 The puzzle of Locke’s moral philosophy

1.2 critical interpretations of locke’s moral philosophy, 2.1 morality as natural law, 2.2 morality and teleology, 2.3 morality as a deductive science, 3.1 locke’s general theory of motivation, 3.2 locke’s theory of moral motivation, 4.1 locke’s ethics of belief, 4.2 the special role of sanctions, other internet resources, related entries, 1. introduction.

There are two main stumbling blocks to the study of Locke’s moral philosophy. The first regards the singular lack of attention the subject receives in Locke’s most important and influential published works; not only did Locke never publish a work devoted to moral philosophy, but he dedicates little space to its discussion in the works he did publish. The traditional moral concept of natural law arises in Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1690) serving as a major plank in his argument regarding the basis for civil law and the protection of individual liberty, but he does not go into any detail regarding how we come to know natural law nor how we might be obligated, or even motivated, to obey it. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (first edition 1690; fourth edition 1700, hereafter referred to as the Essay ) Locke spends little time discussing morality, and what he does provide in the way of a moral epistemology seems underdeveloped, offering, at best, the suggestion of what a moral system might look like rather than a fully-realized positive moral position. This brings us to the second major stumbling block: What Locke does provide us by way of moral theory in these works is diffuse, with the air of being what J.B. Schneewind has characterized as “brief, scattered and sometimes puzzling” (Schneewind 1994, 200). This is not to suggest that Locke says nothing specific or concrete about morality. Locke makes references, throughout his works, to morality and moral obligation. However, two quite distinct positions on morality seem to emerge from Locke’s works and it is this dichotomous aspect of Locke’s view that has generated the greatest degree of controversy. The first is a natural law position, which Locke refers to in the Essay , but which finds its clearest articulation in an early work from the 1660s, entitled Essays on the Law of Nature . In this work, we find Locke espousing a fairly traditional rationalistic natural law position, which consists broadly in the following three propositions: first, that moral rules are founded on divine, universal and absolute laws; second, that these divine moral laws are discernible by human reason; and third, that by dint of their divine authorship these rules are obligatory and rationally discernible as such. On the other hand, Locke also espouses a hedonistic moral theory, in evidence in his early work, but developed most fully in the Essay . This latter view holds that all goods and evils reduce to specific kinds of pleasures and pains. The emphasis here is on sanctions, and how rewards and punishments serve to provide morality with its normative force. Both elements find their way into Locke’s published works, and, as a result, Locke seems to be holding what seem to be incommensurable views. The trick for Locke scholars has been to figure out how, or even if, they can be made to cohere. The question is not easily settled by looking to Locke’s unpublished works, either, since Locke also seems to hold a natural law view at some times and a hedonistic view at others.

One might conclude, with J.B. Schneewind, among others, that Locke’s attempts at constructing a morality were unsuccessful. Schneewind does not mince words when he writes the following: “Locke’s failures are sometimes as significant as his successes. His views on morality are a case in point” (Schneewind 1994, 199). Schneewind argues that the two strands of Locke’s moral theory are irreconcilable, and that this is a fact Locke must have realized. This view is indeed an apt representation of the frustration many readers have felt with Locke’s moral theory. Locke’s eighteenth-century apologist, Catharine Trotter Cockburn thought Locke provided a promising, but incomplete, starting point for a positive moral system, imploring, in her work “A Defense of Mr. Locke’s Essay of Human Understanding ,”

I wish, Sir, you may only find it enough worth your notice, to incite you to show the world, how far it falls short of doing justice to your principles; which you may do without interrupting the great business of your life, by a work, that will be an universal benefit, and which you have given the world some right to exact of you. Who is there so capable of pursuing to a demonstration those reflections on the grounds of morality , which you have already made? (Cockburn 1702, 36)

Locke’s friend William Molyneux similarly implored Locke to make good on the promise found in the Essay . In a letter written to Locke on September 16 th , 1693, Molyneux presses Locke to work on a moral treatise once he has finished editing the second edition of his Essay , writing as follows:

I am very sensible how closely you are engaged, till you have discharged this Work off your Hands; and therefore will not venture, till it be over, to press you again to what you have promis’d in the Business of Man’s Life, Morality . (Locke 1742, 53)

Several months later, in December of the same year, Molyneux concludes a letter by asking Locke about what other projects he currently has on the go “amongst which, I hope you will not forget your Thoughts on Morality ” (Locke 1742, 54).

Locke never did produce such a work, and we might well wonder if he himself ever considered the project a “failure”. There is no doubt that morality was of central importance to Locke, a fact we can discern from the Essay itself; there are two important features of the Essay that serve to enlighten us regarding the significance of this work in the development of Locke’s moral views. First of all, morality seems to have inspired Locke to write the Essay in the first place. In recounting his original inclination to embark on the project, he recalls a discussion with “five or six friends”, at which they discoursed “on a Subject very remote from this” (Locke 1700, 7). According to Locke, the discussion eventually hit a standstill, at which point it was agreed that in order to settle the issue at hand it would first be necessary to, as Locke puts it, “examine our own Abilities, and see, what Objects our Understandings were, or were not fitted to deal with” (Locke 1700, 7). This was, he explains, his first entrance into the problems that inspired the Essay itself. But, what is most interesting for our purposes is just what the remote subject was that first got Locke and his friends thinking about fundamental questions of epistemology. James Tyrell, one of those who attended that evening, is a source of enlightenment on this matter—he later recalled that the discussion concerned morality and revealed religion. But, Locke himself refers to the subjects they discussed that fateful evening as ‘very remote’ from the matters of the Essay . That may well be, but it is also true that Locke, in the Essay , identifies morality as a central feature of human intellectual and practical life, which brings us to the second important fact about Locke’s view of morality. Locke writes, in the Essay , that “Morality is the proper Science, and Business of Mankind in general” ( Essay , 4.12.11; these number are, book, chapter and section, respectively, from Locke’s Essay ). For a book aiming to set out the limits and extent of human knowledge, this comes as no small claim. We must, Locke writes, “know our own Strength” ( Essay , 1.1.6) and turn our attention to those areas in which we can have certainty, i.e., “those [things] which concern our Conduct” ( Essay , 1.1.6). The amount of attention given to the question of morality itself would seem to belie its primacy for Locke. The Essay is certainly not intended as a work of moral philosophy; it is a work of epistemology, laying the foundations for knowledge. However, a very big part of the programme involves identifying what true knowledge is and what it is we as humans can have knowledge about, and morality is accorded a distinctive and fairly exclusive status in Locke’s epistemology as one of “the Sciences capable of Demonstration” ( Essay , 4.3.18). The only other area of inquiry accorded this status is mathematics; clearly, for Locke, morality represents a unique and defining aspect of what it means to be human. We have to conclude, then, that the Essay is strongly motivated by an interest in establishing the groundwork for moral reasoning. However, while morality clearly has a position of the highest regard in his epistemological system, his promise of a demonstrable moral science is never realized here, or in later works.

It seems we can safely say that the subject of morality was a weighty one for Locke. However, just what Locke takes morality to involve is substantially more complicated an issue. There are two broad lines of interpretation of Locke’s moral views, which I will briefly outline here.

The first interpretation of Locke’s moral theory is what we might call an incompatibility thesis: Locke scholars Laslett, Aaron, von Leyden, among others, hold that Locke’s natural law theory is nothing more than a relic from Locke’s early years, when he wrote the Essays on the Law of Nature , and represents a rogue element in the mature empiricist framework of the Essay . For these commentators, the two elements found in the Essay seem not only incommensurable, but the hedonism seems the obvious and straightforward fit with Locke’s generally empiricist epistemology. The general view is that Locke’s rationalism seems, for all intents and purposes, to have no significant role to play, either in the acquisition of moral knowledge or in the recognition of the obligatory force of moral rules. These fundamental aspects of morality seem to be taken care of by Locke’s hedonism. Worse than this, however, is that the two views rely on radically different epistemological principles. The conclusion tends to be that Locke is holding on to moral rationalism in the face of serious incoherence. The incompatibility thesis is supported by the fact that Locke seems to emphasize the role of pleasure and pain in moral decision-making, however it has difficulty making sense of the presence of Locke’s moral rationalism in the Essay and other of Locke’s later works (not to mention the exalted role he gives to rationally-deduced moral law). Added to this, even in Locke’s early work, he seems to hold both positions simultaneously. Aaron and von Leyden both throw up their hands. According to von Leyden, in the introduction to his 1954 edition of Locke’s Essays on the Law of Nature ,

the development of [Locke’s] hedonism and certain other views held by him in later years made it indeed difficult for him to adhere whole-heartedly to his doctrine of natural law. (Locke 1954, 14)

In a similar vein, Aaron writes:

Two theories compete with each other in [Locke’s] mind. Both are retained; yet their retention means that a consistent moral theory becomes difficult to find. (Aaron 1971, 257)

Yet, it is curious that Locke neither claimed to find these strands incompatible, nor ever abandoned his rationalistic natural law view. It seems unlikely that this view would be nothing more than a confusing hangover from earlier days. Taking seriously Locke’s commitment to both is therefore a much more charitable approach, and one that takes seriously Locke’s clear commitment to the benefits of rationally-apprehending our moral duties. An approach along these lines is one we might call a compatibility approach to the question of Locke’s moral commitments. John Colman and Stephen Darwall are two Locke scholars who have argued that Locke’s view is neither plagued with tensions nor incoherent. Their common view is that the two elements of Locke’s theory are doing different work. Locke’s hedonism, on this compatibility account, is intended as a theory of moral motivation, and serves to fill a motivational gap between knowing moral law and having reasons to obey moral law. Locke introduces hedonism in order to account for the practical force of the obligations arising from natural law. As Darwall writes,

what makes God’s commands morally obligatory [i.e., God’s authority] appears…to have nothing intrinsically to do with what makes them rationally compelling. (Darwall 1995, 37).

Thus, on this account, reason deduces natural law, but it is hedonistic considerations alone that offer agents the motivating reasons to act in accordance with its dictates.

This interpretation convincingly makes room for both elements in Locke’s view. A central feature of this interpretation is its attention to the legalistic aspect of Locke’s natural law theory. For Locke, the very notion of law presupposes an authority structure as the basis for its institution and its enforcement. The law carries obligatory weight by virtue of its reflecting the will of a rightful superior. That it also carries the threat of sanctions lends motivational force to the law.

A slight modification of the compatibility account, however, better captures the motivational aspect of Locke’s rationalistic account: Locke does, at times suggest that rational agents are not only obligated, but motivated, by sheer recognition of the divine authority of moral law. It is helpful to think of morality as carrying both intrinsic and extrinsic obligatory force for Locke. On the one hand moral rules obligate by dint of their divine righteousness, and on the other hand by the threat of rewards and punishments. The suggestion that morality has an intrinsic motivational force appears in the Essays on the Law of Nature and is retained by Locke in some of his final published works. It is, however, a feature of his view that gets somewhat underappreciated in the secondary literature, and for understandable reasons—Locke tends to emphasize hedonistic motivations. Why this is will be discussed in section 4 . At this point, however, it suffices to say that Locke’s theory does not have the motivational gap that the compatibility thesis suggests—hedonism serves as a ‘back-up’ motivational tool in the absence of the right degree of rational intuition of one’s moral duty.

2. Locke’s natural law theory: the basis of moral obligation

In order to get a complete understanding of Locke’s moral theory, it is useful to begin with a look at Locke’s natural law view, articulated most fully in his Essays on the Law of Nature (written as series of lectures he delivered as Censor of Moral Philosophy at Christ Church, Oxford). Two predominant features of Locke’s natural law theory are already well-developed in this work: the rationalism and the legalism. According to Locke, reason is the primary avenue by which humans come to understand moral rules, and it is via reason we can draw two distinct but related conclusions regarding the grounds for our moral obligations: we can appreciate the divine, and thereby righteous, nature of morality and we can perceive that morality is the expression of a law-making authority.

In the Essays on the Law of Nature , Locke writes that “all the requisites of a law are found in natural law” (Locke 1663–4, 82). But, what, for Locke, is required for something to be a law? Locke takes stock of what constitutes law in order to establish the legalistic framework for morality: First, law must be founded on the will of a superior. Second, it must perform the function of establishing rules of behavior. Third, it must be binding on humans, since there is a duty of compliance owed to the superior authority that institutes the laws (Locke 1663–4, 83). Natural law is rightly called law because it satisfies these conditions. For Locke, the concept of morality is best understood by reference to a law-like authority structure, for without this, he argues, moral rules would be indistinguishable from social conventions. In one his later essays, “Of Ethic in General”, Locke writes

[w]ithout showing a law that commands or forbids [people], moral goodness will be but an empty sound, and those actions which the schools here call virtues or vices may by the same authority be called by contrary names in another country; and if there be nothing more than their decisions and determinations in the case, they will be still nevertheless indifferent as to any man’s practice, which will by such kind of determinations be under no obligation to observe them. (Locke 1687–88, 302)

For Locke, then, moral law is, by definition, an obligatory set of rules, because it reflects the will of a superior authority.

Moral rules are obligatory because of the authority structure out of which they arise. But, this is not the only story Locke has to tell regarding the nature of our obligation to divine moral dictates. The set of moral rules that reason deduces are taken by Locke to be reflective of human nature. The rules that govern human conduct are specifically tailored to human nature, and our duty to God involves realizing our natures to the fullest degree. There is a noticeable degree of teleology in Locke’s theory, which is worth pausing to consider in its content and its implications.

In the Essays on the Law of Nature , Locke draws a connection between the natural law governing human action and the laws of nature that govern all other things in the natural world; just as all natural things seem nomologically determined, so human beings are likewise law-governed. Humans are not determined to the same degree as other physical and biological entities, but we are beholden to God to ensure that our lives follow a certain path. Natural law is, Locke writes, a “plan, rule, or … pattern” of life (Locke 1663–64, 81). Locke’s early view has a teleological strain typical of the Aquinian (and thus Aristotelian) tradition. In fact, Locke does not shy away from this teleological angle, acknowledging this inheritance when he writes of Aristotle’s that he

rightly concludes that the proper function of man is acting in conformity with reason, so much so that man must of necessity perform what reason prescribes. (Locke 1663–64, 83)

Locke considers moral duty to be tailored to human nature, a set of laws specific to humanity and governing our actions according to God’s will. These laws are not only discoverable by reason, but in order to fulfill our function, humans are required to make use of reason to this very end. This view resurfaces in the Essay , where Locke writes the following:

it will become us, as rational Creatures, to imploy those Faculties we have about what they are most adapted to, and follow the direction of Nature, where it seems to point us out the way. ( Essay , 4.12.11)

The way it points us, he goes on to explain, is in the direction of our “greatest interests, i.e., the Condition of our eternal Estate” ( Essay , 4.12.11). The greater effort we each make in refining our rational faculty, the more clearly each of us will discern the proper path to eternal salvation.

This teleological element may seem somewhat out of step with Locke’s unqualified empiricist rejection of teleological metaphysics in the Essay . However, it is important to bear in mind that the teleological aspects of Locke’s moral theory do seem to be serving a very specific purpose. Locke seems to be aiming to establish a natural-theological basis for natural law. Why would this be so crucial for Locke?

Locke is grounding human conduct within a general framework of laws originating in God’s divine command. This is not just a nomologically-ordered universe, but one, as we have seen, that reflects the interests of “a powerful and wise creator…who has made and built this whole universe and us mortals” (Locke 1663–64, 103). Humans are obligated to obey God’s laws since God is a superior to whom we owe “both our being and our work” (Locke 1663–64, 105). As such, we are obligated to show obedience to the “limits he prescribes” (Locke 1663–64, 105). The laws governing our nature are discovered by reason and their content is specifically suited to human nature. Thus, for Locke morality is clearly and necessarily anthropocentric, understood by reference to human nature. But moral rules are, above all, an expression of God’s will. It is this latter aspect of morality that binds us to abide by the dictates of morality. Moral obligation is a matter, for Locke, of obedience to the rightful authority of God.

There are two baseline assumptions of Locke’s moral thinking: morality is universal and it is something that can be understood clearly and unequivocally by human reason—when Locke imagines us rationally-discovering natural law, he envisions us applying a rigorous set of logical principles to a set of clear and well-defined ideas about human nature, God, and society. But, how exactly is this done?

For one thing, this process looks a great deal like mathematical reasoning. For Locke, moral rules are founded on a fundamental set of principles, much like mathematical axioms. The fundamental principles can be deduced rationally, and it is from these that we can further derive all of our moral duties. Morality is, therefore, demonstrable, a term indicating mathematical-style proofs wherein conclusions are derived from axiomatic foundations. The moral status of any action is then determined by comparing our behaviour against these demonstrated rules. But, we might ask, what kinds of ideas are moral ideas, and what sort of rationalist could Locke possibly be? Locke is a well-known empiricist; for Locke, the mind is a blank slate, the content of which is supplied exclusively from sensory or reflective experience. Locke famously espouses this empiricist view in the Essay , but holds it quite clearly also in the Essays on the Law of Nature . In fact, however, Locke’s moral rationalism takes this empiricist theory of ideas as its starting point. Moral ideas, for Locke, are fundamentally experiential in origin. They are not directly so, of course, since we do not perceive something like justice or honesty directly. Moral ideas are experiential, in the special Lockean sense that they are complex ideas—products of the mind’s ability to form complex constructions from its simple directly-experiential contents. For Locke, the interplay of reason and sensation works as follows:

reason is … taken to mean the discursive faculty of the mind, which advances from things known to things unknown and argues from one thing to another in a definite and fixed order of propositions… The foundations, however, on which rests the whole of that knowledge which reason builds … are the objects of sense-experience; for the senses primarily supply the entire as well as the chief subject-matter of discourse and introduce it into the deep recesses of the mind. (Locke 1663–64, 101)

From perceptual simple ideas, we can generate complex moral propositions. This seems like a tall order, and Locke offers very little, in any of his works, by way of actually putting this moral reasoning process to work. However, that is not to say that Locke is silent in this regard. There are places in his writings where Locke takes us through some moral demonstrations.

In the Essays on the Law of Nature , for example, Locke claims that, based on sensory experience, we can assert the extra-mental existence of perceptible objects and all their perceptible qualities. All such qualities can be explained by reference to matter in motion. What is also clear to the senses, Locke argues, is that this world of moving objects exhibits a nomological regularity, or as Locke puts it, a “wonderful art and regularity” (Locke 1663–64, 103). Such regularity and beauty leads the contemplative mind to consider how such a world could have come about. Such contemplation would lead any rational being to the conclusion that the world cannot be the result of chance, and must therefore be the product of a creative will. Note that Locke is here trying to demonstrate for us just how sensation and reason work together. The mind moves from ideas of sensation to what Locke considers logical conclusions regarding the creative force behind the world we experience. But, our understanding of natural law is not founded solely in sensory experience. Through reflection, which is an introspective kind of perceptual experience for Locke, humans can gain ideas of our own nature and faculties that serve to complete our understanding both of God and of God’s creative will. This reasoning goes as follows—the creative being, which sensation indicates must exist, cannot be less perfect than human will, nor can it be human, because our ideas of reflection tell us that humans are not, and cannot be, self-causing. Reason must conclude, then, that the world is created by a divine will—a superior power, which can bring us into existence, maintain us, or take us away, give us great joy or render us in great pain. Locke concludes as follows:

with sense-perception showing the way, reason can lead us to knowledge of a lawmaker or of some superior power to which we are necessarily subject. (Locke 1663–4, 104)

From this deduction regarding divine purpose and authority, humans can conclude that they are obligated to render “praise, honour, and glory” to God. Beyond this, the rational agent can deduce, through reflection upon her own constitution and faculties, that her natural impulses to protect and preserve her life, and to enter into society with others are faculties with which she has been uniquely equipped by God and by which she is considered specifically human. These must constitute the basis of the principles and duties governing her conduct—her “function appears to be that which nature has prepared … [her] to perform” (Locke 1663–64, 105). Thus, by a series of steps from perception to reasoning about that perceptual experience, we are, Locke concludes, able to define our moral duties and regulate our conduct accordingly.

In the Essay , Locke develops this idea of the rational deduction of natural law somewhat further, setting it in the context of a more mature and coherent theory of ideas than we find in the Essays on the Law of Nature . In the Essay , moral ideas assume a particular significance owing to their place in Locke’s general taxonomy of ideas. For Locke, all the basic contents of the mind are simple ideas. These are formed by the mind into what Locke terms complex ideas, which are combinations of simple ideas made in the pattern of our perceptions of things in the extra mental world, or according to a pattern created by reason alone. Moral ideas fall into the second category of complex idea, falling under the technical heading complex ideas of modes . Modes are a specific kind of complex ideas, created by the mind from simple ideas of sensation or reflection, but referring to no extra-mental reality. They are not intended as natural kinds, but are products of the mind alone, referring to purely conceptual archetypes. They are best understood in contradistinction to ideas of substances, which are created by the mind but aim to mirror the real essences of extra-mental things—for example, the idea cat is intended to capture a kind of thing in the world that has a specific set of perceivable characteristics. Ideas of substances fail in mirroring reality, however, as they can never be complete representations of the world outside the mind. Modal ideas, on the other hand, are a special kind of idea for Locke, and actually hold out the promise for real knowledge. Modal ideas are ideas by which we fully grasp the real essence of things, because the mind, in some sense, is the originator of them (I will return to this in the next paragraph). The idea of a triangle is a modal idea, made by reason and knowable in its essence with complete accuracy. The idea of a triangle is a product of the mind, and does not refer to anything outside the mind—i.e., any external archetype. The kinds of ideas that fall into this category are the idea of God, mathematical concepts, and, most importantly for our present purposes, moral concepts. Locke writes,

I am bold to think, that Morality is capable of Demonstration , as well as Mathematicks: since the precise real Essence of the things moral Words stand for, may be perfectly known; and so the Congruity, or Incongruity of the Things themselves, be certainly discovered, in which consists perfect knowledge. ( Essay , 3.11.16)

Moral rules, for Locke, are knowable with the same degree of certainty as “any Demonstration in Euclid” ( Essay , 4.3.18).

This might seem to be a tall order when considering the controversy generated by beliefs about moral rules, yet Locke clearly believes that moral rules can, with the right mental effort, yield indisputable universal laws. Locke offers an example of how this might work, by analyzing the moral proposition Where there is no property, there is no injustice . In order to see the demonstrable certainty of this claim, we have to examine the composite ideas and how those agree or disagree with one another. The idea of property, first of all, is a right to something. The idea of injustice, considered next, is a violation of that right. Given these definitions, which Locke thinks are arrived at by careful attention to definition, it is a rational deduction that injustice cannot exist if there is no property to be violated. Injustice and property must, by definition agree. This is a clearly demonstrable rule, according to Locke, deduced from clear and adequately conceived ideas. The only other example Locke offers is the proposition No Government allows absolute Liberty . Government, according to Locke, is the establishment of society upon certain laws, requiring conformity. Absolute liberty is allowing anyone to do as they please. These are modal ideas, according to Locke, and thus known with complete adequacy. As such, it is possible for the rational individual to see clearly that the ideas of absolute liberty and government cannot agree. Of course, most people will argue that these rational deductions rely upon definitions that are debatable. This would not seem to be helped by the fact that, for Locke, modal ideas, like all complex ideas, are put together by the mind; while complex ideas of substance are constructed on the pattern of perceivable objects, modal ideas are, Locke explains, “put together at the pleasure of our Thoughts, without any real pattern they were taken from” ( Essay , 4.4.12). This might seem to pose a problem for Locke’s moral theory, according to which moral laws are just as necessary as mathematical principles. However, Locke is not worried about any relativistic implications. For Locke, any disagreement about definitions of concepts like property, justice or murder, result from insufficient reasoning about the simple ideas that comprise our moral ideas, as well as bias, prejudice and other irrational influences. For Locke, it is precisely because these ideas refer to nothing outside the mind that they can be universally-conceived and adequately understood. Just as the notion of triangularity is known perfectly because it does not depend upon the existence of triangles outside the mind, so justice is understood perfectly because it is not using some extramental archetype as its inspiration. He writes,

the Truth and Certainty of moral Discourses abstracts from the Lives of Men, and the Existence of those Vertues in the World whereof they treat. ( Essay , 4.4.8)

Mathematical concepts are impervious to bias, prejudice or otherwise-idiosyncratic definitions and their relative properties are clear to anyone who understands them perfectly. While many would contend that moral ideas are simply too controversial to fit a proto-mathematical picture, Locke would respond that they seem controversial only because many of us have not taken the time to consider moral ideas in an objective and analytical light. If we were to do so, he argues, we could come to know moral rules with certainty.

Locke, in fact, adds something of a meta-moral dimension to this epistemological point by suggesting that as rational beings it is our “proper Imployment” to contemplate morality. In Book IV of the Essay , where Locke concludes that morality is, like mathematics, a human science (and, properly-speaking, knowledge), Locke draws a teleological lesson—since we are clearly fitted with the capacity for discerning our moral duty, then that is what we ought to do: “I think I may conclude, that Morality is the proper Science and Business of Mankind in general .” ( Essay , 4.12.11) Humans must, he argues, employ reason in the pursuit of that which “they are most adapted to, and follow the direction of Nature, where it seems to point us out the way” ( Essay , 4.12.11). The fact that many people do not or cannot devote contemplative hours to their moral duties is something Locke will consider in his account of moral motivation, however, the key point here is that humans have a teleological makeup that allows for rational certainty with regard to divine moral law.

Is having this degree of knowledge enough to motivate humans to act accordingly—that is, does the sheer recognition of one’s duty have any sway in one’s practical deliberations?

3. Moral motivation 1: reward and punishment

Locke’s hedonism has a dual function in Locke’s moral theory. It accounts both for how we acquire the ideas of moral good and evil that lie at the root of moral law and for the motivation to comply with moral rules. A prominent feature of Locke’s moral legalism is his view that a law needs to carry the threat of sanctions for it to have normative force. Locke holds this view on the basis of his hedonistic theory of human motivation.

Locke develops his hedonistic account most extensively in the Essay . According to this account, pleasure and pain are the primary motivating factors for all human action and human thought. Feelings of pleasure and pain accompany all our ideas, for Locke, prompting us to act in response to our perceptual experiences, and to move, in thought, from one idea to another. If we had no accompanying feeling of delight or pain in the face of certain stimuli we would be unmoved to create music, eat when hungry, or even shift our attention from one idea to any other—the perception of rain would raise in us no different response than a sunny day, the idea of one’s children would inspire no related thoughts of home or family, nor any discernibly different response from the idea of children one does not know. Locke writes,

we should have no reason to preferr [sic] one Thought or Action, to another; Negligence, to Attention; or Motion, to Rest. And so we should neither stir our Bodies, nor employ our Minds; but let our thoughts (if I may so call it) run a drift, without any direction or design; and suffer the Ideas of our Minds, like unregarded shadows to make their appearances there, as it happen’d, without attending to them. ( Essay , 2.7.3)

Pleasure and pain are the engines that make decisions, thoughts, and actions happen. This is not merely coincidence, or chance, for Locke, but yet another example of God’s divine design. God has attached feelings of pleasure and pain to our ideas, so the natural faculties with which humans are endowed “might not remain wholly idle, and unemploy’d by us” ( Essay , 2.7.3).

Pleasure and pain form the basis of Locke’s general theory of motivation, but they are also the bedrock upon which our moral ideas, and the motivation to moral goodness arise. Good and evil reduce, for Locke, to “nothing but Pleasure or Pain, or that which occasions or procures Pleasure and Pain to us” ( Essay , 2.28.5). A flower is good, because its beauty raises feelings of affection or pleasure in us. Illness, on the other hand, is an evil since it raises feelings of aversion in those who have experienced illness in any of its many forms. A good is whatever produces pleasure in us, or diminishes evil, and an evil is whatever produces pain or diminishes pleasure. In this way, for Locke, the ideas of good and evil arise from natural emotive responses to our various ideas. Now, these are not moral goods and evils, but for Locke moral ideas are founded in the general ideas we have of natural pleasures and pains. Locke designates no special faculty by which we acquire the basic moral concepts of good and evil, since these are merely a modification of our ideas of natural good and evil; moral good and evil gain their special significance from considering ideas of pleasure and pain in specific contexts.

Our ideas of moral good and evil do not, therefore, differ qualitatively from natural good or evil. If this is the case, however, one might ask what makes smelling a rose different from helping those in need. For Locke, the answer lies in the different context for pleasures and pains that distinguishes the moral from the natural. While a natural good involves the physical pleasure that arises from the scent of a rose, moral good is a pleasure arising from one’s conformity to moral dictates, and moral evil is pain arising from the failure to conform. The pleasure and pain are not qualitatively distinct, in these cases, but they take on a special significance as a result of the considerations that bring them about. Locke explains this in the Essay , making sure to emphasize the purely contextual distinction between moral and natural feelings:

Morally Good and Evil then, is only the Conformity or Disagreement of our voluntary Actions to some Law, whereby Good and Evil is drawn on us, from the Will and Power of the Law-maker; which Good and Evil, Pleasure or Pain, attending our observance or breach of the law, by the Decree of the Law-maker, is that we call Reward or Punishment . ( Essay , 2.28.5)

Reward and punishment are a distinct species of pleasure and pain, specifying the outcomes attending the decrees of a rightful legislator. In this way, Locke’s is a straightforwardly legalistic account of the concepts of moral good and evil. The practical force of moral laws arises when we compare our actions against these laws, determine the degree to which they do or do not conform to the law and consider the pleasure of pain we will privately experience. In fact, for Locke, the very idea that one being has rightful legislative power over another is predicated on the degree to which the former being can effectively impose sanctions on the latter:

It would be in vain for one intelligent Being, to set a Rule to the Actions of another, if he had not in his Power, to reward the compliance with, and punish deviation from his Rule, by some Good and Evil, that is not the natural product and consequence of the action itself. ( Essay , 2.28.6)

God, according to Locke, is just such a rightful superior with the

Goodness and Wisdom to direct our Actions to that which is best: and he has the Power to enforce it by Rewards and Punishments, of infinite weight and duration, in another Life. ( Essay , 2.28.8)

Locke is clearly committed to the idea that hedonistically-construed outcomes are a necessary condition of any system of law and of legislative authority itself. In this regard, Locke’s views are consistent throughout his corpus. It is worth noting that Locke holds the same view in the early work, the Essays on the Law of Nature , as he does in the more mature works quoted above. In the Essays on the Law of Nature , Essay V , Locke asserts that both God and the soul’s immortality “must necessarily be presupposed if natural law is to exist” (Locke 1663–64, 113). The inclusion of the immortality of the soul would seem to suggest the centrality of rewards and punishments in the afterlife. Locke continues by asserting that “law is to no purpose without punishment” (Locke 1663–64, 113). For Locke, then, an agent may well know the moral law, and that they are obligated to a superior authority, but the obligatory force—i.e., what gives the agent a reason for acting—is the structure of rewards and punishments built into the system.

The question that has plagued Locke scholarship has been how, if at all, the hedonistic elements of Locke’s moral philosophy can be reconciled with his rationalistic account, which suggests that reason can discern morality’s inherent righteousness and motivate accordingly. Some scholars have concluded that Locke effectively abandons the rationalism of his earlier writings by the time he is writing the Essay , and that any such elements found therein are mere holdovers of an earlier position. Von Leyden expresses this view when he writes,

the development of [Locke’s] hedonism and certain other views held by him in later years make it indeed difficult for him to adhere whole-heartedly to his doctrine of natural law. (von Leyden, 1954, 14)

But does it? What I earlier called the compatibilist thesis is held most prominently by scholars John Colman and Stephen Darwall, according to whom Locke’s hedonism does not supplant the rationalist account of natural law and moral obligation, but is, rather, intended to account for the motivational force of moral law. In this way, the two views work together for a complete moral picture. Darwall identifies the distinction between rationally-derived versus legalistically-construed moral obligation when he writes

what makes God’s commands morally obligatory [i.e., God’s authority] appears…to have nothing intrinsically to do with what makes them rationally compelling. (Darwall 1995, 37)

Colman makes a similar point:

Right is the central concept in Locke’s natural law doctrine, but the law could have no purchase on human conduct unless doing that which is right were in some way productive of good. ‘Good’ is the central concept in his moral psychology. (Colman 1983, 49)

Both Darwall and Colman understand Locke as equating moral good and evil with rewards and punishments, such that good and evil are the operative notions that turn moral rules into moral imperatives for rational agents. Agents do not have reasons for acting until they are aware of the rewards and punishments that accompany natural law. On this interpretation, rational insight regarding the righteousness of morality cannot, on its own, motivate humans to act.

Divine sanctions are a constant feature of Locke’s moral philosophy, as we’ve seen, and the compatibilist interpretation goes much further than the incompatibilist interpretation in capturing the nuances in Locke’s moral philosophy. However, there are passages in Locke’s work that suggest that moral rules carry an obligatory force that can motivate rational agents irrespective of rewards and punishments. When this further aspect of Locke’s view is taken into account, we can see that, for Locke, rewards and punishments do not exhaust our reasons for obeying divine moral rules.

4. Moral motivation 2: the righteousness of morality

In the Essays on the Law of Nature , Locke argues that there are two different kinds of obedience to the law of a superior authority, and that these are founded upon two distinct kinds of obligation. The example is as follows:

Anyone would easily … perceive that there was one ground of his obedience when as a captive he was constrained to the service of a pirate, and that there was another ground when as a subject he was giving obedience to a ruler; he would judge in one way about disregarding allegiance to a king, in another about wittingly transgressing the orders of a pirate or robber. (Locke 1663–64, 118)

At this point, Locke might be understood to be distinguishing laws backed by a rightful authority and laws that are not, in which the point is simply that there is no obligation to the pirate, since his are not strictly laws at all on Locke’s definition of the term. However, Locke continues this passage as follows:

in the latter case [subject to a pirate or robber], with the approval of conscience, he rightly had regard only for his well-being, but in the former [subject to a king], though conscience condemned him, he would violate the right of another. (Locke 1663–64, 118)

Locke identifies two distinct grounds of obedience. Recognizing that one’s obligation to the king arises from his rightful authority provides a grounds for obedience that is absent in the case of obeying the pirate. My reasons for obeying the pirate are hedonistic, but my reasons for obeying the king involve my recognition of his rightful authority. Further on in the same Essay , Locke explains that

We should not obey a king just out of fear, because, being more powerful he can constrain (this in fact would be to establish firmly the authority of tyrants, robbers, and pirates), but for conscience’ sake, because a king has command over us by right; that is to say, because the law of nature decrees that princes and a lawmaker, or a superior by whatever name you call him, should be obeyed. (Locke 1663–64, 120)

Thus, sanctions are not the sole motivating factor for Locke. The contrast Locke draws here is an important but commonly underappreciated one; that is, acting for “conscience’ sake” versus acting ‘out of fear’ as two quite distinct grounds for obedience.

The question that remains is how Locke’s notion of acting ‘for conscience’ sake’ can be made sense of within the context of Locke’s general hedonistic account of motivation. It might sound as though we are working with the kind of purely rational motivating factor that Locke’s hedonistic theory clearly rejects; for Locke all human action is motivated by considerations of pleasure and pain.

Recall that for Locke rewards and punishments are specific pleasures and pains. Acting for conscience’ sake will necessarily involve considerations of pleasure and pain, but of a kind quite distinct from sanctions. For Locke, there is a kind of pleasure that attends fulfilling one’s moral duty that is quite distinct from considerations of reward and punishment. In an essay, written in 1692, entitled Ethica A (the first of two essays, the other entitled Ethica B ), Locke appeals to a kind of pleasure that attends the fulfilment of one’s moral duty:

Whoever spared a meal to save the life of a starving man, much more a friend…but had more and much more lasting pleasure in it than he that eat it. The other’s pleasure died as he eat and ended with his meal. But to him that gave it him ‘tis a feast as often as he reflects on it’. (Locke 1692, 319)

The pleasure here is of a special kind. It is not the same as the pleasure we get from satisfying our hunger, nor is it the pleasure that comes with pleasing an authority or earning a reward. In fact, Locke explicitly distinguishes it from the pleasure expected in the afterlife. Fulfilling one’s duty, for Locke, carries its own kind of pleasurable motive—it makes us happy. As Locke writes, further on in Ethica A , “Happiness…is annexed to our loving others and to doing our duty, to acts of love and charity” (Locke 1692, 319). Acting according to moral duty, then, is motivated by feelings of pleasure that attend such acts.

Why, then, does Locke so frequently emphasize the legalistic angle of morality, which depends so heavily on the motivational force of reward and punishment? In Locke’s view, many people fail to acknowledge, or be motivated by, the pleasure inherent to the fulfilment of one’s moral duty, and for these people (which, it turns out, is most of us), God has provided extra incentive—the rewards and punishments God attaches to our actions are a matter of God’s jurisdiction, quite apart from the pleasures of acting dutifully, and in accordance with righteous moral dictates. As Locke explains, God

brings in a necessity of another life…and so enforces morality the stronger, laying a necessity on God’s justice by his rewards and punishments, to make the good the gainers, the wicked losers. (Locke 1692, 319)

Sanctions, therefore, serve to enforce morality ‘the stronger’ but are quite clearly secondary to the intrinsic pleasures motivating dutiful action. So, conscience does not motivate in and of itself, nor does the rational apprehension of one’s moral duty, but Locke identifies a species of pleasure distinct from divine sanctions that makes his notion of acting for conscience’ sake perfectly consistent with his hedonism: to act for conscience’ sake is to be motivated by, and take pleasure in, acting in accordance with one’s moral duty.

Locke’s emphasis can be explained by turning our attention to a view of human nature that lies at the root of Locke’s account. Locke tends to be fairly pessimistic about the degree to which most humans appreciate the inherent righteousness of morality. In fact, Locke maintains a fairly low opinion of the willingness of most people to actually take the time to appreciate the righteousness natural law. If, he writes,

we will not in Civility allow too much Sincerity to the Professions of most Men , but think their Actions to be Interpreters of their Thoughts, we shall find, that they have no such internal Veneration for these Rules, nor so full a Perswasion of their Certainty and obligation. ( Essay , 1.3.7)

Humans are flawed in two respects, according to Locke: we can fail to acknowledge our obligations to natural law, and we can fail to comply even when these obligations are acknowledged.

Locke’s views regarding reason and intellectual duty can be characterized as an ethics of belief, according to which our rational abilities place a responsibility on each of us to examine the beliefs we hold, and to be accountable for those things to which we assent. This is particularly the case with respect to moral rules, themselves, which are the ultimate guidelines for a good human life. As Locke sees it, our capacities as rational agents are insufficiently realized in many, if not most, cases. While the law of nature is knowable by reason for Locke, it is not innately known—Locke does not mean to suggest, as many theologians of his day believed, that it “lies open in our hearts” (Locke 1663–64, 89). This would, he grants, be:

an easy and very convenient way of knowing, and the human race would be very well off if men were so fully informed and so endowed by nature that from birth they were in no doubt as to what is fitting and what is less so. (Locke 1663–64, 90)

For Locke, however, this is just not the case. It is clear, to him, that most people do not understand their moral duty in any deep or robust way. To really know one’s moral duty is to be a moral agent, for Locke—moral knowledge is something gained, by the individual, through rational discovery. Moral truths are attainable with the proper use of reason:

there is some sort of truth to the knowledge of which man can attain by himself and without help of another, if he makes proper use of the faculties he is endowed with by nature. (Locke 1693–94, 89)

For Locke, knowledge, properly-speaking, requires that the individual herself perceives the truth or falsity of any claim to which she grants or withholds assent. An individual agent must perform the intellectual analysis and demonstration herself in order to truly know her moral duty. As it turns out, however, the greatest number of people (particularly in Locke’s day), are, he acknowledges

given up to Labour, and enslaved to the Necessity of their mean Condition; whose lives are worn out, only in the Provisions of Living. ( Essay , 4.20.2)

For these people, the opportunity for gaining a clear perception of their moral duty is very narrow. Worse than this, there are people who have the means and the leisure, but “satisfy themselves with a lazy ignorance” ( Essay , 4.20.6). These latter, Locke asserts, have a “low Opinion of their Souls” ( Essay , 4.20.6). But, in neither case are people entirely off the hook, according to Locke, who argues that no matter how busy one is, there should always be time for thinking about our souls and matters of religion. If one fails to do this, then one is relying for one’s salvation and self-realization upon the mere current of opinion or the untrustworthy word of others. Locke asks if this can provide

sufficient Evidence and Security to every Man, to venture his greatest Concernments on; nay, his everlasting Happiness, or Misery. ( Essay , 4.20.3)

The failure to do so is a kind of moral failing for Locke, one that gains its normative force from the teleogical imperative attending our rational natures:

God has furnished Men with Faculties sufficient to direct them in the Way they should take, if they will but seriously employ them that Way, when their ordinary Vocations allow them the Leisure. ( Essay , 4.20.3)

Again, Locke is not suggesting that we do this from considerations of rewards and punishments, but because it is the fulfillment of our divinely-created natures. Despite failures to comply, the normative force of morality is undeniable, for Locke, on these teleogical grounds. Though Locke seems to believe that our failings with regards to moral knowledge result from a failure to engage our minds in the right direction, he does however acknowledge that the discovery of moral truths is difficult and laborious. And this is where sanctions come into play.

Sanctions are not necessary to natural law if we consider it strictly as a system of divine rules. However, sanctions are necessary when morality functions as law . Sanctions are mechanisms for enforcement, where inherent motivating factors are either absent or underappreciated. Consider, as an example, the moral duty to care for one’s children. For most people, this carries inherent obligatory force arising from its being obviously good and necessary. Where a person fails to appreciate the inherent force of this duty, however, laws exist that require parents to provide the means of life and education for their children, and such laws stipulate compliance under threat of sanctions. To call the first instance a law seems unnecessary, but we can clearly see how the concept of a rule of law distinguishes the latter case. Sanctions provide motives when individuals fail to act on the responsibilities reason should on its own reveal and thereby compel. In the Essays on the Law of Nature , Locke writes,

Those who refuse to be led by reason and to own that in the matter of morals and right conduct they are subject to a superior authority may recognise that they are constrained by force and punishment to be submissive to that authority and feel the strength of him whose will they refuse to follow. (Locke 1663–64, 117)

Sanctions thus ensure that people who ‘refuse to be led’ by reason abide by the dictates of natural law; in this way, sanctions ensure that divine moral rules function as a system of law.

When Locke speaks of moral law, he frequently alludes to sanctions. Morality can motivate without sanctions, but it cannot ensure general compliance in the way that a system of law can. God’s imposition of sanctions is thus strictly instrumental. They are not intrinsic to a system of morality, but they are necessary when the obligatory force of moral rules is not adequately understood. The special role of sanctions as a means of shoring up moral compliance is articulated by Locke in several of his writings. In the 1680 essay Of God’s Justice , he writes

though justice be also a perfection which we must necessarily ascribe to the supreme being, yet we cannot suppose the exercise of it should extend further than his goodness has need of it for the preservation of his creatures in the order and beauty of the state that he has placed each of them in. (Locke 1680, 278)

God metes out justice in the form of sanctions as a means of ensuring social order and peace; sanctions ensure social good:

[God’s] justice is nothing but a branch of his goodness, which is fain by severity to restrain the irregular and destructive parts from doing harm; for to imagine God under a necessity of punishing for any other reason but this, is to make his justice a great imperfection. (Locke 1680, 278)

In one of his more mature works, The Reasonableness of Christianity , Locke makes the point several times, that moral law, with its attendant rewards and punishments, was articulated as a means of ensuring obedience. Humans appreciate the intrinsic righteousness of virtuous acts, which are generally granted the highest degree of approbation. However, virtuous behaviour is assured only when it is in an agent’s interests to comply. It is clear to reason that we ought to act virtuously, but it is easy enough for many of us to eschew virtuous actions when they either present hardships or sacrifice of any kind or when they will not clearly benefit our own interests:

The generality could not refuse [virtue] their esteem and commendation; but still turned their backs on her, and forsook her, as a match not for their turn. That she is the perfection and excellency of our nature; that she is herself a reward, and will recommend our names to future ages, is not all that can now be said of her. (Locke 1736, 247)

In order to remedy this problem, Locke explains, God attached clear and explicit sanctions (made plain through revelation) to ensure that the virtuous course of action will always be the more attractive option:

[Virtue] has another relish and efficacy to persuade men, that if they live well here, they shall be happy hereafter. Open their eyes upon the endless, unspeakable joys of another life, and their hearts will find something solid and powerful to move them. The view of heaven and hell will cast a slight upon the short pleasures and pains of this present state, and give attractions and encouragements to virtue which reason and interest, and the care of ourselves, cannot but allow and prefer. Upon this foundation, and upon this only, morality stands firm, and may defy all competition. This makes it more than a name; a substantial good, worth all our aims and endeavours; and thus the gospel of Jesus Christ has delivered it to us. (Locke 1736, 247)

Primary Literature: Works by Locke

Some of the works by Locke listed below can be found in Mark Goldie (ed.), Political Essays , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

• 1663–64, Essays on the Law of Nature , in Goldie (ed.) 1997, 79–133.
• 1680, “Of God’s Justice,” in Goldie (ed.) 1997, 277–278.
• 1686–88, “Of Ethic in General,” in Goldie (ed.) 1997, 297–304.
• 1690, Two Treatises of Government , edited by Peter Laslett, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
• 1692, “Ethica A,” in Goldie (ed.) 1997, 318–319.
• 1700, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , in P.H. Nidditch (ed.), An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , based on the fourth edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.
• 1736, John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity, As deliver’d in the scriptures , London: printed for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, in Paternoster-Row.
• 1742, Familiar Letters between Mr. Locke and Several of his Friends , London: printed for F. Noble, T. Wright and J. Duncan in St. Martin’s Court.

Secondary Literature

• Aaron, Richard I., 1971, John Locke , Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Chappell, Vere, 1994, The Cambridge Companion to Locke , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Cockburn, Catharine Trotter, 1702, “A Defense of Mr. Locke’s Essay of Human Understanding ,” in Catharine Trotter Cockburn: Philosophical Writings , P. Sheridan (ed.), Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2006.
• Colman, John, 1983, John Locke’s Moral Philosophy , Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Darwall, Stephen, 1995, The British Moralists and the Internal Ought: 1640–1740 , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Dunn, John, 1969, The Political Thought of John Locke , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Jolley, Nicholas, 2002, Locke: His Philosophical Thought , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• LoLordo, Antonia, 2012, Locke’s Moral Man , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Rossiter, Elliot, 2016, “Hedonism and Natural Law in Locke’s Moral Philosophy,” in Journal of the History of Philosophy , 54(2): 203–255.
• Schneewind, J.B., 1994, “Locke’s Moral Philosophy,” in Chappell (1994).
• Sheridan, Patricia, 2007, “Pirates, Kings, and Reasons to Act: Moral Motivation and the Role of Sanctions in Locke’s Moral Theory” in Canadian Journal of Philosophy , 37(1): 35–48.
• –––, 2010, Locke: A Guide for the Perplexed , London: Continuum Publishing Group.
• –––, 2015, “Locke’s Latitudinarian Sympathies: an exploration of sentiment in Locke’s moral theory” in Locke Studies , 15: 131–162.
• von Leyden, W., 1954, “Introduction,” in John Locke, Essays on the Law of Nature , W. von Leyden (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon.

How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

• Texts by Locke , at earlymoderntexts.com.

Cockburn, Catharine Trotter | Locke, John | moral motivation | nature of law: natural law theories | property and ownership

Acknowledgments

The editors would like to thank Sally Ferguson for carefully reading this entry and pointing out a number of typographic and other infelicitous errors.

Copyright © 2016 by Patricia Sheridan < pmsherid @ uoguelph . ca >

• Accessibility

Support SEP

Mirror sites.

View this site from another server:

• Info about mirror sites

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is copyright © 2024 by The Metaphysics Research Lab , Department of Philosophy, Stanford University

Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054

MOVING SALE — Save 50% Off Select Books This Month

Moral Essays, Volume I

De Providentia. De Constantia. De Ira. De Clementia

Translated by John W. Basore

Harvard University Press books are not shipped directly to India due to regional distribution arrangements. Buy from your local bookstore, Amazon.co.in, or Flipkart.com.

This book is not shipped directly to country due to regional distribution arrangements.

Pre-order for this book isn't available yet on our website.

This book is currently out of stock.

Edit shipping location

Dropdown items

• Barnes and Noble
• Bookshop.org
• Waterstones

ISBN 9780674992368

Publication date: 01/01/1928

Topics in Stoicism.

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, born at Corduba (Cordova) ca. 4 BC, of a prominent and wealthy family, spent an ailing childhood and youth at Rome in an aunt’s care. He became famous in rhetoric, philosophy, money-making, and imperial service. After some disgrace during Claudius’ reign he became tutor and then, in AD 54, advising minister to Nero, some of whose worst misdeeds he did not prevent. Involved (innocently?) in a conspiracy, he killed himself by order in 65. Wealthy, he preached indifference to wealth; evader of pain and death, he preached scorn of both; and there were other contrasts between practice and principle.

We have Seneca’s philosophical or moral essays (ten of them traditionally called Dialogues)—on providence, steadfastness, the happy life, anger, leisure, tranquility, the brevity of life, gift-giving, forgiveness—and treatises on natural phenomena. Also extant are 124 epistles, in which he writes in a relaxed style about moral and ethical questions, relating them to personal experiences; a skit on the official deification of Claudius, Apocolocyntosis (in LCL 15); and nine rhetorical tragedies on ancient Greek themes. Many epistles and all his speeches are lost.

His moral essays are collected in Volumes I–III of the Loeb Classical Library’s ten-volume edition of Seneca.

• John William Basore (b. 1870) was Professor of Classics at Princeton University.

Book Details

• 4-1/4 x 6-3/8 inches
• Harvard University Press

From this author

Tragedies, Volume I

Tragedies, Volume II

Natural Questions, Volume II

Natural Questions, Volume I

Moral Essays, Volume III

Recommendations.

Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought

Greek Models of Mind and Self

Aristotle’s Modal Syllogistic

Aristotle on Practical Wisdom

The Activity of Being

Sorry, there was an error adding the item to your shopping bag.

Expired session

Sorry, your session has expired. Please refresh your browser's tab.

Main navigation

An item has been added to the cart

Added to shopping bag

• Copy to clipboard

Set your location

It looks like you're in   . Would you like to update your location?

Unavailable

Harvard University Press titles are not shipped directly to India due to local distribution arrangements.

Unavailable in country .

Shopping Bag

Your shopping bag is currently empty. Add items to your shopping bag, to complete check out.

221 Ethical Dilemma Essay Topics & Examples

An ethical dilemma essay has become an essential part of education for many professions that involve working with people. Below, we’ve collected topics for writing a paper on this subject.

🏆 Best Ethical Dilemma Essay Examples & Topics

📌 simple & easy ethical dilemma essay topics, 💡 most interesting ethical dilemma topics to write about, 🎓 good research topics about ethical dilemma, ✍️ ethical dilemma essay topics for college, ❓ questions for ethical dilemmas.

The concepts of ethics and moral dilemmas have originated long ago. They heavily influence the process of decision-making in a variety of fields, from social work and healthcare to a simple office workplace. Thus, you have to approach the ethical dilemma topic carefully. Writing a paper on the phenomenon should rely on locating the available evidence and citing the latest sources.

In this article, our team has gathered titles for your academic essay. Besides, with our tips and ethical dilemma paper examples, you will understand how to research and write it.

Emotional intelligence essays are an essential part of education for many professions that involve working with people, such as managers and teachers.

The concept is somewhat new, having been first introduced half a century ago and popularized at the end of the last century.

As such, you have to approach the topic carefully and rely on the latest available evidence to avoid citing outdated ideas.

Furthermore, as with any psychology-related topic, you should exhibit general caution and avoid the numerous pitfalls associated with the study of the human mind.

This article will help you understand what you should or should not do to write an excellent paper.

Here are some further tips for your work:

• Psychology relies on scenarios where a person’s behavior can be as free of outside factors as possible. Toddler observation and scholarly experiments with carefully selected conditions are excellent examples of such situations, and you should use them to ground your descriptions in reality.
• Be sure to adhere to academic guidelines, avoiding the use of first person, calls to action, and other additions that do not match the format. This approach is useful in general, as it applies to most essays and will be beneficial for future reports and similar submissions.
• Write an emotional intelligence essay introduction and conclusion at the end of your paper. They make your work easier to read by giving it structure and direction. The introduction should contain a description of the topic and a thesis statement, and the conclusion should sum up the main points.
• Try to set a central theme and address it in your essay instead of providing a general overview of the topic. There are many emotional intelligence essay questions that can be answered in considerable detail. As such, you should concentrate on one of them without getting distracted and sidetracked.

Come to IvyPanda for ethical dilemma essay examples as well as various titles that will help you begin your writing process!

• An Ethical Dilemma Faced by Nestle: Case Analysis International staffing and development help Nestle to organize human resources in accordance with the needs of the company and its strategic goals.
• BP Oil Company Ethical Dilemma The damages caused by the spill originated from the effects of the oil on the environment and the damaging effects of the cleanup activities.
• Ethical Dilemmas in Criminal Justice If one is to discuss the issue with the senior management of the organization in which the crime occurred, there is a high chance that the issue will not be taken as seriously due to […]
• Ethical Dilemma of Child Abuse In the above example, a nurse has to apply rational judgment to analyze the extent and threats when making decisions in the best interest of the victim of child abuse.
• The Ford Pinto Case and Ethical Dilemma Lee Iacocca, the Ford company’s president, was accused of disregarding the need to improve the safety of Pinto cars due to the increased cost.
• “Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice” by Pollock If hunting is the primary means of survival of a particular society, the euthanasia of the elderly and the sick can be deemed acceptable.
• Public Administration Ethical Dilemma and Theories Smith should take the responsibility of ensuring that the needs of the majority are upheld since the welfare of the community, and the organization is of importance.
• Ethical Dilemma: Example, Problem, and Solution Secondly, I was supposed to show other employees that no one is above the policies of this company and if anyone commits a mistake the individual must be punished.
• Family Therapy: Ethical Dilemmas One of the ethical dilemmas in the case is that of deciding whether or not to disclose the information about Breen’s relationship with her boyfriend to her parents.
• Ethical Dilemma in Nursing Case Study Today, being a nurse is associated with a number of complexities due to the need to comply with diverse obligations in social, political, and healthcare segments.
• Ethical Dilemmas in Counselling and Treatment Methods The case of Brett has become an ethical issue based on the following; questions are revolving around what information can be released to the parents and parents request to review the diagnosis since no procedure […]
• Early Childhood Education Center’s Ethical Dilemma Therefore, it is necessary to involve different people in the discussion of this case because there are several ethical responsibilities applied to a new child, the children of the class, the staff, parents, and the […]
• Cultural Clash in the Board Room: An Ethical Dilemma Among Top Management in Almond China The first option he has is to resign from the company because he says that one of the reasons that motivated him to join the company is the values and standards the company up holds.
• Ethical Dilemmas in Social Workers’ Practice In order to resolve the emerging dilemma, it is necessary to identify the involved stakeholders, model two possible courses of events, evaluate the implications of each and come to a conclusion regarding the preferential option […]
• Richard Angelo: A Serial Killer and His Ethical Dilemma The convicted claimed he made the injections to cause crises to be able to revive patients and become a hero in front of his colleagues.
• Ethical Dilemmas Facing Teachers The proponents of this system claim that it is authentic and offers a first hand experience to the learners. The needs in this system include having a strong foundation in the areas that the knowledge […]
• Ethical Dilemmas Surrounding Self-Driving Cars The video taken showed that the driver in the car was shocked and could not do anything to save the woman.
• Samsung’s Ethical Dilemma of Child Labor The paper will critically analyze the ethical dimensions of the dilemma from the perspective of the utilitarian ethical theory. It will be argued that according to the fundamental principles of the theory, the company’s behavior […]
• Ethical Dilemma: Counselors Engaging in Relations with Clients They should keep a boundary in the way they relate to the clients to ensure that their relationship with the client does no harm or pose potential harm to the clients.
• Ethical Dilemma: The Missing Needle Protector Health care professionals and patients have to develop a level of trust to support the recovery process for patients and the status of the hospital.
• Abortion: An Ethical Dilemma and Legal Position The core concerns in the controversy are whether women should have the right to decide to terminate a pregnancy or whether the unborn child has the right to life.
• The Ethical Dilemma: Siemens In relation to the above dilemmas, the bounded bribery applies to the psychological tendency of the conspirators to fulfill selfish interests of self enrichment at the expense of the shareholders’ goals and objectives.
• Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare Institutions The interviewee outlined the major strategies used to handle ethical dilemmas in the healthcare facility. The supervisor will be required to assess the impact of the ethical or legal dilemma.
• Domestic Violence Ethical Dilemmas in Criminal Justice Various ethical issues such as the code of silence, the mental status of the offender, and limited evidence play a vital role in challenging the discretion of police officers in arresting the DV perpetrators.
• Ethical Dilemmas Overview and Analysis This student should be advised to report the matter to a teacher so that the owner of the iPod can be traced.
• Ethical Dilemma With the Bank Teller On the other hand, the bank calls for honesty in service and client protection, and given that the teller took the money without permission from an inactive account belonging to a customer it is professionally […]
• Ethical Dilemma in the Psychologists Career Therefore, the dilemma that I faced as a school psychologist dealing with the psychological issues of Ayesha has been the ethical choice needed to be taken between what is good and what is wrong that […]
• Arranged Marriage and Its Ethical Dilemma His family would be happy to see him married to the person they chose, and his father would save his reputation.
• Ethical Dilemmas: An Analysis of Two Cases In the case of IVF, such a procedure is prohibited according to Joe and Mary’s religion which means that they must not engage in it.
• Ethical Dilemma in Journalism A good example is the clause in the code of ethics that states that reporters are supposed to show reverence to the privacy and dignity of the public.
• Ethical Dilemma of Patient Care Delivery However, the administration of more pain depressants is likely to escalate the addiction problem while the denial of the medication will aggravate the patient’s suffering.
• Ethical Dilemma of Law Enforcement Code of Ethics Police officers are the example for citizens of the country which they serve, and they should correspond to the position which is occupied.
• The Acme Title Pawn Employee’s Ethical Dilemma While the situation is controversial, it can be stated that Joe should change the workplace and explain to his family the reasons for such a decision.
• The Unocal Firm’s Ethical Dilemma in Burma The oil corporation was eager to investigate oil potential in Burma, a place that the rest of the world had abandoned due to several problems.
• An Ethical Dilemma and Lapse in Business An ethical dilemma and lapse differ in the people’s motivation driving decisions. Meanwhile, an ethical lapse occurs due to an unethical conversation involving selective quoting and misleading audiences.
• Truth vs. Loyalty: Tinkov’s Ethical Dilemma Moreover, his pacifist text and critique of the Russian aggression and dictatorship made Tinkov’s life unsafe. He chose truthfulness and freedom from greed over political loyalty and the well-being of his business.
• Ethical Dilemmas in Workplace Analysis Therefore, the main purpose of this project is to explore the types of dilemmas and the factors that affect the workers response to the dilemmas in a workplace.
• The Ethical Dilemma in Nursing One of the most common ethical dilemmas that advanced practice nurses face is the lack of consent on the part of the patient.
• An Ethical Dilemma – Religious Belief Versus Medical Practice In the first step, the ethical dilemma is between the principle of beneficence in the treatment of meningitis and the principle of autonomy with respect to the decision of the parents.
• Ethical Dilemma in “The Reader” Film by S. Daldry She is surprised and confused by the hypocrisy of the judges and her co-defendants, who act as if they do not remember that period and as if they were not part of that society.
• Joe Smith and Bill Bateman: Ethical Dilemma Analysis Indeed, their cooperation is attributed with the features of gray zone business conduct where the boundaries between the personal and the business issues are blurred.
• Hyundai Dispatch Workers and Ethical Dilemma According to the workers, the leadership of Hyundai was responsible for the safety of the employees at the workplace. The representatives of the temporary employees occupied the company requiring changes in the employment terms.
• Ethical Dilemma & Glyphosate: Post Foods Company In this case, some experts believe that it is a vivid instance of the unethical business practices, as Post Foods’s consumers do not expect to find any pesticides in the products that are overtly advertised […]
• “Ethical Dilemmas in MNCs’ International Staffing Policies” by Banai and Sama The paper assumes that in the age of the rise of global international corporations international staffing policies acquire the top priority because of their impact on outcomes.
• Possible Solutions to the Ethical Dilemmas This varied, different group of the workforce is being required to work harmoniously jointly in the strength of teamwork and respect for the advantage of the company and the public they deal with.
• Ethical Dilemmas in the Nursing Field As a human, I felt that the safety of the lady took precedence; hence I could not allow her to walk alone. As a nurse leader, I would encourage my staff to always put the […]
• Ethical Dilemma: Swimming Pool Building This is evident when the contractor conducts the private work of the mayor without any delay, as well as the birthday gift that the contractor advances to the mayor as a friend.
• Ethical Dilemma in Law Enforcement: Confidentiality and Misuse of Information Additionally, Badpenny’s choice to reveal private information was affected by the organizational structure of the University City Police Department and the Grantham County Sheriff’s Office.
• Ethical Dilemma of Stopping City Authority In this scenario, the ethical dilemma is balancing the duty to enforce the law with the potential harm that could be caused by a public arrest of a fellow officer.
• Ethical Dilemma Analysis: Criminal Justice Case The publicity of the case added another layer of complexity to the decision, as either verdict would alienate a part of the population.
• The Ethical Dilemma of Navigating Disagreements in Nursing Care Disputes arise when nurses have different opinions on the type, frequency, and effectiveness of specific care options for a patient due to the differences in their scope of practice and focus.
• Ethical Dilemma in Healthcare: Privacy and the Right to Know Moreover, the staff cannot ignore the fact that Tina is likely to be wrong in her decision not to reveal the diagnosis to Victoria.
• Ethical Dilemmas Regarding Rape and Abortion Therefore, this paper discusses the module 8 case study and related cases regarding rape and abortion, applying dialectical thinking to the module 8 case and why Mary in the case study should not undergo abortion […]
• Hiring the Previously Convicted Cybercriminals: Ethical Dilemma The deontological theory focuses not on the consequences of an act but on the intentions and desire of a person to act for the benefit of others.
• Ethical Dilemmas Hindering Provision of Health Services in Tanzania The strikes have always been linked to two issues: 1) the working conditions of doctors, including infrastructure, the availability of medicines, equipment, and other medical supplies, and 2) the underpayment of wages and benefits.
• Analysis of Ethical Dilemma: Euthanasia One of these is the right to live, which includes much more than the ability to simply exist, and suggests an adherence to a minimum of quality and self-determination.
• Researching of IT Ethical Dilemmas In addition, there are Notified Data Breach Laws that oblige businesses and CSPs to report the incident to the government and all users of the service and customers in the event of a data breach.
• The Legal and Ethical Dilemma in Dental Health The objective side of the crime in the case of silencing the incompetence of a colleague in dentistry is expressed in the failure to fulfill the duties of the statement to the appropriate authorities.
• Ethical Dilemmas: Cases Analysis In the case of Joe and Marie, natural law theory also demonstrates that ethically the IVF procedure is morally justified for several reasons.
• Ethical Dilemma of Parental Refusal From Children’s Vaccination Kerry attempts to convince the Smiths of the relevance of vaccination in preventing infection by chronic diseases. Autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice are ethical principles applicable in resolving the moral issue of whether or not […]
• Ethical Dilemma of Saving Customers’ Personal Information The key point of the action was to be in line with the company’s code of ethics and, at the same time, show the wrongdoing of the colleague’s action to himself.
• Ethical Dilemma: Gun Violence Discussion The teaching of access or locked on the presence of weapons in people for a long time is a reason for discussion.
• Legal-Ethical Dilemma in Nursing An example of an urgent legal-ethical dilemma is the one reported and described by a practicing nurse and a patient, Marylyn.
• Global Poverty: The Ethical Dilemma Unfortunately, a significant obstacle to such global reforms is that many economic systems are based on the concept of inequality and exploitation.
• Ethical Dilemma of a 2016 TV Commercial for Milk by Juhayna At the end of the ad, the creators claim that Juhayna’s milk is the best in Egypt after Dondou. The message presented in the advertisement can influence the decision of mothers to stop breastfeeding, which […]
• Nurses’ Ethical Dilemmas in the Work Environment According to the scenario of Mr. According to the scenario of Mr.
• The Concept of Ethical Dilemmas To evaluate this, such professionals should be subject to constant psychological and physical monitoring, observing the degree of their suitability for work.
• Ethical Dilemma of Abortion Triumphalism In this issue and other matters, the affected person’s experience may not be a determining factor for the expression of opinion but is unique.
• Self-Determination and Ethical Dilemma of Assisted Suicide The reason for both euthanasia and assisted suicide, the difference between which is in who actively ends the life, the doctor or the patient, is ending unbearable pain.
• Ethical Dilemma Regarding Forced Vaccination It seems that people are already used to restrictive measures from the government and have accepted the need to use masks in public places, but the introduction of compulsory vaccination and the resulting bans proved […]
• Ethical Dilemma: The Case Study Thus, a difficult dilemma emerged for Ali, who by eating the meal would violate his religious obligations and by refusing it would show disrespect to the hosts, and especially the mother of the colleague.
• Ethical Dilemmas in Public Health Such an action could be unwelcomed by the health agencies, and their employees, but, at the same time, the research needs to depict an accurate analysis of the performance of the health programs.
• The Ethical Dilemma in Guantanamo Bay Prison in the USA In Guantanamo Bay, it is the role of soldiers to ensure justice and protection of human rights. However, the housing of these prisoners and the condition of the Guantanamo Bay detainee camp is ethical.
• Ethical Dilemma and Ethics and Honest Reporting And adhering to the principle of rights, professions have an ethical duty to evaluate the consequences of a particular decision they make in relation to the rights of other people.
• The Ethical Dilemma on Abortion From the perspective of the Christian philosophy, a person is a product and manifestation of the love of God, hence the sanctity of any human life.
• Ethical Dilemma at Abura Petrol Station He felt grateful to his friend for offering a job and wanted to meet the hopes of the petrol network’s owner.
• Civil-Military Tension as Ethical Dilemma The first is to accept the situation as it is without questions, strictly following the orders and observing the limitations of their inferior position as consultants to the government.
• Aspects of Media Ethical Dilemmas While all three sources have a goal of informing the audience of Burrous’s passing, the extent to which they unveil the details differs depending on the context, the source’s relation to the anchor, and the […]
• Ethical Dilemma: Benefiting from High-Conflicting Personality The primary reason for the potential ignorance of one’s wrongdoing is the positive consequences of their actions that outweigh the total harm they bring.
• Ethical Dilemma. Legal Protection for Employee On the other hand, the leaving colleague might have a change of heart and remain with the original company, so revealing the plans to the boss will affect his opportunities.
• Abortion as Moral and Ethical Dilemma Despite the conflicting approaches to solving the moral and ethical dilemma of abortion, experts agree that it is possible to reduce the severity of the problem with the help of more excellent sexual education of […]
• Ethical Dilemma Analysis: Easyriders v. Hannigan Hunnigan represents the case of California motorcyclists filing a suit against the Commissioner of California Highway Patrol for the purpose of permanent injunction against stopping motorcyclists on the ground of officer’s subjective opinion that helmets […]
• Contemporary Ethical Reflection: Ethical and Legal Dilemmas in Health Care The counties also blamed the state for being ignorant of the problem of adequate financing of the Medicaid program on supporting the poor and disables.
• Ethical Dilemmas in the Hiibel Legal Case in Nevada The search had a reasonable suspicion since, during the investigation of the assault, Hiibel was within the area of search, and when he was asked his name, he failed to answer the police officer.
• Baby and Mother: End of Life Ethical Dilemma To sum the above mentioned, it should be mentioned that patients, physicians, and caregivers face a lot of dilemmas in regards to life situations.
• Unethical Practices: Michael Jackson, Ethical Dilemma The case between the people and the king of pop, Michael Jackson, elicited two main ethical concerns: the passion of the prosecutor to convict the defendant and the possibility of the prosecutor to be an […]
• Noting the Error in Projections: Scott Bestor’s Ethical Dilemma The second ethical issue is balancing the expectations of the management and the consequences of reporting the error in projections. Scott is aware that reporting the error to the management might result in disciplinary action […]
• Behavior of a Police Officer Within an Ethical Dilemma First and foremost, one should note that one of the most typical ethical concerns in the relevant field is the cases of discrimination on the ground of the national origin.
• Ethical Dilemma in Nursing Practice The psychologist can help the patient deal with the emotional aspect of pain. These skills empower the patient to cope with the pain and the side effects of treatment.
• Accounting: Ethical Dilemmas Equally, I will consider the repercussions of agreeing to the command. I will also consider being a whistleblower and report the matter to the relevant authorities.
• Ethical Dilemma in Nursing Finding a solution to the ethical issues in Max’s case was important because failure to do so would have different consequences for the patient, the parents, and the caregivers.
• Moral, Ethical and Legal Dilemmas of Suicide Since it is a duty of medical practitioners to treat and care for patients, it would be immoral to allow a patient to commit suicide.
• Asthma and Medications: The Ethical Dilemma in Treating Children One of the major causes of dilemma, however, is the inability to manage and treat the condition in children under the age of 7 years due to ethical dilemma.
• Ethical and Moral Dilemmas in Accounting and Business Entities This may paint a wrong picture of the actual position of the company and may lead to collapsing if irregularities are not addressed as in the case of Enron.
• Ethical Dilemma for Sam Torres In this case, it is possible to distinguish several ethical issues: 1) the conflict between Sam’s professional principles and his private interest such as desire to retain his job; 2) the interests of Bull & […]
• Ethical Dilemmas That Practitioners Face in the Company According to the findings of the commission, it was discovered that ethical issues affecting the police body has to do with process corruption, issue of gratuities and improper associations, substance abuse, fraudulent practices, assaults and […]
• Ethical Dilemmas in Business Processes Henry on the other hand is a manager and we are not told whether his organization is prepared to allow all staff to make use of such offers as that which Claire has provided in […]
• Virtue Ethics: One Way to Resolve an Ethical Dilemma Other members of the usability team argue that although there was a clear loophole that the external members can choose to exploit so that they can be released from the work that they need to […]
• Ethical Dilemmas Within Organisations During the COVID-19 The moral analysis of the acts of the management of Britannia Hotel can also be analyzed based on the ethics of duties with an emphasis on the individual.
• Ethical Dilemma: Parental Notification The main issue that is to be addressed is that the boy asks the counselor not to notify his parents about the drug problem, but is it ethical to keep this information confidential?
• Abortion: Ethical Dilemma in Pope John Paul II’s View This paper tries to examine the abortion ethical dilemma from the lens of the Pope’s thoughts and proposals. Towards the end of the 20th century, new ideas and thoughts began to emerge in different parts […]
• LinkedIn Ethical Dilemma The candidates most likely to be recruited by the employers using the LinkedIn website are the premium account holders whose applications appear at the top of the applications pile.
• The Ethical Dilemma: Aborting Babies With Handicaps The standard for such a condition is the elimination of the fetus and the doctor prescribed it as the only solution that would save the other of the twins.
• NASW Code of Ethics: Social Workers and Ethical Dilemmas As part of my action, I accessed her files and changed the date that she was to leave the facility by adding a month to it. However, I had acted professionally because it was in […]
• Resolving Ethical Dilemmas Considering that this may be an argument between younger and older generations, one can argue that there is a significant difference between the way that both house owners and the person that wants to buy […]
• Ethical Dilemmas in Mental Health Treatment Treatment of inmates with psychological problems is a delicate and sensitive process because such inmates are not in the normal state to reason.
• Empress Luxury Lines: Ethical Dilemma The dilemma infringes on Antonio’s principles and values because he thinks that the conduct of the company is not by the insurance company’s policies and principles and that, the management team should face the law.
• The Ethical Dilemma by Pureco Corporation As the Pureco manager, I have the obligation of maximizing the stakeholders’ welfare, and considering that the company had already invested quite a huge sum of money in the establishment and marketing of the Newpen […]
• Ethical Dilemma Concepts on Example Phoebe’s Case In order to protect her rights, the council should not interfere with her applications on the basis of what Phoebe did. In addition to punishment, she should be made to repeat the assignment and submit […]
• Ethical Dilemmas: Morgan Brown Real Estate Company In the case of the latter ethical dilemma, it would be more effective and honest for this particular company to accept the fact that favouring one client over the other could lead to a tarnished […]
• The Tobacco Marketing Ethical Dilemma The epidemiological evidence of the deadly tobacco effect in 1964 set the precedence for the mistrust between the tobacco production stakeholders and the public interest groups, that has led to long battle between the two […]
• Organ Donation: Ethical Dilemmas An example of an ethical dilemma surrounding the procedure is the case of rich man vs.poor man, or rather, the case of a person who can afford to buy an organ on the black market […]
• Dementia: Ethical Dilemmas Opting to withdraw the tube may lead to the physiological deprivation of the patient and as a result, the worst-case scenario is the death of the patient.
• Ethical Dilemma: Solving a Situation, Decision Theory Under business ethics, this is a form of art which is said to examine the ethical principles or even the moral problems which might tend to occur as a result of running the business and […]
• Ethical Dilemma in Mental Health Patient Care My ethical response to the situation was that Catherine should only be attended to by the female staff especially when she was naked and that only the female staff needed to have access to the […]
• Google Inc.’s Historical Ethical Dilemmas It is sad to say that various forms of unethical behavior are common in the workforce, and specific analysis is required to determine the impact of this phenomenon on the business industry.
• Performance-Enhancing Drugs Use as Ethical Dilemma According to Christian beliefs, Paul should refuse to partake in the team’s abuse of PEDs because it offers him and his teammates an unfair advantage over other athletes.
• Medical Ethical Dilemmas: Taking a Stand Morality is the idea of correctness and rightness that is constructed on people’s experiences and applied to the life of society.
• Ethical Advertising: Dilemmas and Resolutions One of the core aspects that should not be overlooked is that the number of competitors is going to increase significantly, and it is entirely possible that the company will suffer because of such policies.
• Post-Dated Cheque Ethical Dilemma in Accounting First, the recipients of the delayed check will lose interest corresponding to the duration of the delay. In this scenario, Tabitha will be held responsible for the unethical actions and the incurrence of losses by […]
• Wasta (Nepotism) Ethical Dilemma at the Workplace Moreover, with the present social costs in our society that have arisen through the use of wasta, it is impossible to justify the use of wasta in hiring and performing business transactions.
• Ethical Dilemma on the Company Valuation Mistake I could inform my team and the company boards of the said mistake; I could inform the team but keep the company in the dark, or I could ignore the mistake altogether.
• Flight 93 Incident and Ethical Dilemma This paper evaluates the ethical standing of this question from a utilitarian point of view to establish the rightness or wrongness of the decision to shoot down the plane before it crashed.
• Police Corruption and Citizen’s Ethical Dilemma There are three key stakeholders in the given situation, which are the policemen, who set the terms; the father, who is to take the pivoting decision; and the family, who depends on the decision which […]
• Poverty in America: An Ethical Dilemma In contrast, a considerable percentage of the populations believe the society has the moral obligation to eradicate poverty, and thus, they hold the view that the solution to poverty reduction lies in the socioeconomic policies.
• Ethical Dilemma Involving a Social Worker As a social worker, I have to decide whether to support the community group, which is unanimously opposed to the decision of the housing authorities to rent to the local mental health department to establish […]
• Ethical Dilemmas in the “21” Movie At the beginning of the movie, we mistakenly take his attitude for granted, but the development of the plot discloses the negative consequences of the Professor’s actions.
• Suicidal Ideation as Ethical Dilemma in Nursing According to the ethical guidelines that govern the profession of a nurse and other health care providers, their primary role is to protect life by enhancing the status of wellness of the patient.
• California Micro Devices Company: Ethical Dilemma In 1989, Price Waterhouse, the firm’s chief auditor, observed that the company was engaging in questionable accounting practices and business dealings.
• Ethical Dilemma and Environmental Surveillance Companies, for example, Planet Labs and Digital Globe have dispatched many miniaturized satellites in the most recent year with the objective of recording the status of the whole earth in real-time.
• ProTech Company’s Ethical Dilemma According to the analysis of the data performed by Staci, the company seems to be having a high potential for growth over the next half-decade.
• Ethical Dilemma in Business Communication Today This paper explores this dilemma in terms of the extent to which a firm may abide by the ethical provisions against the backdrop of the heightening competition.
• Patient’s Secret Revelation: Ethical Dilemma She had to choose whether to hide the information, which she had received from a cancer patient and which was relevant to the treatment, from other nurses and doctors or to reveal it despite the […]
• Ethical Dilemmas in Prison’s Research The present paper aims to discuss the applicability of confidentiality and privacy provisions to prison research by addressing both the general rules regarding confidentiality of information in research and the specific considerations that apply to […]
• The Right to Die: Legal and Ethical Dilemma Consequently, the primary goal of the paper is to discover the freedoms of a patient, specifically, the right to die with the help of a controversial and confusing case of Mrs.
• Teacher’s Ethical Dilemma and Legal Responsibilities However, she is legally obligated not to leak exams to her students in any way because that would defeat the very purpose of the exams.
• HBOS Plc Company’s Ethical Dilemma The ethical dilemma in the case is that the top management of the company used complex nature of the financial statements and the weaknesses in the accounting standards to manipulate the financial records with an […]
• Employee’s Role in Ethical Dilemma Jan is aware of the possible layoffs at JLT that could affect Steve, and she knows the expenses that Steve, unaware of the resolution by the leadership, is about to make in building a house […]
• Ethical Dilemma: Political Involvement in Abortion The development of medicine brought the issue to the fore in the late 19th century. Therefore, it is but natural that it is the right of a woman to make the choice.
• KLM Company Responsibilities Ethical Dilemma To ensure that the expansion plan remained alive, the director suggested that a small team of employees should be a commission to start surveying the new market to identify the location where the firm would […]
• Medical Error Disclosure: Ethical Dilemma The topic in question was chosen due to the obvious conflict between the interests of the patient and the population, in general, which medical ethics supposedly protects, and the interests of the provider, who is […]
• Ethical Dilemmas in Rural Communities The fact that the rural area is different from the urban one has resulted in the creation of rural criminology. The ethical dilemmas that can arise in the process of working in rural areas for […]
• Ethical Dilemma in the Workplace Her partner is adamant, which means she should overlook the guidelines and influence the audit to reflect an outcome that will be good for both her career and the company.
• SuperCom Company Ethical Dilemma This section of the paper shows that the lack of informed consent, failure to report the ethical issue to authorities, and integrity issues are the possible ethical pitfalls in the case study.
• Livestrong and Apple Companies Ethical Dilemmas The USADA probe against Lance Armstrong was not in any way related to the work of the Foundation and its mission for cancer patients and their families.
• Journalism Ethical Dilemma: Moral Discourse This situation resulted in an ethical dilemma for the journalist who has to decide whether to publish the article about the accident and potentially dangerous products or to take the money and remain silent.
• “Erin Brockovich” Movie Ethical Dilemma The response of the company when it became apparent that the chromium was causing cancer was to hide the evidence regarding their operations and its connection to the increased rates of cancer.
• Engineers and Ethical Dilemmas Recently in the Kenyan media there was a situation in which a road engineer had been approached by the government to aid in the design and construction of a road in the Langata area.
• Solving Ethical Dilemmas in Public Relations In the case study, the main problem arises from the client’s deceit concerning the independent nature of the scientist testing the products in a bid to ensure a favorable public image of the products to […]
• Government and Organisational Regulation: Ethical Dilemmas Costas will be sure of getting good business in the future considering the fact that Dionisis is the Mayor and he is usually in charge of most contracts.
• Topics in Ethical Dilemma: When the Choice Becomes too Complicated To solve the given issue, the principle of consequentialist theories can be used, i.e, the rightness of the employees’ actions can be evaluated only by its results.
• Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go” and Major Ethical Dilemmas Raised Some claim that since clones are created in a laboratory with the help of specific tools and with the number of certain genes, they cannot be regarded as humans. In conclusion, it is necessary to […]
• International Satellite Images Ethical Dilemma Comprehensively, when the code of ethics is entrenched as part of ISI’s business culture, the company would have a seamless process for managing ethical dilemmas.
• Reporting Inflated Numbers: Ethical Dilemma From an ethical perspective, Barbara and the management team of the company conspired to inflate the asset values, overstate the reported income, and eliminate the liabilities from the financial reporting.
• Ethical Dilemmas in The Case of Wilma The case of Wilma, a counselor in a community agency, and Donna who is a client suffering from an anxiety disorder and panic attack is a real dilemma. The most appropriate course of action in […]
• Ethical Dilemma: Participation in Volunteer Activities Even though Carolyn Clark was forced by her boss to volunteer her services to the charity program, she ought to realize that there is a need to help the needy in society.
• Public Scrutiny and Accountability: An Ethical Dilemma The idea of loyalty according to the governor meant that all the employees would have to portray his administration in the best light.
• Huntington’s Disease and Ethics In the case of predictive genetic testing for HD, clinicians and other health care team members must consider the benefit to the patient.
• Ethical and Integrity Dilemma Within Employees in the Global Economy In the case of China, which is one of the most sought after destinations in the world for outsourcing manufacturing services, the business culture within the country considers CSR to be a foreign and “alien” […]
• Ethical and Moral Dilemma: McDonald’s Due to the power of self-interests, McDonald’s should focus on its objectives, which is to increase the wealth of its owners rather than distributing its revenues to people.
• End of life: the medical ethical dilemma
• Ethics in Professional Psychology: Abortion Issue
• Drug-Testing: Utilitarian Theory Ethical Dilemma
• Role of Codes of Conduct in Child Labour Practice
• Ethical Dilemma in Medical Practice
• Ethical Dilemma of Psychologist
• Workplace Health & Safety: The Ethical Dilemmas
• Ethical Dilemma at the CornCo Company
• Animal Testing: Ethical Dilemmas in Business
• Ethical Dilemma- The Fate of Opel
• Ethical Dilemma: “A weak Dollar Versus A strong Yuan”
• Ethical Dilemma: Heroin Prescription
• Ethical Dilemma: the Husband’s Right to Confidential Treatment
• Decision Making Challenges Facing Ethical Dilemma
• Globalization and Its Impact on the Health Care System: Ethical Dilemmas of Medical Treatment
• Ethical Dilemma in Healthcare Administration
• Ethical Dilemma in Accepting or Rejecting of Offers
• The Ethical Dilemma – How to Make the Right Decision
• What Are the Examples of Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Are Some Examples of Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace?
• What Are the Oil Industry and Climate Change Strategies and Ethical Dilemmas?
• Which Scenarios Are the Examples of True Ethics Dilemmas?
• What Are the Most Difficult Ethical Dilemmas People Can Face?
• How Do You Identify Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Are the Examples of Ethical Dilemmas in School?
• What Are Some Examples of Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare?
• What Are the Seven Major Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing Practice?
• What Are Some Common Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Is the Difference between Ethical Issues and Ethical Dilemmas?
• How Does a Person Resolve Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Are the Ethical Dilemmas in Telephone Nursing?
• What Are the Four Core Ethical Dilemmas Social Work Is Concerned With?
• What Is Another Term for Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Are Nurses’ Contributions to the Resolution of Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Are the Four Steps for Solving Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Are the Ethical Dilemmas of War?
• What Are the Ethical Dilemmas in the Military?
• What Are Ethical Dilemmas in a Community?
• What Are the Ethical Dilemmas in Various Stages of Organizational Development?
• What Are Some Ethical Dilemmas for Students?
• What are the Ethical Dilemmas and Dominant Moral Strategies in Games?
• What Are the Ethical Dilemmas in a Classroom?
• What Are Ethical Dilemmas in University?
• Is the Marketization of Education the Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Is the Anatomy of the Ethical Dilemmas?
• What Ethical Dilemmas Arose Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic?
• What Are the Ethical Dilemmas in a Cross-Cultural Context?
• What Is the Frequency of Ethical Dilemmas in a Medical Inpatient Service?
• Social Development Essay Topics
• Social Justice Essay Ideas
• Ethics Ideas
• Social Norms Essay Ideas
• Social Responsibility Topics
• Capital Punishment Topics
• Human Rights Essay Ideas
• Euthanasia Titles
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 28). 221 Ethical Dilemma Essay Topics & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ethical-dilemma-essay-examples/

"221 Ethical Dilemma Essay Topics & Examples." IvyPanda , 28 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ethical-dilemma-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '221 Ethical Dilemma Essay Topics & Examples'. 28 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "221 Ethical Dilemma Essay Topics & Examples." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ethical-dilemma-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "221 Ethical Dilemma Essay Topics & Examples." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ethical-dilemma-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "221 Ethical Dilemma Essay Topics & Examples." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ethical-dilemma-essay-examples/.

• We are hiring!
• Cornell Open
• Guest Lecturers

Also of Interest

Essay on Morality

Students are often asked to write an essay on Morality in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Morality

What is morality.

Morality is about knowing right from wrong. It’s like an invisible rule book that guides us to be good people. Everyone has different ideas about what is moral because we grow up in different places with different beliefs.

Morals in Our Lives

We use morals every day. When we share our toys, tell the truth, or help someone who is hurt, we are showing good morals. Our family, friends, and teachers help us learn these good actions.

Morals and Society

Morals keep society running smoothly. They are like the glue that holds people together. Without morals, there would be more fighting and unhappiness.

Learning Morals

We learn morals from the people around us. Books, stories, and even movies can teach us what is right and wrong. It’s important to keep learning about morals to become better people.

250 Words Essay on Morality

Why is morality important.

Morality is important because it guides us in making choices that are good for everyone. It teaches us to treat others kindly and to be honest. When we follow moral rules, we make our families, schools, and communities better places. It’s like playing a game where everyone knows the rules and plays fairly – the game is more fun that way.

Where Does Morality Come From?

People learn about what is right and wrong from their families, schools, and the society they live in. Some moral rules are written in laws, and others are things we just know in our hearts. For example, sharing with others is not a law, but it is a kind thing to do.

Challenges with Morality

Sometimes it’s hard to know what the right thing to do is. Different people or cultures might have different ideas about morality. The key is to think about how your actions affect others and to choose to be kind and fair.

Morality is like the glue that holds people together. It helps us know how to act so that we can all get along and be happy. It’s important for everyone to try their best to be moral and do the right thing.

500 Words Essay on Morality

Morality is about knowing the difference between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. It is a set of rules that we live by. These rules can come from our family, religion, or society. They guide us to be good people and to treat others well.

Why Morality is Important

Different kinds of morals.

There are many kinds of morals because people come from different places and have different beliefs. Some people think it’s very important to be honest, while others think being kind is the most important. But most people agree on some basic things, like not hurting others, not stealing, and treating others as we want to be treated.

Learning About Morality

We learn about morality from when we are very young. Our parents teach us to share and to say “sorry” when we do something wrong. At school, teachers tell us about being fair and not cheating. We also learn from stories and movies that show heroes being brave and doing the right thing.

Morality and Choices

Morality and feelings.

Morality is not just about rules; it’s also about feelings. When we do something good, we feel happy and proud. When we do something bad, we might feel sad or guilty. These feelings help us know if our choices match our morals.

Challenges to Morality

Sometimes, it’s hard to be moral. Maybe we are tempted to do something wrong because it seems easier or because we might get something we want. It can also be hard when people around us are not being moral. But sticking to our morals, even when it’s tough, makes us strong and respected.

Morality in the Future

In conclusion, morality is like a compass that guides us through life. It helps us know which way is right and which way is wrong. By following our moral compass, we can live in a way that is good for us and for everyone around us. Remember, being moral is not always easy, but it is always worth it.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Project Gutenberg
• 74,242 free eBooks
• 15 by Alexander Pope

An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires by Alexander Pope

Read now or download (free!)

Similar Books

About this ebook.

• Privacy policy
• About Project Gutenberg
• Terms of Use
• Contact Information

Essays Moral, Political, Literary (LF ed.)

• David Hume (author)
• Eugene F. Miller (editor)

This edition of Hume’s much neglected philosophical essays contains the thirty-nine essays included in Essays, Moral, and Literary , that made up Volume I of the 1777 posthumous Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects . It also includes ten essays that were withdrawn or left unpublished by Hume for various reasons. The two most important were deemed too controversial for the religious climate of his time.

• EBook PDF This text-based PDF or EBook was created from the HTML version of this book and is part of the Portable Library of Liberty.
• Facsimile PDF This is a facsimile or image-based PDF made from scans of the original book.

Essays Moral, Political, Literary, edited and with a Foreword, Notes, and Glossary by Eugene F. Miller, with an appendix of variant readings from the 1889 edition by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, revised edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987).

The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion

Related Collections:

• Political Theory
• Classics of Liberty
• Books Published by Liberty Fund

Related People

Smith and Hume, great friends, found common ground in each of their conceptions of human morality. Many of Hume’s ideas, like his defense of free trade, inspired Smith’s work.

Friends in the Enlightenment period, Hume and Rousseau radically challenged popular beliefs of the Age of Reason.

Both Hume and Descartes explored the foundation of our beliefs and the limitations of human reason.

Politics & Liberty

Critical Responses

Paul Guyer engages Immanuel Kant’s responses to David Hume’s work—Kant critiques Hume while also being influenced by his metaphysical claims.

Connected Readings

Dennis C. Rasmussen

Rasmussen’s book covers the fascinating personal and ideological relationship between David Hume and Adam Smith.

Dennis Rasmussen and Russ Roberts

EconTalk Podcast

Political Scientist Dennis Rasmussen of Tufts University and author of The Infidel and the Professor talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his book–the intellectual and personal connections between two of the greatest thinkers of all time, David Hume and Adam Smith.

Hume, a famous historian in his time, wrote of the transition in English history from a government of will to a government of law.

Liberty Matters

Nicholas Capaldi, Daniel B. Klein, Andrew Sabl, and Mark E. Yellin

This Liberty Matters forum outlines David Hume’s ambitious “Project” with a list of 8 “theses”, the last of which states that “Liberty is the Central Theme.” Given its unique history, England was able to preserve and elaborate this insight in large part because of its inherent disposition to…

Laurence L. Bongie

Laurence Bongie’s book explores Hume’s early conception of skepticism, predating that of Edmund Burke’s conservative work.

Liberty Classic

Max Skjönsberg

Hume was a quintessential eighteenth-century man of letters, as evidenced by his Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary.

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

• Home ›
• Reviews ›

My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility

Fischer, John Martin, My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility , Oxford University Press, 2006, 260pp, $45.00 (hbk), ISBN 0195179552.

Reviewed by Ishtiyaque Haji, University of Calgary

Moral responsibility has a number of requirements including a control (or freedom), an "authenticity" (or ownership), and an epistemic requirement. The twelve highly insightful and commandingly influential essays in My Way largely address one or more aspects of the first two requirements. The introductory essay is new; the remaining eleven, common currency in the free will literature, have been reprinted with or without minor changes. The fourth and ninth are co-authored, the former with Mark Ravizza, the latter with Eleonore Stump. Rather than give a chapter-by-chapter summary, it will be more helpful to articulate the work's central themes.

A champion of compatibilism, Fischer accepts the conclusion of the Consequence Argument that determinism is incompatible with two-way or regulative control . But he argues that responsibility does not presuppose this species of control largely (though not exclusively) by invoking Frankfurt examples. Responsibility, he proposes, demands only one-way guidance control that can be exemplified in the actual sequence of events culminating in conduct; actions, omissions, and their consequences are symmetric in not requiring alternative possibilities for responsibility. Fischer argues, in addition, against the view that causal determinism in the actual sequence directly--that is, quite apart from expunging alternatives--undermines responsibility. The conclusion of this stream of reasoning is that responsibility can be safeguarded against what some have taken to be the most serious of determinism's threat to it: "genuine" alternatives are non-existent in a determined world.

Fischer seeks to deflect two other alleged threats of determinism to responsibility. One "direct" argument for incompatibilism invokes some version of a transfer of non-responsibility principle. Letting p and q be variables that range over propositions, and taking 'NR( p )' to abbreviate ' p and no one is (now), or ever has been morally responsible for the fact that p ,' one incarnation of this principle says that if NR( p ), and NR(if p , then q ), then NR( q ). If determinism is true, the non-relational facts of the past and the laws entail all present and future truths. But owing to no one's being responsible for the past and the laws, and no one's being responsible for its being the case that the past and the laws entail all future events, it follows from an application of the transfer principle that no one is ever morally responsible for one's behavior. The argument is direct because, if sound, it secures the incompatibility of determinism and responsibility independently of any premise to the effect that responsibility requires alternative possibilities. Fischer, though, rejects this argument by producing counterexamples against various versions of the transfer principle. These examples are, roughly, Frankfurt cases involving simultaneous overdetermination. So, for instance, Betty may well be morally responsible for destroying an enemy camp at a certain time, but even without her scheming, an avalanche for which no one is responsible would still have destroyed the camp at that time.

A second direct argument draws on the thought that a person is responsible for something only if he is an ultimate originator of that thing. This condition attempts to capture the idea that if our actions originate in sources, such as the distant past and the natural laws, over which we lack any sort of control, then we are not responsible for these actions. In response, Fischer proposes that there are compatibilist and incompatibilist notions of ultimate origination. He argues that it is not obvious that moral responsibility requires a conception of origination that involves causal indeterminism, especially if one renounces the thesis that responsibility presupposes regulative control.

It is one thing to argue for responsibility's requiring only one-way guidance control, quite another to develop and defend a substantive account of such control. Rising to the task, Fischer (and his co-author Ravizza) propose that guidance control has two components, neither of which determinism impugns. A distinction is presupposed between the kind of "mechanism"--roughly, the type of process--that actually causally issues in the agent's behavior and other sorts of mechanism. The reasons-responsiveness component requires that the mechanism that produces the action be appropriately sensitive to reasons. The ownership component requires that the mechanism be the agent's own. Briefly put, an agent has guidance control in performing an action if and only if the action issues from his own, moderately reasons-responsive mechanism.

Moderate reasons-responsiveness consists in regular reasons-receptivity, and at least weak reasons-reactivity, of the actual-sequence mechanism that leads to action. Reasons-receptivity is the capacity to recognize the reasons that exist, and reasons-reactivity is the capacity to translate reasons into choices (and subsequent behavior). Regular reasons-receptivity involves an understandable pattern of actual and hypothetical reasons-receptivity. A mechanism of the agent that issues in the agent's performing some action in the actual world is weakly reasons-reactive if there is some possible world with the same laws in which a mechanism of this very kind is operative in the agent, there is sufficient reason to do otherwise, the agent recognizes this reason, and the agent does otherwise for this reason.

It is possible for an agent's actions to issue from a moderately reasons-responsive mechanism whose primary constituents have been induced externally by clandestine manipulation, hypnosis, brainwashing, and so forth. Intuitively, in cases of this sort the agent is not morally responsible for the pertinent actions. Such cases impel Fischer and Ravizza to theorize that the way in which the agent's springs of action are acquired has a pronounced bearing on responsibility; responsibility is, consequently, an essentially "historical" phenomenon. Fischer and Ravizza's prognosis is that in these troubling cases, the mechanism that issues in action is not the "agent's own", the agent having failed to take responsibility for it. Reasons sensitivity, thus, requires supplementation with the mechanism-ownership component to guard against causal springs being acquired in a manner that subverts responsibility.

Taking responsibility, measures by which an agent makes a mechanism "his own", involves three elements: the agent must regard himself as the source of consequences in the world by realizing that his choices have effects in the world; the agent must see himself as an appropriate candidate for morally reactive attitudes as a result of how he affects the world; and these beliefs about himself must be based on his evidence in an appropriate way.

The account of guidance control of actions is extended to guidance control of intentional omissions and the upshots of actions or omissions. Moral responsibility for all these items is, thus, "tied together by a unified deep theory" (17).

Recently, it has been argued that determinism undermines the truth of other pivotal moral judgments such as that of deontic judgments involving moral obligation, right, and wrong. One such argument that I have developed starts with the "ought" implies "can" principle: if one morally ought to [ought not to] do something, then one can do [can refrain from doing] that thing; and the principle: if it is morally wrong for one to do something, then one morally ought not to do it. These principles entail that if it is wrong for one to do something, then one can refrain from doing it. So there is a requirement of alternative possibilities for wrongness. The argument can be extended to show that there is such a requirement for obligation and rightness as well. As determinism effaces alternative possibilities, determinism threatens the truth of deontic judgments. Fischer submits that it would render his semicompatibilism--the view that determinism is incompatible with regulative control but compatible with responsibility--considerably less interesting if determinism undermined other moral appraisals such as deontic ones. Thus, Fischer challenges the sort of argument that I have sketched. He claims that various Frankfurt examples involving omissions give us reason to jettison the "ought" implies "can" principle. Suppose that in one instance of this sort of case, Sally fails to raise her hand, thereby ensuring that a child is not rescued from impending disaster. Sally is blameworthy for this omission even though, given her circumstances, she could not have raised her hand. Fischer reasons that since Sally is morally blameworthy for not raising her hand, "she acted wrongly in failing to raise her hand, and thus that she ought to have raised it" (25). But as she could not have raised it, "ought" does not imply "can."

On various "libertarian" accounts, metaphysically available alternative possibilities, or at least the assumption of such availability, are required for practical reasoning and deliberation. Skeptical of such accounts, Fischer proposes that the point of practical reasoning is not to make a difference in the sense of selecting from available alternatives, but to figure out what one has reason to do, all things considered. A rational agent wants to ensure that her choices conform to her all-things-considered-best judgment concerning what she should choose or do. Such an agent would still have this sort of aim even if she were aware that she lived in a causally determined world in which alternative possibilities were unavailable.

Finally, Fischer inquires into why we value morally responsible action. He proposes that when an agent exhibits guidance control and is thus morally responsible for his conduct, he need not be understood to be making a difference to the world; so the value of moral responsibility cannot be the value of making a difference. Rather, Fischer ventures that we conceive of the value of responsibility somewhat in the fashion in which we conceive of the value of artistic self-expression. Just as an artist's creative activity has value because, in engaging in such activity, he expresses himself in a certain way--the artist does or need not make a difference but he does make a statement--so the distinctive value in acting in such a way as to be morally responsible lies in a certain sort of self-expression. Fischer contends that life has a narrative structure in that "the meanings and values of the parts of our lives are affected by their narrative relationships with other parts of our lives, and the welfare value of our lives as a whole are not simple additive functions of the values of the parts" (116). In this sense, our lives are stories. In performing an action for which we are morally responsible, "we can be understood as writing a sentence in the book of our life" (116).

The essays in this volume, together with Fischer's other pieces, have played a major role in shaping the contemporary debate in the metaphysics of free will. Whether or not one ultimately agrees with the relevant positions that Fischer defends, one can ill afford to ignore the wealth of wisdom in the story of responsibility that Fischer carefully crafts. I confine critical attention to two of its elements.

Fischer concedes too much when he claims that his semicompatibilism would be far less engaging if determinism undermined other central moral assessments such as deontic ones. After all, the conditions of satisfaction for the truth of one species of moral judgment need not coincide with those of another species. Further, Fischer attempts to insulate the integrity of deontic judgments against determinism by appealing to the premise that if a person (like Sally) is morally blameworthy for an action, then it is morally wrong for her to perform that action. If one accepts this premise, and if determinism undermines wrongness, then determinism undermines blameworthiness. But I have argued that this premise is false. Blameworthiness requires not that an agent do wrong but that she perform an action on the basis of the belief that she is doing wrong in performing it.

What Fischer offers on the value of moral responsibility is both intriguing and puzzling. First, there is the rich ambiguity of the terms 'value' and 'valuable.' In their most fundamental senses, to value something is to be favorably disposed toward it, and something is valuable if it is good--if it is worthy of being something toward which one is favorably disposed. But it seems that this is not the sense of 'value' or of 'valuable' at issue. With free action, for instance, one might propose in response to why such action is valuable (in the strict sense) that it is intrinsically good. Fischer suggests another sense of 'value' which is more apt, given the context. He says that when an agent exhibits guidance control and is, hence, morally responsible, "it is unattractive to think that the explanation of his moral responsibility--the intuitive reason why we hold him morally responsible--is that he makes a difference to the world. Rather…he expresses himself in a certain way" (114). The proposal is that the sense of 'value' at issue is associated with an intuitive explanation of why the person is morally responsible when she is so responsible. Elaborating, Fischer writes:

[S]ome of the debates about whether alternative possibilities are required for moral responsibility may at some level be fueled by different intuitive pictures of moral responsibility. It may be that the proponents of the regulative control model are implicitly in the grip of the "making-a-difference" picture, whereas the proponents of the guidance control model are implicitly accepting the self-expression picture…. [P]resenting the self-expression picture can be helpful for the following reason. The debates about whether alternative possibilities are required for moral responsibility have issued in what some might consider stalemates; …I do not know of any decisive arguments (employing Frankfurt-type examples) for the conclusion that only guidance control, and not regulative control, is required for moral responsibility. My suggestion is that if one finds the self-expression picture of moral responsibility more compelling than the making-a-difference picture, then this should incline one toward the conclusion that guidance control exhausts the freedom-relevant component of moral responsibility. (119)

On this estimation of the significance of the self-expression picture, it is not transparent why the value of guidance control is tied to narrative value. Part of what it is to have narrative value, Fischer submits, is that the overall welfare value of one's life is not merely a function of adding up all the momentary levels of well-being. Suppose that one does not (as I do not) renounce "additiveness." Assuming that there are "atoms" of well-being, basic intrinsic value states whose sum in a life exhausts the welfare value of the life for the person who lives that life, why could it not be that self-expression is still tied in some fashion to the agent's "writing sentences" in the story of his life? Second, would shifting the focus of the debate on whether responsibility does in fact require alternative possibilities to the intuitive pictures to which Fischer calls our attention help to break the stalemate between the relevant rivals? I have my doubts. If the value of guidance control is analogous to that of artistic self-expression, one would expect libertarians to plump for the position that artistic creativity, including genuine artistic self-expression, presupposes the falsity of determinism; either such creativity or self-expression requires the sort of authorship or ultimate origination that determinism precludes or it requires indeterministic causation of the constellation of behavior constitutive of such creativity or self-expression.

• Liberty Fund
• Adam Smith Works
• Law & Liberty
• Browse by Author
• Browse by Topic
• Browse by Date
• Search EconLog
• Latest Episodes
• Browse by Guest
• Browse by Category
• Browse Extras
• Search EconTalk
• Latest Articles
• Liberty Classics
• Search Articles
• Books by Date
• Books by Author
• Search Books
• Browse by Title
• Biographies
• Search Encyclopedia
• #ECONLIBREADS
• College Topics
• High School Topics
• Subscribe to QuickPicks
• Search Guides
• Search Videos
• Library of Law & Liberty
• Home   /  

ECONLIB Books

Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary

By david hume.

DAVID HUME’S greatness was recognized in his own time, as it is today, but the writings that made Hume famous are not, by and large, the same ones that support his reputation now. Leaving aside his Enquiries, which were widely read then as now, Hume is known today chiefly through his Treatise of Human Nature and his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. The Treatise was scarcely read at all during Hume’s lifetime, however, and the Dialogues was not published until after his death. Conversely, most readers today pay little attention to Hume’s various books of essays and to his History of England, but these are the works that were read avidly by his contemporaries. If one is to get a balanced view of Hume’s thought, it is necessary to study both groups of writings. If we should neglect the essays or the History, then our view of Hume’s aims and achievements is likely to be as incomplete as that of his contemporaries who failed to read the Treatise or the Dialogues. … [From the Foreword by Eugene F. Miller]

Translator/Editor

Eugene F. Miller, ed.

First Pub. Date

Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, Inc. Liberty Fund, Inc.

Publication date details: Part I: 1742. Part II ( Political Discourses): 1752. Combined: 1777. Includes Political Discourses (1752), "My Own Life," by David Hume, and a letter by Adam Smith.

Portions of this edited edition are under copyright. Picture of David Hume courtesy of The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.

Table of Contents

• Foreword, by Eugene F. Miller
• Editors Note, by Eugene F. Miller
• Note to the Revised Edition

My Own Life, by David Hume

• Letter from Adam Smith, L.L.D. to William Strahan, Esq.
• Part I, Essay I, OF THE DELICACY OF TASTE AND PASSION
• Part I, Essay II, OF THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS
• Part I, Essay III, THAT POLITICS MAY BE REDUCED TO A SCIENCE
• Part I, Essay IV, OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT
• Part I, Essay V, OF THE ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT
• Part I, Essay VI, OF THE INDEPENDENCY OF PARLIAMENT
• Part I, Essay VII, WHETHER THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT INCLINES MORE TO ABSOLUTE MONARCHY, OR TO A REPUBLIC
• Part I, Essay VIII, OF PARTIES IN GENERAL
• Part I, Essay IX, OF THE PARTIES OF GREAT BRITAIN
• Part I, Essay X, OF SUPERSTITION AND ENTHUSIASM
• Part I, Essay XI, OF THE DIGNITY OR MEANNESS OF HUMAN NATURE
• Part I, Essay XII, OF CIVIL LIBERTY
• Part I, Essay XIII, OF ELOQUENCE
• Part I, Essay XIV, OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES
• Part I, Essay XV, THE EPICUREAN
• Part I, Essay XVI, THE STOIC
• Part I, Essay XVII, THE PLATONIST
• Part I, Essay XVIII, THE SCEPTIC
• Part I, Essay XIX, OF POLYGAMY AND DIVORCES
• Part I, Essay XX, OF SIMPLICITY AND REFINEMENT IN WRITING
• Part I, Essay XXI, OF NATIONAL CHARACTERS
• Part I, Essay XXII, OF TRAGEDY
• Part I, Essay XXIII, OF THE STANDARD OF TASTE
• Part II, Essay I, OF COMMERCE
• Part II, Essay II, OF REFINEMENT IN THE ARTS
• Part II, Essay III, OF MONEY
• Part II, Essay IV, OF INTEREST
• Part II, Essay V, OF THE BALANCE OF TRADE
• Part II, Essay VI, OF THE JEALOUSY OF TRADE
• Part II, Essay VII, OF THE BALANCE OF POWER
• Part II, Essay VIII, OF TAXES
• Part II, Essay IX, OF PUBLIC CREDIT
• Part II, Essay X, OF SOME REMARKABLE CUSTOMS
• Part II, Essay XI, OF THE POPULOUSNESS OF ANCIENT NATIONS
• Part II, Essay XII, OF THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT
• Part II, Essay XIII, OF PASSIVE OBEDIENCE
• Part II, Essay XIV, OF THE COALITION OF PARTIES
• Part II, Essay XV, OF THE PROTESTANT SUCCESSION
• Part II, Essay XVI, IDEA OF A PERFECT COMMONWEALTH
• Part III, Essay I, OF ESSAY-WRITING
• Part III, Essay II, OF MORAL PREJUDICES
• Part III, Essay III, OF THE MIDDLE STATION OF LIFE
• Part III, Essay IV, OF IMPUDENCE AND MODESTY
• Part III, Essay V, OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE
• Part III, Essay VI, OF THE STUDY OF HISTORY
• Part III, Essay VII, OF AVARICE
• Part III, Essay VIII, A CHARACTER OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE
• Part III, Essay IX, OF SUICIDE
• Part III, Essay X, OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
• Variant Readings

by Eugene F. Miller

DAVID HUME’S greatness was recognized in his own time, as it is today, but the writings that made Hume famous are not, by and large, the same ones that support his reputation now. Leaving aside his Enquiries, *1 which were widely read then as now, Hume is known today chiefly through his Treatise of Human Nature *2 and his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. *3 The Treatise was scarcely read at all during Hume’s lifetime, however, and the Dialogues was not published until after his death. Conversely, most readers today pay little attention to Hume’s various books of essays and to his History of England, *4 but these are the works that were read avidly by his contemporaries. If one is to get a balanced view of Hume’s thought, it is necessary to study both groups of writings. If we should neglect the essays or the History, then our view of Hume’s aims and achievements is likely to be as incomplete as that of his contemporaries who failed to read the Treatise or the Dialogues.

The preparation and revision of his essays occupied Hume throughout his adult life. In his late twenties, after completing three books of the Treatise, Hume began to publish essays on moral and political themes. His Essays, Moral and Political was brought out late in 1741 by Alexander Kincaid, Edinburgh’s leading publisher. *5 A second volume of essays appeared under the same title early in 1742, *6 and later that year, a “Second Edition, Corrected” of the first volume was issued. In 1748, three additional essays appeared in a small volume published in Edinburgh and London. *7 That volume is noteworthy as the first of Hume’s works to bear his name and also as the beginning of his association with Andrew Millar as his chief London publisher. These three essays were incorporated into the “Third Edition, Corrected” of Essays, Moral and Political, which Millar and Kincaid published in the same year. In 1752, Hume issued a large number of new essays under the title Political Discourses, a work so successful that a second edition was published before the year was out, and a third in 1754. *8

Early in the 1750s, Hume drew together his various essays, along with other of his writings, in a collection entitled Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects. Volume 1 (1753) of this collection contains the Essays, Moral and Political and Volume 4 (1753-54) contains the Political Discourses. The two Enquiries are reprinted in Volumes 2 and 3. Hume retained the title Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects for subsequent editions of his collected works, but he varied the format and contents somewhat. A new, one-volume edition appeared under this title in 1758, and other four-volume editions in 1760 and 1770. Two-volume editions appeared in 1764, 1767, 1768, 1772, and 1777. The 1758 edition, for the first time, grouped the essays under the heading “Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary” and divided them into Parts I and II. Several new essays, as well as other writings, were added to this collection along the way. *9

As we see, the essays were by no means of casual interest to Hume. He worked on them continually from about 1740 until his death, in 1776. There are thirty-nine essays in the posthumous, 1777, edition of Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (Volume 1 of Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects ). Nineteen of these date back to the two original volumes of Essays, Moral and Political (1741-42). By 1777, these essays from the original volumes would have gone through eleven editions. Twenty essays were added along the way, eight were deleted, and two would await posthumous publication. Hume’s practice throughout his life was to supervise carefully the publication of his writings and to correct them for new editions. Though gravely ill in 1776, Hume made arrangements for the posthumous publication of his manuscripts, including the suppressed essays “Of Suicide” and “Of the Immortality of the Soul,” and he prepared for his publisher, William Strahan, the corrections for new editions of both his History of England and his Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects. When Adam Smith visited Hume on August 8, 1776, a little more than two weeks before the philosopher’s death on August 25, he found Hume still at work on corrections to the Essays and Treatises. Hume had earlier been reading Lucian’s Dialogues of the Dead, and he speculated in jocular fashion with Smith on excuses that he might give to Charon for not entering his boat. One possibility was to say to him: “Good Charon, I have been correcting my works for a new edition. Allow me a little time, that I may see how the Public receives the alterations.” *10

Hume’s essays were received warmly in Britain, on the Continent, where numerous translations into French, German, and Italian appeared, and in America. In his brief autobiography, My own Life, *11 Hume speaks of his great satisfaction with the public’s reception of the essays. The favorable response to the first volume of Essays, Moral and Political made him forget entirely his earlier disappointment over the public’s indifference to his Treatise of Human Nature, and he was pleased that Political Discourses was received well from the outset both at home and abroad. When Hume accompanied the Earl of Hertford to Paris in 1763 for a stay of twenty-six months as Secretary of the British Embassy and finally as Chargé d’Affaires, he discovered that his fame there surpassed anything he might have expected. He was loaded with civilities “from men and women of all ranks and stations.” Fame was not the only benefit that Hume enjoyed from his publications. By the 1760s, “the copy-money given me by the booksellers, much exceeded any thing formerly known in England; I was become not only independent, but opulent.”

Hume’s essays continued to be read widely for more than a century after his death. Jessop lists sixteen editions or reprintings of Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects that appeared between 1777 and 1894. *12 (More than fifty editions or reprintings of the History are listed for the same period.) The Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary were included as Volume 3 of The Philosophical Works of David Hume (Edinburgh, 1825; reprinted in 1826 and 1854) and again as Volume 3 of a later edition by T. H. Green and T. H. Grose, also entitled The Philosophical Works of David Hume (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1874-75; vol. 3, reprinted in 1882, 1889, 1898, 1907, and 1912). Some separate editions of the Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary were published as well, including the one by “The World’s Classics” (London, 1903; reprinted in 1904).

These bibliographical details are important because they show how highly the essays were regarded by Hume himself and by many others up to the present century. Over the past seventy years, however, the essays have been overshadowed, just as the History has been, by other of Hume’s writings. Although some recent studies have drawn attention once again to the importance of Hume’s Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, *13 the work itself has long been difficult to locate in a convenient edition. Some of the essays have been included in various collections, *14 but, leaving aside the present edition, no complete edition of the Essays has appeared since the early part of the century, save for a reprinting of the 1903 World’s Classics edition *15 and expensive reproductions of Green and Grose’s four-volume set of the Philosophical Works. In publishing this new edition of the Essays —along with its publication, in six volumes, of the History of England *16 —Liberty Fund has made a neglected side of Hume’s thought accessible once again to the modern reader.

Many years after Hume’s death, his close friend John Home wrote a sketch of Hume’s character, in the course of which he observed: “His Essays are at once popular and philosophical, and contain a rare and happy union of profound Science and fine writing.” *17 This observation indicates why Hume’s essays were held in such high esteem by his contemporaries and why they continue to deserve our attention today. The essays are elegant and entertaining in style, but thoroughly philosophical in temper and content. They elaborate those sciences—morals, politics, and criticism—for which the Treatise of Human Nature lays a foundation. It was not simply a desire for fame that led Hume to abandon the Treatise and seek a wider audience for his thought. He acted in the belief that commerce between men of letters and men of the world worked to the benefit of both. Hume thought that philosophy itself was a great loser when it remained shut up in colleges and cells and secluded from the world and good company. Hume’s essays do not mark an abandonment of philosophy, as some have maintained, *18 but rather an attempt to improve it by having it address the concerns of common life.

Eugene F. Miller is Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Editor’s Note

Part I, Essay I

10 September 2024: Due to technical disruption, we are experiencing some delays to publication. We are working to restore services and apologise for the inconvenience. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/universitypress/about-us/news-and-blogs/cambridge-university-press-publishing-update-following-technical-disruption

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings .

Login Alert

• > Journals
• > Horizons
• > Volume 10 Issue 2
• > Essays on Moral Development. Volume I: The Philosophy...

Article contents

Essays on moral development. volume i: the philosophy of moral development . by lawrence kohlberg. san francisco: harper & row, 1981. vii + 441 pages. $21.95..

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

Access options

This article has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref .

• Google Scholar

View all Google Scholar citations for this article.

Save article to Kindle

To save this article to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle .

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

• Volume 10, Issue 2
• Margaret Gorman (a1)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0360966900024452

Save article to Dropbox

To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox .

Save article to Google Drive

To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive .

Reply to: Submit a response

- No HTML tags allowed - Web page URLs will display as text only - Lines and paragraphs break automatically - Attachments, images or tables are not permitted

Your details

Your email address will be used in order to notify you when your comment has been reviewed by the moderator and in case the author(s) of the article or the moderator need to contact you directly.

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests.

Please list any fees and grants from, employment by, consultancy for, shared ownership in or any close relationship with, at any time over the preceding 36 months, any organisation whose interests may be affected by the publication of the response. Please also list any non-financial associations or interests (personal, professional, political, institutional, religious or other) that a reasonable reader would want to know about in relation to the submitted work. This pertains to all the authors of the piece, their spouses or partners.

Thomas Aquinas College is unique among American colleges and universities, offering a faithfully  Catholic education comprised entirely of the Great Books and classroom discussions.

• Our Campuses
• Mission and History
• College Guide Reviews
• Faculty & Staff Directory
• News & Press
• Events Calendar
• News Archive
• College E-Letter
• The Aquinas Review

Truth, and nothing less, sets men free; and because truth is both natural and supernatural, the College’s curriculum aims at both natural and divine wisdom.

• The Great Books
• The Discussion Method
• Program Objectives
• Teaching Faculty
• Lecture & Concert Series
• St. Bernardine Library (CA)
• Dolben Library (NE)

The intellectual tradition and moral teachings of the Catholic Church infuse the whole life of Thomas Aquinas College, illuminating the curriculum and the community alike.

• New England
• Prayer Requests
• Faith in Action Blog
• California Chapel
• New England Chapel

Do you enjoy grappling with complex questions? Are you willing to engage in discussions about difficult concepts, with the truth as your ultimate goal?

• Apply to the College
• High School Summer Program
• Visit & Connect
• Send Me Information
• Tuition & Fees
• How to Apply for Financial Aid
• Financial Aid Calculator

There is always something to do at TAC — something worthwhile, something fulfilling, and something geared toward ever-greater spiritual and intellectual growth.

• Beyond the Classroom
• Beaches, Mountains & More
• Online Payments
• Student Forms & Documents
• Parent Gateway

Nothing speaks more to the versatility of the College’s academic program than the good that our alumni are doing throughout the Church and the world.

• Career Services
• Alumni Association
• Alumni Portal
• Arts & Media
• Law & Public Policy
• Priesthood / Religious Life

Dominic Andres (’24) on Imitation in the Moral Life

A member of Thomas Aquinas College’s newest graduating class, Dominic Andres (CA’24) appeared on Annunciation Press’s radio show The Virtuous Life  last week to speak about his first published work, a philosophical essay on choosing virtuous role models.

Mr. Andres conceived the idea for his essay, Imitation in the Moral Life , while writing his Senior Thesis last year about the nature of music and how it imitates the passions. “I had the topic of imitation on my mind,” he says. “I knew I wanted to write something to be published that would be interesting to a lot of people, but still had a philosophical focus.”

Mr. Andres’ essay, which appears on Catholic Exchange, reflects primarily on how imitating virtuous role models leads to growth in virtue. “A man becomes virtuous not only by being told what virtue is but also by seeing it practiced (and practicing it himself),” writes Mr. Andres. “Role models make understandable, achievable, and desirable virtues which were previously obscure, difficult, and unpleasant.”

Intrigued by his treatment of imitation in art and virtue, “The Virtuous Life” host Patricia Oedy-Murray inquired about all aspects of the essay and asked Mr. Andres to delve deeper into many of the ideas presented. They discussed the difference between good and bad imitations of creation, how virtues may be observed in anyone, and the easiest path to growing in virtue by imitation. 

“The best way to learn virtue is to surround yourself with it as much as possible,” advises Mr. Andres on the show. “It is best to surround yourself with good people and activities geared toward virtue. Make the majority of what you do the pursuit of excellence, whether that be in academics, sports, or media consumption.”

© 2024 Thomas Aquinas College Board of Governors. All rights reserved.

The Fairest Way to Keep Cognitively Declining People From Being Elected

Put an upper age limit on public office.

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

Plenty of occupations in the United States have justifiable age limits. Commercial-airline pilots cannot be over 65. Mandatory retirement for all federal law-enforcement officers is 57. Two-thirds of S&P 500 corporations have mandatory age limits for board members, mostly 72 or 75. Many consulting and law firms require their partners to retire in their 60s.

The presidency, right now, has no such official restrictions. Age might still disqualify a candidate: After President Joe Biden’s horrendous debate performance earlier this year, his party pressured him to recognize how his more obvious limits, and appearance of cognitive decline, were hurting Democrats’ chances of keeping the Oval Office. Former President Donald Trump, at 78, is still his party’s candidate, despite delivering incoherent speeches that raise legitimate questions about his mental capacities.

Beyond Biden and Trump, other political candidates and elected officials have displayed signs of age-related cognitive decline: Think of Dianne Feinstein and Orrin Hatch. The country has an interest in ensuring that cognitively impaired people are not elected to office—and, in particular, to the presidency, the most powerful job in the world. The simplest and fairest mechanism to protect the United States from this problem is to institute an upper age limit for all federal elected officials and judges.

Currently, 32 states and the District of Columbia have age limits for judges. Mostly, these are set at age 70, but some are higher: 72, 73, 75. Vermont’s mandatory age limit for judges is 90. South Dakota is voting on a ballot measure this year to amend the state constitution to limit the age of its congressional candidates to 80. There is bipartisan support for such age limits. Nearly 80 percent of the American public endorses an age limit for federal elected officials, and 74 percent for Supreme Court justices. Most respondents to one CBS poll thought the limit should be under 70 years of age for politicians.

Opponents of age limits sometimes argue that these measures usurp the public’s right to choose our leaders—that democracy can self-correct, because voters can decline to endorse aging politicians who are losing mental function. If Biden had stayed on the ballot, no one would have been forced to vote for him.

But incumbent advantage makes elections poor vehicles for rejecting cognitively declining politicians. Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign was a clear example of this: By insisting on running as the incumbent, Biden cleared the field, scaring away other potential candidates. Challenging an incumbent elected official in a primary can be career-ending and is not something politicians undertake voluntarily. Consequently, when Representative Dean Phillips tried to recruit a plausible alternative to run against President Biden, no one accepted, leaving him, a junior member of the House of Representatives, the only candidate to challenge the president. Unsurprisingly, this ended Phillips’s political career. And because Democratic voters had few other choices, they handed Biden primary after primary, even though the majority thought he was too old and becoming too impaired. Only deus ex machina in the form of Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, big-money donors, and a few others forced the unprecedented: a candidate with sufficient delegates to be nominated the presidential candidate of a major party withdrawing from the race. It took Biden’s exit for a full field of possible successors—including Vice President Kamala Harris—to come into public view.

Another objection to mandatory age limits is that any cutoff would be arbitrary, given that age-related mental decline is not the same for every person. Some people lose fluid intelligence at a young age, whereas some octogenarians are still mentally sharp enough to hold office and be wise judges. And, yes, age limits are arbitrary. So are age minimums, which almost all countries—including ours—have for voting and for holding office. But the alternative is mandatory mental-competency tests. These, too, are arbitrary, vague, and easily manipulated. Some people are great at test-taking, and others (like me and my two brothers) are bad at standardized tests of any kind. Screening tools and assessments for dementia may examine different dimensions of cognitive ability, but they are almost never diagnostic by themselves. Any system of testing would first have to determine the right cognitive test for being a senator, a federal judge, or the president, and developing a validated instrument for these unique positions would require data that do not exist. Second, a testing system would need someone to determine what constitutes passing. Who would that be, and how would they be insulated from special pleading by powerful people? An age limit, conversely, is unambiguous and not open to manipulation.

And choosing one based on when people are more likely to start losing function is possible. Higher age cutoffs, such as the one in Vermont for judges, would be riskier: At age 80, the risk of Alzheimer’s dementia, for instance, is nearly 20 percent, and at 85 is greater than 33 percent. In adults with at least college education—which all judges and almost all elected officials have—the first signs of cognitive impairment appear at an average age of 76. In line with the age limits for boards at many corporations, I would propose 75 as the age cutoff.

Some people argue that such a cutoff would exclude the many older people who are mentally intact from providing valuable leadership to the country. An upper age limit of 75 would have excluded from service people such as Benjamin Franklin, who at age 81 was an active participant in the Constitutional Convention, as well as Oliver Wendell Holmes and John Paul Stevens, who both retired from the Supreme Court at age 90, having continued to make significant contributions. Maybe the most pertinent of all to this debate is Pelosi, who was 82 when she stepped down as speaker of the House and is still as sharp as ever at 84, wielding tremendous political power (and running for reelection this fall).

But age limits would not preclude these people from serving the country. They could offer counsel and influence in many ways beyond holding an elected political position or judgeship. Today, sitting presidents call former presidents or Cabinet officials for advice. Presidents have often sent retired politicians on important international missions and even to head delicate negotiations. Mandatory age limits for elected officeholders and judges would not prohibit this type of national service and assistance.

Biden’s exit from the presidential race in July is already seen by most as central to his legacy as a public servant. Using his exit as the impetus to bring mandatory age maximums for all federal elected officials and judges would require a constitutional amendment, the campaign for which former Presidents Biden, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton could all lead. That, more than anything, would cement Biden’s place in history.

About the Author

More Stories

The Worst Advice Parents Can Give First-Year Students

There Are Exceptionally Sharp Octogenarians. Biden Isn’t One.

Ask the publishers to restore access to 500,000+ books.

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Essays on moral realism

Bookreader item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

138 Previews

Better World Books

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

No suitable files to display here.

EPUB and PDF access not available for this item.

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by LexW on January 4, 2019

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)