After finishing off my music theory exam today, I decided to ruminate on the meaning of morality.
I decided one thing quickly: it’s very difficult to define.
I started with morals: the beliefs an individual has relating to the logic and emotion of interacting with their surroundings, especially as related to other humans.
This led me to the conclusion that it is very unlikely that less-conscious beings do not have morals or morality, as they are functions of social extensions to the brain that have synthesized with primal and intellectual feelings of right and wrong.
Following this, I pondered what morality then meant. I believe I have settled on something like: the -highly subjective- measure of how right or wrong an individual perceives a specific action.
These thoughts reminded me of a comic from a beginning Buddhist’s book about the strict and lenient ways one can follow a code of conduct. Its message delivered the idea that strict adherence can lead to negative consequences (ie, one shall not lie: what about hiding Jews from a nazi patrolman?), as can a lack of morality entirely (resulting in a highly materialistic, often careless point of view).
I’ll edit this more later; I’m off to bed. Goodnight!!
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