What is morality? In the study of philosophy, it is knowing the difference between right and wrong. All religions set unique criteria for what is right and what is wrong. Sociology, however, attacks the very question of where these definitions arise. Is something right because it has become the norm in just one culture? Or is it considered correct because there are some universal stigmas attached to certain acts that can never become acceptable to any society?
Idealistically, morality would be practiced at all times. One would be right even when one doesn’t want to be – even when it pains one to be correct in every way. However, we have seen that any task one takes on that entails effort on one’s part does not go completely unnoticed. Did Mother Teresa not become a symbol for us all? Don’t the martyrs of war have the consolation that they will save the world and their progeny and name will be carried on? Don’t the parishioners have the incentive that their souls will be rewarded in the hereafter?
Therefore, the idea is that man is a selfish being. He is not willing to sacrifice a part of himself unless he gets something in return. Parents take care of children because they want to feel good about themselves. People pray so that they can find some peace and tranquility in prayer. They purify themselves with prayer so that they can go and sin once again. The skeptic in the article Skeptic and the Believer says that religion has failed in its purpose. “Of the hundreds of millions “devotees” to all these faiths and causes, only a tiny fraction are truly faithful to them.
The overwhelming majority are self-deluding hypocrites: they take from the ideology what they need to satisfy their spiritual pretensions and their moral vanity, and then basically do what they please (taking care, of course, not to undermine their position in the community of the faithful).” (Tauber, Yankee, 2001).
This idea of man being the selfish animal and doing good for his own benefit is even supported by the theory of Egoism. The theoretical implication of Egoism is that correct actions are those that give one a sense of satisfaction. Egoism believes in nature being the guide of all actions. This suggests that if a person feels compelled by nature to do something, it must be correct. Therefore, one performs only those actions that one feels are congruent with his nature. Any moral act is fuelled by man’s basic animal needs – the need for attention and love, the need for acceptance, and the need to be part of a social group.
The idea is also congruent with the theory of Moral Relativism. Moral Relativism states that morality is a matter of personal judgment and that it varies from person to person and from culture to culture. This is because the needs of human beings vary. A person in Africa may be hungry for food and may not consider begging for food immoral whereas to a person in the developed world, it would be an extremely immoral thing to do. In the same way, the needs of people in Islamic Middle Eastern countries are to be religiously correct and acceptable to society. Therefore, the act of asking a woman out for a date would not be any deviation whereas it would be an extremely immoral thing to do in a conservative culture.
The idea that man is inherently selfish and is motivated only by his fundamental needs is not a new one. It has been promoted extensively by motivational theorists like Abraham Maslow and David Mclelland. The idea is that any act of a human being requires some basic motivational factor. For some, it is money or power, and for others, it may be affiliated. All moral acts are also guided by one’s ego – whatever one feels is correct will be acted upon, while what one thinks is incorrect will be ignored. In short, for an idea to acceptable as morally correct, it must conform with a person’s own beliefs.
Bibliography
Boeree, C. George. (1999). Ethics. Retrieved from Shippensburg University. Web.
Tauber, Yankee. (2001). Skeptic and the Believer. Chabad – Ideas & Beliefs. Web.