Everyday Ethics

Morality is a diverse and challenging subject, and it is ripe with interesting philosophical questions.  We can question what sorts of moral principles we ought to adopt, or examine the challenges associated with particular moral questions.  But one question that we don’t often ask, is what purpose morality fulfills.  In other words, what is morality for?

Before we can attempt to answer this question, we need to dissect it a bit.  First, the question implies that questioning morality’s purpose is the right kind of question to be asking about something like morality.  It suggests that morality is a purposeful endeavor, rather than one of discovering and applying objectively true moral principles.  So asking what morality is for may require that we assume morality to be some sort of human construct.

We should mention that if we do not accept the above assumption that morality is a human construct, yet continue to ponder morality’s purpose, we must then tackle a difficult set of questions.  Can objective, mind independent facts have a purpose at all, or do they simply exist?  If moral facts have a purpose, do other types of facts also have a purpose?  How might we explain the existence of purposefulness in the physical world?  It is sufficient to note that it is not necessary to accept the above assumption if we are to ponder morality’s purpose, only that the questions we ask will be tough ones if we choose not to accept it.

If we do assume that morality is constructed, the question of morality’s purpose has many possible answers.  Most will want to argue that morality’s purpose is to help people get along with each other better, to aid us in our ability to survive and thrive.  Others might claim that morality is a tool for shaping us into decent, virtuous humans with an appropriate sense of right and wrong.  The pessimists and skeptics might say that morality is simply a way to keep the strong from subjugating the weak, or to lessen the devastating impact of human selfishness upon our everyday lives.  What remains unclear, however, is which of these answers is correct.

Returning to the question of what possible purpose could be viewed as the right one for morality, I am inclined to agree with all of these ideas.  These are not only possible candidates for morality’s purpose, they are all accurate portrayals of what morality is properly intended to achieve or promote.  If morality is a social construct, we must either choose its purpose based on some objective value or state of affairs, or simply base this choice on preferences.  Depending on what we think we ought to do in this regard, we can choose what morality’s purpose will be.

It is not possible in these brief lines to answer the complex, multi-dimensional question of what morality’s purpose is.  At best, we have begun to paint a picture of a very challenging question, as well as how many other questions we must answer before we can begin to address it directly.  Luckily, we do seem to be able to conclude that whatever morality’s purpose is, whether man-made or naturally prescribed, it appears to do more harm than good.  And in terms of everyday moral practice, that is really all that we need to know.

About the Author

Elijah Weber is a graduate student at Bowling Green State University. He holds a Master's degree in philosophy from Colorado State University, and Bachelor’s degrees in sociology and philosophy from Chapman Univerity. He currently lives in Bowling Green, Ohio with his wife Laura, his newborn son Brandon, and his feline life-partner Monte.