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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Definitions of Morality
Message-ID: <618@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Aug-85 20:33:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: mmintl.618
Posted: Mon Aug 26 20:33:16 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Aug-85 23:42:13 EDT
References: <374@aero.ARPA>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 38
Summary: more definitions


There are a few other terms floating around in this discussion which I
think need definitions.

As a forward, I think the definition someone (I forget who) made of a
morality is correct: a function from possible actions to the set
{required, forbidden, optional}.  This is consistent with the definition
in the article I am following up, but more explicit.

The main term I think needs defining is right (in the sense of a right).
I think this word has been misused in the discussion so far.

RIGHT: an action permitted to a person which no one else has the right to
directly prevent.

Note that only direct interference is proscribed.  If I decide to quit my
job and start working at a fast food joint (which is my right), my friends
are not permitted to prevent this; they are permitted to try to talk me
out of it.

This has been commonly used to mean simply an action which is not forbidden.


LEGAL MORALITY: the morality implicit in the legal system; i.e., forbidden =
illegal, required = legally obligatory (this is not a commonly used term, but
the concept is significant in the discussion so far, so I am proposing it.
If anyone has a better suggestion for a name for this concept, please speak up)


MORAL ABSOLUTISM: the belief that there is such a thing as an absolute
morality (q.v.).


MORAL CODE: a list of possible actions [in various situations variously
described] each specified as required, forbidden, or optional.  A moral code
is a special case of a morality.

There is a common use of the word morality which restricts its meaning
to that of moral code.