First, what is a “moral code”. It’s a group of ideas, maybe even rules that you fall back on when making decisions about how you will run your life. Usually, we go to our moral code when trying to decide whether something we want to do is right or wrong. Today’s question deals with how you choose your code.
Specifically I’m asking for a citation. What book, religion, or philosophy did you find your moral code in? As a young man, the first moral code that I followed was from the Boy Scouts. I don’t claim to have met this code in my life. It is a goal
Be Prepared
On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
A scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.
Later, I added the Bible:
Love God, Love your neighbor. Don’t lie, steal, or murder. Honor your parents, sex is for husbands and wives, don’t covet, rest on Sunday.
There are other moral codes…….I chose these because they are widely accepted…….. and they make sense. Obviously, the fact that I am a Christian played a part as well.
The point here is not which moral code you choose. The point is……is your moral code external or internal? An external code is likely objective. There are many to choose from. Some are very good, some are very bad. If you choose an external moral code, the code you choose will define you as a human being. It is very likely that your opinion of the people around you is largely shaped by their choice of a moral code. FWIW…… their opinion of you is shaped by your moral code. This may explain why people sometimes react to you in ways that you don’t understand……. or like. Another point about the external moral code is that there is a moral authority that validates the rules…..in my case, the creator of the universe.
The problem is that most people do not choose an external moral code. If you cannot name the book, religion, or philosophy that is the source of your code, then you fall into one of two camps.
The purely internal moral code:
This is a set of ideas and rules that you use to guide your life. They are rules that YOU made up because they make sense to you. The problem here is that when you make up your own set of rules, you tend to come up with rules that say that anything that you really want badly is OK. Your internal rules rarely restrict your behaviour. If you really want to have an amorous relationship with a goat……..it’s probably going to be OK in your home grown moral code. The main use for your code, then, is to beat up others because they aren’t following your rules. But, they are YOUR rules…….. there is no good reason to expect others to follow your rules. What you can expect, is that they will follow their rules……and since all of these rules are home grown, their rules are just as valid as yours.
The no code plan:
In this case, you have no foundational set of rules, internal or external. You decide each case based on the facts at hand. This allows you flexibility. What is wrong today may be ok tomorrow, based on changing circumstances. The no code plan, however, is highly susceptible to manipulation, justification, and rationalization. We humans are masters at this. The no code plan also makes it hard for others to deal with you. The friend who wouldn’t lie to you on Monday may decide that lying to you is OK on Tuesday based on circumstances.
I suspect that most people operate somewhere between and an internal code and the no code plan. They have a few basic rules; but, often make their moral decisions on the fly using the facts at hand.
I believe that the best choice, not necessarily the easiest, is to adopt a good external moral code and follow it as closely as you can. This will restrict your behavior a bit. It will cut way back on manipulation, justification, and rationalization. It will make you a much more predictable person for your friends, family, and acquaintances. I recommend the 2 codes at the top of this post. They have served me well for most of my 65 years.