Investigation of My Personal Moral Values and Philosophies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to bring forth examples of the moral values and philosophies I hold and use to guide my decision making skills. I examine the self-determining impacts of my personal moral philosophy on Ethical Decision Making. Agreed that Ethical Decision Making is of great importance to general functional efficiency, it is fitting for me to analyze the various effects of my personal moral philosophy on the Ethical Decision Making.

Introduction

Moral philosophy is defined as the rational study of the meaning and justification of moral claims, moral claims examine and determine the rightness or wrongness of a particular action or someone’s character. An example of this is if someone were to make a claim that lying is wrong he/she will have to prove or justify with objective reasons why lying is wrong and the effects it will have. According to Meyers Diana, everyone has their own moral principles, these principles differ from individual to individual. For some, it is crucial to consult their own personal philosophies before making any moral decisions (2014, p. 79). My effort in this paper is to unravel, examine and bring out my personal moral philosophies and how they affect my actions and decisions on a day to day basis and further down explain the effects of having these philosophies.

Personal Moral Philosophy

Ever since I was able to make a distinction from right and wrong, the concept of morality has been something that I value so much. To be precise, many of the numerous decisions I’ve made over the years I have considered ethical according to my personal moral compass. These values I hold mostly come from the various experiences and times spent with my parents, teachers, mentors and my fellow peers. I gathered knowledge on these thing from socialization with the group of people I’ve interacted with an example of this is getting congratulated for greeting people, being welcoming and sharing to name a few on the contrary doing something that would be considered wrong I would be condemned from behaving that way. ).

A moral principle that I hold dearly on how I interact and treat others is The Golden Rule, with its origins mainly found from religious teachings most notable biblical texts it certainly is a proper way to deal with situations when interacting with other people. It certainly needed no further explaining that I should be able to treat others how I’d like to be treated. I find it helpful many at time to step back and think of whether the actions I’m taking towards someone else would go right with me. Through the experiences we undergo the slowly shape and mold your moral values as well as affect the decision you make on a daily basis. A personal example of this is growing up in a single parent family introduced me to the idea of death earlier than perhaps normal, but that showed me the fragility and shortness of human life. Because of those occurrences I saw the need to use the short time I have as wisely as possible as well as seeking happiness, the pursuit of happiness some would say.

As a result I arrived at various guidelines that will propel me further into my personal pursuit of happiness and a good life, one of which being You Only Live Once simply encouraging me to take chances and calculated risk for the betterment of myself. I’ve experienced great help from in when it came to ethical dilemmas as well as general decision making. Almost all cultures in the world developed or adopted a system of beliefs and ideological truths that can be defined as Religion. As a result a large number of people derive moral principles from religious teachings and leaders and justifiably so many of these teachings have been proven to improve the quality of life. However, myself being an atheist I would say that these teachings are helpful but I would argue that the framework and source of these religious norms originate from the social nature of humans and not from religious promoters. For example our closest relatives the apes don’t go around killing because they lack the Ten Commandments or a clergy, it is because of their social nature that is exhibited by social living mammals.

When Einstein was questioned on Religion and science he expressed the following “For science can only ascertain only what is, abut not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgements of all kinds remains necessary. ” Religion on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of human thought and actions; it cannot justifiably speak facts and relationships between facts, this is why I personally believe that humans do not need religious teachings in our modern society to guide their moral compass.

Another one of my Moral principles is living a simple life. Nature can be often seen as a lazy creator as its creations usually take millions of years to be complete and likewise to experience change, it can also be observed that nature like to take the route with the least resistance as well as one that uses the least amount of energy for example the hexagonal shape used by bees to make bee hives is the simplest and least energy consuming shape the bees could use. It is without a doubt that many of the human inventions over our evolution have been greatly influenced by the established mechanics of nature and nature still does them to some extent better than our technology. It is by the argument above that I follow in nature’s path by using its principle of least resistance and simplicity. Respect has great significance in daily life. As a child I was shown to respect our parents, instructors, and seniors, school guidelines and traffic regulations, family and cultural customs. I believe that respect begets respect meaning if you properly respect a person they are more than likely to respect you back. I believe that to gain respect from others, you have to give it first. I strive to respect everyone I come in contact with, as I know they all might have overcome obstacles or faced tough times to get to where they are today. I don't assign respect as per status. I have immense respect for my professors, for my peers, and for everyone else who is around me.

Conclusion

The end result is that if your moral philosophies which greatly affect how we interact with the people around us as well as guide the different decisions we make daily, these moral philosophies should be based upon values that are considered right by the society around you. I believe the morals I have brought forth are in line with the values that are upheld by the society around me and they will be helpful in decision making as well as resolving issues. I believe that adhering to the fundamentals of my moral code I’ll be able to lead a happy and fulfilling life.