I believe that universal moral values do not exist. Universal moral values can simply be put to this: a line is implanted within our minds the moment we gain consciousness, that line is equal for everyone at any time and it restricts us from doing what is beyond that line, what is ‘immoral’. That line does not exist. We do create lines in our heads, however, it is not implanted by some higher being or the universe, it is built by ourselves, each and every one of us builds our own line. We base the line from our time, our society, our conditioning. What we are conditioned to believe is wrong tend to be built into the line easily, one example of this is the action we define as murder. However, if we are conditioned in another way, we might not believe the action that is defined by murder is wrong. For example, Hitler murdered tens of thousands of Jewish people during his ethnic cleansing in Europe, but that action is exactly what we would define as murder. You may argue that Hitler did not consider the Jews as human and that in his interpretation that action is not a murder, therefore ‘One shall not murder’ stands as a universal moral value. But everyone has a different interpretation of everything and considering that: If we cannot even agree on our interpretations of what murder is, how can we decide whether it is good or bad?
4 thoughts on “Ethics: Universal Moral Values -Kelvin M.”
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Is there a word for the line that we draw in our heads or do we need to create a new word for this?
I do not think there is currently one word to perfectly describe that line, but perhaps it could be called ‘Ethical bottom line’?
I think you’re right. We can’t measure anyone by our own standards. Human beings are selfish in nature, and even our morals will start from our own benefit.
Thank you for your approval of my arguments. Though we are almost always selfish and working for personal benefits, I still believe that sometimes we may overcome that temptation to benefit to act as a better individual.