Morality is defined as principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong. Ethics, on the other hand, is the way in which we reason our morals. There also needs to be a distinction made between objective reasoning and knowledge and personal, subjective intuition regarding one's own well being. When events such as school shootings or terrorist bombings occur, we may not understand how the person or persons committing these acts can justify them, but the person committing the act does have a conscious motive to benefit themselves. Perhaps it’s an act of revenge, or to please their god. Doing wrong to others isn’t right, but the motivations of a person to commit such actions dictates the character of the will involved. The benefit of the horrendous action may only be perceived by the person committing it. And, if a person acts out of a compulsion, then they are unable to make an actual choice and therefore are removed from the sphere of morality. If one is unable to choose, they are unable to be moral, since moral is a measure of choosing right versus wrong. Socrates believed that choices serve to meet the end goal that the person choosing seeks to obtain, and not the ways through which the end goal was obtained. People don’t do things if they perceive them to be harmful …show more content…
And he who knows how to achieve happiness will do so. Therefore, he who knows what is right will do right, because why would anybody choose to be unhappy?” which is something I do believe in [Gaarder, 70]. It is very difficult to think of a situation in which a person committing a wrongful action is doing so with no motive to benefit themselves or relieve their suffering. Take stealing for instance. While it is of popular objective opinion that stealing is wrong, the people who steal experience a benefit through the act of theft that makes them feel the ‘wrongful’ action results in obtaining something that will improve their lives. Even if the act being committed causes the person some form of harm, the person committing the action is seeking what will benefit them, and the benefit is perceived as being more powerful than the potential harm. An example of this can be the use of drugs. Drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and meth are known to do harm to people’s bodies but it does provide a high to the user, a moment of stress relief and bliss. The harming of themselves is a means to receive the benefit of the high. The drug user does not self harm for the sake of harming themselves, it is the effect of the harm that they seek. In that moment of decision making, the perceived benefit (the high) is more important than the ways in which they obtain it