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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Social and Moral Responsibility The Concept of Morality There is no doubt that the concept of morality is disputed, but Wilson (1990) reminds us that there is a difference between words and concepts. While ‘moral’ may mean different things in different contexts, the concept of morality is common.

Hersch et al (1980) state that morality has three elements : caring (involving social motivation and social knowledge); judging (making judgements about competing moral issues in relation to a consistent moral principle); acting (an action not being moral or immoral in itself but dependent on the caring and judging it is based on).

However, defining morality is complex and Wilson draws on Plato and Aristotle’s deliberations to suggest that ‘the central use of ‘moral’ refers to a certain set of underlying dispositions, to the basic ecology….of human desires, emotions and deeds.’ (p82) Wilson goes on to argue that morality is not something we can accept or reject as suggested by Warnock (1971) because it underpins all human activities, even those concerned with non-moral issues.

Eshelman (2004) states than any theory of moral responsibility should discuss the concept of moral responsibility; the criteria for being a moral agent; the conditions under which moral responsibility is properly applied (where an agent has acted with free will and is able to make choices) and ‘objects of responsibility ascriptions’ (those things that we can ascribe moral responsibility to such as actions or non-actions). A key part of this discussion is how morality can be determined.

Concerns about determining the moral virtues have given way to focusing on trying to determine what is moral behaviour and what is not and criteria or principles for determining what is right and what is wrong. These questions have a different significance since the hegemony of the church in determining absolute moral values gave way to more individualistic and subjective views of values during the Reformation (Carr, 1999).

Subsequent theories of morality focus more on the role of moral reasoning in achieving human goals rather than any absolute concept of moral values. As such, normative ethical theories emerged, dealing with efforts to determine how right and wrong can be classified and translated into rules for human conduct. Consequentialist theories hold that it is the consequences of an action that determine its morality, not the character of the action itself.