Philosophy Now Forum

can't we do as we please in life?

I like to think of it in terms of comparing "morality" (norwegian: moral) with its sister meaning associated with things like "the morale of the army", "the morale of the workers", and so forth.

We have certain desires in the world and to attain those desires we must emphasize, make preferences, and so forth as to what we are gonna do before something else. Also, from experience or from common sense we understand that choosing one thing might exclude another.

Morality is therefore the spirit we carry with us that regulates what we do and how we act in our daily lives to preserve what we want to preserve and to fend off what we want fended off. Sometimes morality is corrupt and doesn't serve us, like I would say about a lot of Orthodox religious morality, and sometimes morality is a blessing when it enters our lives, like when obedience to a well-made set of laws makes for an efficient and smooth running society, or when a business chooses to exploit natural and human resources with care and a sense of humanity.

Yes, we can do exactly as we please in life...but there are consequences to any individual or group action...some of which adversely affect others. This is where individual or societal codes involving a sense of right and wrong come into play...

This kind of 'morality' matters.

Your thoughts ?