THE
DEVELOPMENT OF MORALITY IN HUMAN LIFE: AN OVERVIEW
Dr. Desh Raj
Sirswal
Abstract
Presently
philosophers, social theorists, educationists and legal scholars are busy with
issues of contemporary importance such as affirmative actions, animal’s rights,
capital punishment, cloning, euthanasia, immigration, pornography, privacy in
civil society, values in nature, human rights, cultural values and world hunger
etc. Since ancient time ethics is one of the most important part of
philosophical speculations and human development. The development of morality
comes under three stages viz. intrinsic morality, customary morality and
reflective morality. Intrinsic morality has traditionally been thought to lie at
the heart of ethics and this is the first stage of morality where the objective
is to be moral is to lead one’s life according its basic needs. Customary morality is the second stage of
morality, where customs of a particular group and tribe rule the life of the
man living in this group and morals based on the customs and traditions of
society. Members of the group are
motivated to sacrifice their lives to save the culture and norms of the
particular group or tribe. In the last reflective morality, man started
thinking himself and started to do reflection on their life and contributed to
the development of the nation or society where he/she lives. Here he/she is
independent to think and follow the best for his life. Reflective morals are
those that are based on what you believe to be right and not others. The ideas
related to the development of art, values, human rights and quality education
etc., all are because of man’s reflection. Reflective morality is the best
stage of development of morality in human society. In this paper an attempt is
made to draw an outline of development of morality in human life and its
application of morality in public and personal life.
Note:To be presented at National Conference on Holistic Human Development: Contribution of Multidisciplinary Research, 24th- 26th, February, 2013, Department of Home Science, University of Rajasthan,Jaipur
