IT 6202: Social Issues and Professional Practice

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Module 1: Morality and Law

Module 1: Morality and Law

Course Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this module, a student is able to:
1. Define morality and law and identify the differences between each.
2. Determine the elements that make up the moral system
3. Determine the differences of the philosophical study of morality from
studying morality from the perspectives of religion and law.
4. Determine the roles of classic and contemporary ethical theories in
the analysis of moral issues involving cybertechnology.

Human beings do not live randomly. Whether one believes in a superior deity or an
atheist, it is a common fact that humans acknowledge the existence of human life mainly
because the chance of life itself. For example, an individual is alive because of someone’s
nurturing and protection from adversities.
Humans tend to follow a script; a life script that contains hundreds of subscripts.
These are the set of rules of conduct that are either consciously or unconsciously followed
both for survival and for specific tasks. Such shared rules, written or not, play a vital role in
all human existence. For example, when you meet a stranger, you follow a subscript different
from the one you follow when you meet a long-lost friend. If you are hungry, the subscript
you follow is different from the one you use to overcome anger.
Believing in human life implies on the belief that life has a purpose. And because no
individual wants to live a life of pain, every human being believes in happiness as a purpose
for life.

Morality
The term morality refers to social conventions about right and wrong that are so
widely shared that they become the basis for an established consensus. It creates individuals
who possess virtues like love for others, compassion, and a desire for justice ---- thus, it
builds character traits in people. In particular, morality is a survival script individuals follow
for daily living.
However, individual views of what is moral may vary by age, cultural group, ethnic
background, religion, life experiences, education, and gender. There is widespread
agreement on the immorality of murder, theft, and arson, but other behaviors that are
accepted in one culture might be unacceptable in another. Even within the same society,
people can have strong disagreements over important moral issues.

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Module 1: Morality and Law

Rules of Conduct
According to James Moor (2004), policies range from formal laws to informal,
implicit guidelines for actions.
There are two kinds of rules of conduct:
1. Directives
These are rules that guides individual actions and directs moral
choices at the “microethical” level. (Examples: “Do not steal” and
“Do not harm others”)
2. Social policies
These are the rules of conduct that operate at the macroethical level
that guides both framing and adhering to social policies. For
example, rules such as “Proprietary software should not be
duplicated without proper authorization,” or “Software that can be
used to invade the privacy of users should not be developed,” are
instances of social policies.
The rules of conduct in a moral system are evaluated against standards called
principles.
For example, the principle of social utility that is concerned with
promoting the greatest good for the greatest number, can be used to
determine whether the policy.
“Proprietary software should not be copied without permission” can be
justified on moral grounds.
In this case, the policy in question could be justified by showing that not
allowing the unauthorized copying of software will produce more overall
social good than will a policy that permits software to be duplicated
freely.
Because morality is territorial and culturally based, as long as an individual
lives in a society, that individual is bound to live within that society’s
guidelines. The actions of individuals in a society only have moral values if
taken within the context of this very society and the culture of the individual.
A number of factors influence the context of morality, including time and place.

The Moral System

According to Bernard Gert (2005, 2007), morality is a “system whose purpose
is to prevent harm and evils.” In addition to its fundamental purpose to
prevent harm and suffering, a moral system aims at promoting human
flourishing. While the rules of conduct and the principles of evaluation are the
heart of a moral system, one should also consider other characteristics that
define a moral system.

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Module 1: Morality and Law

There are four other characteristics that define a moral system.

1. Public - the system is public because everyone must know what the
rules are that define it.
Example: Analogy of a Game
Each game has a goal and a corresponding set of rules that is
understood by all of the players. These rules guides the behavior
of the players to legitimately achieve the goal of the game. The
rules can also be used to evaluate or judge the behavior of other
players in the game.
NOTE: there is one important difference between a moral
system and a game: Not everyone is required to participate in
a game, but we are all obligated to participate in a moral
system.
2. Informal - a moral system also has no formal authoritative judges
presiding over it.
Example: Game of Cards
Here the players are aware of the rules, but even in the absence of
a formal official or referee to enforce the game’s rules, players
generally adhere to them.
3. Rationality - it is based on principles of logical reason accessible to
ordinary persons. The rules in a moral system must be available to
all rational persons who, in turn, are moral agents, bound by the
system of moral rules. It doesn’t involve special knowledge that can
be understood only by privileged individuals or groups.
4. Impartial - the moral rules are ideally designed to apply equitably
to all participants in the system. In an ideal moral system, all
rational persons are willing to accept the rules of the system, even
if they do not know in advance what their particular place in that
system will be.
Example: Blindfold Game
Imagine that you are blindfolded while deciding what the rules of
a moral system will be. Since you do not know in advance what
position you will occupy in that system, it is in your own best
interest to design a system in which everyone will be treated fairly.
The Moral Code
Moral codes are, as defined by the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, rules
or norms within a group for what is proper behavior for the members of that
group. The norm itself is a rule, standard, or measure for us to compare
something else whose qualities we doubt.
Moral codes are often complex definitions of right and wrong that are based
upon well-defined group’s value systems.

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In a way, moral codes are shared behavioral patterns of a group. These

patterns have been with us since the beginnings of human civilization and
have evolved mainly for the survival of the group or society.
Although different cultures have different codes, there have been some
timeless and culture-free moral codes that have been nearly universally
observed.
a. The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you.”
b. The Silver Rule: “Do not do unto others what you would not have
them do unto you.”
c. The Bronze Rule: “Repay kindness with kindness.”
d. The Iron Rule: “Do unto others as you like, before they do it unto
you.”
e. The Tin Rule: “Pay homage to those above you and intimidate
those below you.”
f. The Nepotism Rule: “Give precedence in all things to close
relatives, and do as you like to others.”
Morality and Religion
Religion, unlike morality, draws a lot from the divine. Most religious belief
systems include or are built around the idea of divine will and divine judgment.
However, many of these systems usually correspond to a moral code of
conduct, and because of this, many religions claim that religion and morality
are intimately connected.
Law
According to Webster’s Dictionary, law is a rule of conduct or an action recognized
by custom or decreed by a formal enactment, community, or group.
Legal acts are acts that conform to the law. Moral acts conform to what an individual
believes to be the right thing to do. Laws can proclaim an act as legal, although many
people may consider the act immoral—for example, abortion.
Types of Law
Humans tend to obey two (2) types of law:
The Natural Law
Natural law is an unwritten but universal law. It is a theory that an
eternal, absolute moral law can be discovered by reason and is derivable from
reason. Natural law is the anchor of our rights of self-preservation, liberty, and
property.
Before organized human societies, humans existed because of natural
law. It secured the environment in those human settlements for those
activities that sustain life, beginning with hunting and progressing through
business and commerce.

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For example: States with collapsed governments because of political

strife still has a functioning legal system and living their lives, even in the
absence of a central governing authority. Although they may not enjoy
all the pleasures of life, they have a way of protecting life, liberty, and
personal property.

Conventional Law
Conventional law is a system created by and for human beings usually
in public deliberations like a council of elders or representatives in national
legislatures. It derives from that part of the moral code which is enforceable
and varies from society to society and from culture to culture.
Conventional law takes two forms:
(1) declarative - simply restates what the natural law declares,
such as forbidding murder and theft, and
(2) determinative – fixes ways of acting in accordance with
natural law, such as in contracts, taxes, traffic, and other
types of laws.

Morality and Law

Although morality and the law seem to have a common purpose and the means to
achieve the stated purpose, the implementation of these means to achieve the purpose is
different.
The following are some of the major differences:
1. The process of making codes and laws:
Laws: these are enacted by authorities like councils of elders.
Moral codes: these are developed not by one central authority but by
all members of a society, over a period of time, from
experiences and reason.
2. Enforcement:
Laws: enforced by the authority that enacted them (e.g. judge, court)
and security forces (police).
Morality: self-enforced. There is no moral or ethical court to judge
moral wrongdoers.
3. Nature of punishments :
Law: Unlawful acts are punishable by penalties that depend on type,
nature, and civility of the action. If it is criminal, it may result in
incarceration, and if it is civil, it may result in payment of damages.
Moral: If the act is judged to be immoral, the judgment is usually based
on the individual’s perception of that society’s morality, and the
penalties imposed are also individually based.

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4. Conflict Resolution :
Laws: used to resolve interpersonal conflicts in a society.
Morality: used to harmonize intrapersonal conflicts.
5. Types of judgment :
Law: cannot normally govern what is in the person’s heart
Morality: passes judgment on a person’s intentions and character
based on what is in a person’s heart.
Because of these differences, it is correct to say that in any society, not all laws are
based on the morality of that society. Because morality is a higher and superior system, there
is only a small area where the two overlap, and there are many times when the two conflict.

References:
1. Kizza, Joseph Migga ; 2013; Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age (Fifth
Edition); London; Springer-Verlag;
2. Tavani, Herman T.; 2013; Ethics And Technology : Controversies, Questions, And
Strategies For Ethical Computing; New Jersey, USA; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
3. George Reynolds (2018) Ethics in Information Technology / Edition 6

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