What ARE Moral Values, Anyway?!

People mix different words together under one meaning, and different people mean different things when they use the same word.

That is why it is important to define what one is talking about. Is is especially true for the terms Moral Values and Ethics. What follow is just one definition, and you may have your own, but it is an attempt to bring some clarity in the ongoing discussion about moral values.

Some people may actually have difficulties with the term morality. Some may think it is inseparable from religion. Others may have had experiences that have given the term morality a negative connotation. Some of this the tension and emotions around the term morality can be eased by looking at the definition of morality, ethics and moral values in the Random House Webster’s English dictionary:

"Morality is conformity to the rules of right conduct."

These rules are based on what is defined as ethics. Ethics is a theory, based on a philosophy or world view. For example Christianity, or Islam, or Humanism, or Hedonism.

So you have a morality, that is, rules of right conduct, which is based on an ethics, which in turn is a theory based on a philosophy.

Value literally means worth and importance.

When brought together, the term moral values asks what something is worth or important in terms of right conduct.

It may become more clear if you juxtapose it to other values, ie. monetary values. They ask what something is worth or important in terms of money, not in terms of right conduct.

So to summarize, morality is not necessarily linked to one religion. Moral values simply come out of concerns over right conduct. But right conduct is not limited to any single religion or other philosophy such as humanism, and is not limited to any single two issues; nor is there a definition of right conduct that would need to be imposed on all.

For example a person may base his or her decisions on what is right to do, not simply on money, which would be monetary values.

You can argue that all major reforms in the U.S. were driven by people guided by their moral values, such as the end of slavery, women’s rights, civil rights.