Elizabeth Soto

Ways of Knowing
10/20/15
Final Draft
Morality is Just as Dead as Chivalry
Morality is an interesting term to come across in daily life and define. Most would
describe it as what determines "right" and "wrong" and I would have to agree. While that might
have been the intent of morality, it doesn't mean it is practiced as such today. Morality was built
into culture when culture was just becoming developed, this was when times were simpler and
less complicated. With smaller groups it would be easier to define what morality is and have a
consensus of what's considered "right" and "wrong." However the world has grown so vast in
today's time that it is almost impossible to have agreement on morals. What one culture might
find immoral, another group might feel the opposite way. There is not one moral in this world
nowadays that is universally agreed upon as "right" or "wrong." Folkways are defined as, "The
folkways, at a time, provide for all the needs of life... They are uniform, universal in the group,
imperative, and invariable," (Sumner, 20.) Folkways are the basis of a culture, they are passed
down through generations. They can be treated as the values of the culture, mores however are
the laws that have been put into place to abide by folkways. Although mores are thought up for a
good reason, it doesn't mean they are applicable to modern day life.
Folkways and mores can be considered outdated, they were made and developed and
thought of hundreds of years ago when cultures were just being made and introduced. For
example, throughout many cultures there are gender stereotypes that are enforced or laws laid
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down against women (normally) because that culture believes it's not right for a women to do
such things. In specific cultures they are by law supposed to cover their head at all times. That's
why the world is not advancing in certain places because they are staying in archaic times by not
shifting laws or changing them since it's customary, so culture is not advancing. That's what this
world needs as a whole, it needs to start moving away from dated beliefs and methods and into a
new world. Nothing can be done unless change occurs. Change is the tool for life, it can be scary
and can be hard but it is of the utmost importance to fix things when they are broken. Present
mores as of right now are broken and don't apply to modern day life and it is unfair as a
population to expect people of a different time to live in the past so to speak. While the world
needs to bring about change, that doesn't mean that the folkways need to alter and shift. These
are the values that the culture itself stands upon and it is not good to disrupt the structure of
these, they can even be thought of as virtues of a person.
Virtues are made up of Kindness, Honesty, Justice, and Independence. Now while the
idea of virtues are right and they are a good thing to center or abide by in your life, that does not
make that applicable to everyone in the world. Many people will mistakenly call cruelty honesty
because they don't know any better. Independence in itself is a hard one to describe.
Independence can take on too many different things and while someone may think they're
independent, they're really not. Independence is something that one gains, not that one receives.
A person must strive to gain their independence and it comes little by little. Most people would
not be considered independent because in one little way or another you must count on someone
for something. There is no independence because you would not be human if you were
completely independent. You have friends and family that support you and while you may be
paying your own bills and buying your own food. That doesn't mean you're alone and depending

on just yourself. Also the act of abiding by all four virtues in this day and age is quite taxing,
they all build and play off of one another, so not having one could lead to not having all four and
there wouldn't be a point then. There seems to be no point in trying to be moral or anything of
that sort if you can't follow the sacred virtues first. The only one that can stand alone as a simple
choice of whether you'd do it or not is an act of kindness. A person chooses to be kind or not so
that's not a hard one to follow; however it becomes unnecessarily difficult when you're not
expected something return for your kindness (receiving kindness back). I feel that's impossible
for humans, we all have instincts that allow us to give and take from one another. And when one
finds a balance between two is when they can be happy. Instincts are an interesting part of
someone's thoughts and feelings. This is because instincts are basically what makes up the brain
and how one processes everything, specifically this is what we call empathy.
Empathy should be one of the virtues, it's a key part to the human life. Empathy is
inherently in a person whether they like it or not. It's human instinct to be able to feel for others
and have sympathy for them. It's unnatural if they don't, and those are usually the psychopaths
that society hides away and discards. Empathy is a key part in morals because I believe that's
what makes morals even possible. Empathy gives us the power to feel a variety of emotions such
as compassion, sadness, anger, fear, etc for another person. We feel what others feel and that
plays into morality because the thought of what's "right" and "wrong" wouldn't exist without
empathy. Empathy is what helps tell us what feels good and what feels bad so empathy is the
basis of morality. The basis of morality is what brings us around full circle back to defining
"right" or "wrong." Morality does not exist, and this is because this world refuses to change and
grow out of their archaic laws and ideas.

These so called "universal laws" are out of date, everyone thinks on an individual basis to
some degree and while views can certainly be similar everyone still has their own definition of
what "right" and "wrong" is. So I find it quite pointless to create a consensus when there won't be
a good outcome because there's not going to be a universal agreement that all people want. Being
immoral is also an interesting concept because let's say if I killed someone then that would be
hugely immoral, unforgivable in most cultures, but if I had done it out of self defense then that
would be considered a just thing to do. Killing is immoral but under certain circumstances it's
OK to do. Morality, to me, should not have those kind of flaws in the way they work, they
should work in only one way and not have exceptions but they do anyway. Morals should be
defined more as the way you treat someone/want to be treated. Morality shouldn't soley be based
on your actions and what sort of things you partake in but in how you treat others and hold
yourself as a human being.

Works Cited
McGinn, Colin. "Moral Literacy or How to Do the Right Thing." (1992): 14. Print.
Rescher, Nicholas. "Distributive Justice." (1967): 5. Print.
Sumner , William G. "Folkways and Ethical Relativism." (1985): 8. Print.