Moral_Reasoning

The topic that I choose to discuss is “Should there be a set of uniform moral standards'” This particular topic fascinates me and I believe I could provide some good principles about this topic. Foremost, I do believe that individuals should live their lives by a set of moral standards. I think that not living by a set of moral standards would be considered irrational and not true. I truly believe that whatever an individual’s opinion may be on this particular issue, they still in some way or another live their lives by a set of moral standards and values. In my opinion, if all people didn’t live their lives by moral standards and values, than the world would be in way more chaos then it is now. Moral standards are important for living life because they are in fact, designed by God to keep individuals from doing what’s wrong, but rather what’s good. Similar to the laws in today’s time, I believe that our laws basically derive from the laws that God put into place ages ago. If an individual doesn’t take a moment to stop and reason, then sometimes this can lead to serious punishment and consequences. Moreover, some of the late great philosophers also based their ideas off of or similar to these very same principles. For example, Socrates was considered to be one of the first philosophers to touch upon the idea of moral choice. He believed that self-knowledge was the most important factor in human decision making. Socrates stated, “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” Another example is the ideas and views of philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas believed that an act of good or evil could be determined by its outcome. He believed that the moral life would lead to happiness and a strong union with God. Meanwhile, philosopher Immanuel Kant too held his own ideas of how people should live their lives by moral standards. Kant believed that moral goodness was unrelated to pleasure. Instead, he explained that each person has a duty to contemplate a moral decision using rational thought and act with the right motivation regardless of the consequences. In addition, other philosophers such as Descartes, Aristotle, Epicurus, Hegel, etc, all too held ideas of moral living.