Morals

[denny]

Thinking about one of the questions I asked in my Blunt Truth survey thing:
Do I have good morals?

How do you interpret that? I read it as "do you think I adhere to my own moral code?", but it's also possible to interpret it as "do you approve of my moral code?" or "does my moral code match that which society expects?".

Here's what I said on IRC earlier on the subject:
<denny> I happen to have a strong personal moral code... it just doesn't sync up well with what is legally or socially expected in this country.

Thoughts?

Comments

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

It's terrible of me to have done so, but I read and answered it as "do you approve of my moral code". Shouldn't have, of course, but I suppose I wasn't quite thinking.

E.
x

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I think that's how most people will answer it - and as gothslut points out below, there are few people who would be able to separate what I do from what I believe, so they couldn't answer any other way really...

You and her being two of the few of course  :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Well i took it as "Do you see the way i behave as morally right" and i put 7, because you generally *do* do what i see to be the right thing, and if you don't it's generally because you didn't know something at the time, or because you were half asleep or high. So in intention i'd give you an 8 or 9 i suppose.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

I read it as sort of a combination of the first two. That is, "Do you approve of the morals which I apparently adhere to". I guess that could also be phrased as "Does your apparent moral code match mine", but I don't think that society's morals has anything to do with what an individual thinks of yours.

The individual in question may have similar morals to that of their society, but that's not really relevent to their judgement of yours.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suppose it's fairly difficult to separate someone's actions from their intent unless you've talked with them a lot, so most people's answer would be based on my 'apparent' morals. That's probably the best way for me to interpret the results anyway...

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

Do I have good morals? = Do you agree with the morals that I display?
Do I have a good moral code? = Do you agree with the morals that I claim?

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Hrm. Yeah, that sounds fair.

[kissycat1000.livejournal.com]

I actually answered that question from the point of view that I do believe you have morals, that they make sense to you, and that you have a strong sense of things that are immoral to you personally.
I didn't answer from a judgemental point of view, i.e. I didn't judge the validity of your morals. I certainly believe you have them, and I also believe that I'd probably agree with the reasoning and/or feelings behind most if not all of them. But that's not why I answered the way I did. (I gave you a strong yes.)

[goddesssnoweh.livejournal.com]

[denny] I happen to have a strong personal moral code... it just doesn't sync up well with what is legally or socially expected in this country

heh heh heh - sounds rather simaler to my moral code .... :p