Moral norms and their basic functions

Moral norms are one of the ways to regulate a person's behavior. Some definitions add to it an amendment: the behavior of a person in society, however, such an understanding of moral norms greatly narrows them and does not allow to include in them the concept of morality, which has a more individualized meaning and content.

They are a very important element of a person's life, because they determine his behavior and reflect the self-awareness, self-understanding. At first glance, this phenomenon seems artificially derived, but it arose naturally for objective reasons.

People have long understood that life in a common environment has its own rules and laws, breaking which can only achieve negative consequences. For example, a primitive man created himself more comfortable conditions if he eliminated his competitors, destroying their homes and themselves, if he existed separately. But when he began to live in a community where all elements are connected, and, in fact, try to live for the sake of the common good, it became clear that destroying them would lead only to the worst. Therefore, one of the basic moral norms emerged, in which the value of human life is reflected and the prohibition on murder is formed.

Morality is formed by the surrounding reality and at the same time it corrects it. This proposition proves that its roots go back to the evaluative capacity of a person: he sees what is happening, evaluates the outcome of the process and determines whether it is bad or good.

Now this assessment comes from the point of view of humanistic potential: how much events and actions of people contribute to development and creation. The basic concepts of good and evil are considered only from this aspect, and this, for sure, is the most reasonable of all possible options.

However, unfortunately, sometimes in the society they resort to fraudulent methods, and under the guise of high moral ideas (in order not to cause a wave of indignation in society and get supporters) bring chaos, destruction and confusion. Most wars are based on this method: "we liberate the people", "we revenge, keeping honor" - it would seem that these are rather noble moral deeds, however, the harm and destruction that they result in is incomparable to any norm of morality . So the society is deceived, and the valuation function of morality is atrophied, because The assessment turned out to be erroneous, and humanity has not received any building and development.

Moral norms as a regulator of behavior

Unfortunately, at present they are not enough as a regulator: power, legal, administrative and a number of other methods are needed to correct human behavior. Nevertheless, morality is unique in its manifestation in a person's life, because it does not need to be disclosed and documented underpinnings (like other methods of regulation). The person himself realizes how he needs to behave in society, and even without knowing all the legal norms by heart, he, guilty, realizes that he did wrong and objectively for this must pay a penalty.

In an elementary example, the situation is as follows: if someone has stepped on one's foot, then an apology is not due to imprisonment for this, but because the person who does it is unhappy with what he did to the other. And this is the highest manifestation of the connection between morality and morality: self-perception is inextricably linked with the feeling of others in society.

On the same principle, there are moral and ethical norms in the professional sphere, since there are a number of occupations in which a person can exceed his powers and enjoy the position. For example, among them are doctors, journalists, military, etc. Representatives of these professions either receive secret information, or contact directly with a person according to their activities and, without observing the ethical professional code, can hurt him very much. In a word, their actions can be destructive and there are rules against it.

Moral standards as a criterion

The behavior of some people can be a way to educate others. Here, moral norms fulfill the educational function according to the traditional type: one generation passes on its experience to the next, and so mankind retains its image. Children learn by examples of older people how to behave, and then, having absorbed into themselves through the tales and real examples of the concept of good and evil, grow up and teach their children.

Thus, life is weakly represented without morality, because it is one of those important facets that separate a person from an animal.