• What are moral standards?
• Characteristics of moral norms
• Examples of moral norms
• Moral norms and legal norms
• Other types of standards

We explain what moral standards are, their characteristics and examples. In addition, its relationship with legal norms.

Moral norms indicate what behaviors are not acceptable in a society.

What are moral standards?

Moral norms are those that society uses to decide what seems good, correct or adequate. They can be explicit or not, and are defined by going to a tradition cultural and traditional values, not a written code or established by consensus, as in the case of the legal norms.

The moral norms, thus, come from the society and they are learned by each subject. They are exercised by each individual at will, being able in many cases to choose not to do so.

This, contrary to other types of rules, does not carry any effective sanction, other than remorse or, depending on the norm, rejection by society. However, in many cases moral norms coincide with legal norms, and their violation may be both an immorality and an immorality. crime.

The morality of societies is a vast subject to study, and it responds to the confluence of numerous historical and cultural factors, such as the religion, the social development, etc. That is why I considered it moral in some times and societies it may well be immoral in others, and that is why a certain change in the idea of ​​morality is occurring from generation to generation.

Characteristics of moral norms

Broadly speaking, moral norms have an ethical and philosophical content, which instead of being the result of consensus, comes from a particular way of understanding and exercising cultural identity.

All societies have some kind of moral norms. It is also possible that the same society presents variations of the moral norm depending on the socioeconomic stratum or the class.

Regarding its characteristics, the moral norms are at the same time:

• Heteronomous. They are imposed on each individual by the community without consulting him.
• Autonomous. Its fulfillment depends on the ethical disposition of each one, carrying, more than a specific sanction, the rejection of others and self-mortification.

Examples of moral norms

Examples of moral norms vary enormously from society to society. For example, in Islamist societies, it is considered immoral for women to wear their hair down, or to show significant portions of their skin.

Instead, in the West this is an ordinary, everyday reality. Furthermore, it would seem immoral to Westerners for a woman to be severely punished for not covering her hair or skin with a cloth, as is the custom of the most orthodox Islamic practitioners.

Something similar occurs with pederasty, a common practice in classical Greece of the Antiquity, but that nowadays we not only consider immoral, but we have also chosen to penalize by law, making it a crime.

Similarly, homosexuality was viewed as immoral in numerous regions of the globe. Still in fact in some it is even punishable by law; But most Western countries, on the other hand, is something more or less accepted.

Moral norms and legal norms

In many cases, as in the case of robbery, the moral norm coincides with the legal norm.

There is a significant gap between legal norms and social norms. Although both are the result of society's control over itself, they come from very different instances.

Legal norms are part of the legal framework of a society, that is, of the basic administration of Justice and order, as established in the Magna Carta. On the other hand, moral norms are part of the cultural, religious or emotional tradition of society itself.

This means that while legal norms deal with the management Of justice, moral norms deal with what society traditionally considers good, correct or in good taste.

Moral norms are to a certain extent enforceable, since society all watches over their fulfillment, even being part of an invisible code in many cases. In others, on the other hand, certain moral positions are reflected in legal norms, and in this case both perspectives converge.

For example, many civil or urban codes contemplate the crime of immorality or lewd acts on public roads, punishing those who, for example, have sexual relations on public roads or show themselves naked in front of others, for example.

Other types of standards

Norms or normative orders can be of many types, according to the authority that issues them or the vital space that they try to regulate or control. Thus, it is possible to also speak of:

• Religious norms. Emanated from institutions religious and of a personal and voluntary nature, regulate the spiritual life of people, through adherence to a code or a philosophy considered as the way to salvation or elevation.
• Legal norms. That arise from a judicial or legal authority, and constitute the body of laws with which a society governs itself, in a coercive way.
• Social norms. Product of need coexistence of the individuals of a community, and that come from mutual agreement and consensus.