Moral Uncertainty in a Time of Confusion

Moral uncertainty isn’t new. Socrates tried to teach the young how to lead a virtuous life by taking no assumption for granted, by questioning nearly everything, an approach to moral education considered so subversive that he was condemned to death for such teaching. The 12th-century Jewish scholar Maimonides, finding that existing texts didn't sufficiently address themselves to contemporary worries, wrote The Guide for the Perplexed.

What is new is that more and more we live in settings where conflicting values come into play. Through mass media and living in a nation of immigrants, we are exposed to a variety of moral codes that now reach around the world.

Some turn to a single text for answers, a clear-cut, no-nonsense guide. But which book? After Socrates' death, two of his students took divergent paths. Plato and Aristotle disagreed about ethics, the former believing in eternal values and the latter in the need for judgment in particular situations. Jesus broke with the Jewish establishment of his time, placing the spirit of the law above a strict interpretation of it, emphasizing motive over consequence. Martin Luther challenged the Roman Catholic Church over the seat of authority and from that created a degree of moral uncertainty that was new.

Ancient society also experienced moral conflict. Abraham must choose between obeying God and the life of his son. Antigone must choose between the laws of state and the religious and familial duty to bury her brother. However, the challenge posed by moral conflict may be more urgent for us today than ever before because so few customs exist upon which everyone agrees, increasing the number of ethical questions that can’t be settled by deferring to social norms.

There is no escaping making ethical decisions, but not everything you do hinges on morality, not every situation is an ethical one. Some decisions are nonmoral, such as deciding upon a particular flavor of ice cream.

However, if someone asks, "Why am I addicted to alcohol?" she is raising a psycho-biological question that confronts motivation, cause, and effect.

And if the person asks, "How do I stop drinking?" she is raising a practical question.

But if the person asks, "Ought I to stop drinking?" she is asking a moral question. Ethical considerations arise when you try to evaluate actions in terms of "right vs. wrong" or "good vs. bad." What is the right thing to do? Was it a good thing to do? What must I do to live a full and meaningful life?

In the drinking example, the question becomes ethical when the person wonders whether drinking is desirable. Certainly, the person desires to drink. The implicit question is, are all desires worthy of being indulged? To put it another way, is that which is desired desirable? To answer this question, a series of other questions follow, such as: What effect does drinking have upon the person? How does it affect his health and character? What effect does it have upon others? Is this the best way to spend money? What pleasures are solitary and private? Whose business is it, anyway, that the person chooses to drink? The simple question, "Ought I to stop drinking?" is entangled in a web of other questions that become progressively philosophical and abstract. Yet the question remains embedded in a real situation, and the answers demand particular actions having real consequences.

Many life decisions are, at least in part, ethical ones. The choices you face regarding work, for example, have multiple moral dimensions. Here are some examples: deciding upon a fair salary; deciding whether to do everything asked of you; figuring out what to do with confidentially acquired information; understanding to what extent you have a right to privacy; deciding upon the extent to which you will compromise in order to keep your job; understanding your responsibility to your coworkers; balancing what you owe to your place of employment with what you owe to your family; deciding whether your work is meaningful or whether it is even important to engage in meaningful work; understanding in what way your work contributes to or hinders the welfare of others.

Considering questions such as these keeps us on track to leading an ethical life while at the same time keeping us from being moralistic or sanctimonious.