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Ethics Homepage >  The Problems of Ethics > Internal Moral Standards (Solution)        

Abstract:  One means of solving the case study is offered, and some general conclusions about the difference between moral standards and ethical standards is illustrated.

Most persons do not have much difficulty assessing which situations are better or worse than others. The fact that we can set up a hierarchy of values indicates we have an internal moral standard of some sort.

To get an idea of this hierarchy of values, we will do the following analysis:

(1)  Separate the emotive appeals and establish a rule against the activity.
(2)  Then, generalize to the general category of action.
3)  Thereby, when looking at the categories, we can see that which we tend to value most deeply.

The fact that different persons differ on their values indicates differences in temperament, upbringing, experience, and thought.

 Generalizations made by a previous class divided in three groups are shown as follows (rated from worst to best):

Would the fact that all groups agree that the Survival situation is the worst indicate anything about a universal standard? Would data of this kind be relevant to the question of whether a universal ethical standard can be formulated?

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