Translated from Latin, the word "morality" means "that which concerns morals." This is the science of human behavior in society, the permissible and unacceptable ways of his action in certain situations, the purpose of the existence of civilization as a whole and of each person individually. In a broad sense, morality is the science of good and evil.
In any society there are written and unwritten rules that determine what can be done and what is strictly prohibited. These rules are not necessarily legally binding. The one who violates them is not always punished by the state and its structures, but may become an outcast in society. In these cases, they say that the person has violated the moral principles accepted in his environment. A striking example of the discrepancy between laws and moral principles are duels, with the help of which representatives of the nobility in the past resolved many disputes. Such fights were prohibited by law in many countries, but refusal to duel in the eyes of this class was often an offense much more serious than breaking the law.
The concept of morality was formed in ancient Greece. Moral Socrates called the science of man, as opposed to physics, which dealt with natural phenomena. This is a part of philosophy that tries to answer the question about the true purpose of man. The ancient Greeks tried to do this. According to the epicureans and hedonists, the true purpose of human existence is happiness. The Stoics developed their concept and defined this goal as a virtue. Their position was reflected in the views of philosophers of later eras - for example, Kant. The position of his "philosophy of duty" is based on the fact that a person cannot be just happy, he must deserve this happiness.
There are ideal and real morals, and the second does not always coincide with the first. For example, the ten commandments are the foundation of Christian morality. Ideally, every Christian should follow them. However, numerous wars, including religious ones, were a clear violation of the prohibition to kill. In each belligerent country, other moral norms were adopted that were more consistent with the needs of society in a particular era. It was they, in combination with the commandments, that represented the real morality. Modern philosophers see morality as a way to preserve a society. Its task is to reduce conflicts. It is primarily seen as a theory of communication.
The moral principles of each individual person are formed in the process of education. The child learns them primarily from parents and other people around him. In some cases, the assimilation of moral norms occurs in the process of adaptation of a person with already established views to another society. This problem is constantly faced, for example, by migrants.
Along with public morality, there is also individual morality. Each person, performing this or that act, finds himself in a situation of choice. It is influenced by a variety of factors. Submission to moral norms can be purely external, when a person performs some action only because it is accepted in his environment and his behavior will cause sympathy among others. Such a morality Adam Smith defined as the morality of feeling. But motivation can also be internal, when a good deed causes the person who committed it to feel a sense of harmony with himself. This is one of the principles of the morality of inspiration. According to Bergson, an act must be dictated by a person's own nature.
In literary criticism, morality is often understood as the conclusion that follows from the description. For example, morality exists in a fable, and sometimes in a fairy tale, when in the final lines the author explains in plain text what he wanted to say with his work.
