In class Tuesday, we discussed the meaning of morality and the values associated with the meaning. Professor Perrone began the class by asking what society was. From my own perspective, I though of a society as a group of people interacting for a common good. As a class, we were able to agree on the fact that society differs with each nation. For example, the social norms in Brazil are totally different from the social norms in the United States. What citizens of each nation wear to the beach is a prime example of this. Although social norms are distinct in each country, people share a list of common core of values. Some of these values include; not killing others, not depriving freedom, and being honest. Many of the common core values people believe in constitute as laws. However, something may be lawful but immoral. An example of this would be the Jim Crow laws passed in the 1880s. Although blacks and whites are equal as humans, this law legalized the segregation between the two ethnicities because of skin color. The Jim Crow laws are what we refer to as a moral dilemma. Later on in class, we established the difference between morals and ethics. Morals are defined as rules that allow us to get along. Ethics are simply a means to which we solve a moral dilemma. In the case of the Jim Crow laws, the case which ended the moral dilemma was Brown vs. Board of Education. The case involved a young black woman being enrolled into a predominantly white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. From this case, the Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. This hearing proved to be the ethical solution to the problem. A theory which we discussed as a class towards the end of the period was Rawl’s Theory of Justice. This theory is composed of two points. The first one states that one’s claims for “adequate” rights and benefits must be consistent with the claims of others. The second point explains that inequalities are only fair if everyone has equal opportunities for growth and if the inequalities benefit the least advantaged. During the Jim Crow laws, it is clear that this theory wasn’t in effect within United States. However, with the aid of individuals leading the civil rights movement, Rawl’s Theory of Justice quickly came into play in the United States.
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