Any person does not live on his own, he is surrounded by other people. He must live in society, obeying established requirements. This is necessary for the survival of humanity, the preservation of the unity of society and the reliability of its improvement. But society does not require a person to sacrifice his own material interests for his sake, because principles have been established that are designed to uphold the needs and benefits of the individual. The moral foundations and spiritual guidelines of the individual are paramount.
The phenomenon of spirituality
The concept of spirituality involves two interpretations: secular and religious.
From the point of view of the first of them, spirituality is a person’s desire to embody in his life the highest values, such as goodness, beauty and truth, to realize himself through love for the world around him and to achieve an ideal.
From the point of view of a religious position, spirituality is understood as a deep connection between a person and God, the achievement of unity with him and the beginning of the process of “deification” of a person’s personality.
At the same time, both secular and religious positions assume that the source of spirituality is conscience, which is interpreted as a feeling of the connection between man and God (religious position) or a sense of internal harmony and justice (secular position).
Morality concept
The concept of morality requires a more specific interpretation. Usually this phenomenon is considered to be part of universal human culture, which contains universal moral values, moral norms, rules of conduct, knowledge, and beliefs.
The question of what a person’s spiritual and moral guidelines are can be answered as follows: these are spiritual and moral indicators that include such values as conscience, love, goodness, a sense of duty, beauty, the desire for truth, the thirst for justice, the desire for ideal.
§ 11. The spiritual world of the individual
Detailed solution paragraph § 11 in social studies for 10th grade students, authors L.N. Bogolyubov, Yu.I. Averyanov, A.V. Belyavsky 2015
SELF-TEST QUESTIONS
1. What are a person’s spiritual and moral guidelines, what is their role in his activities?
A person’s spiritual and moral guidelines are what a person strives for spiritually and morally. Their role in human activity is very great, because his actions and actions will directly depend on his spiritual and moral guidelines. A person who has a developed spiritual life, as a rule, has an important personal quality: his spirituality means striving for the heights of ideals and thoughts that determine the direction of all activities, therefore some researchers characterize spirituality as the morally oriented will and mind of a person.
On the contrary, a person whose spiritual life is not developed is spiritless, unable to see and feel all the diversity and beauty of the world around him.
2. What is the essence of the categorical imperative?
The categorical imperative is an unconditional compulsory requirement (command), not allowing objections, mandatory for all people, regardless of their origin, position, circumstances. And as Kant argued, there is only one categorical imperative: “always act in accordance with such a maxim, the universality of which as a law you can at the same time desire” (maxim is the highest principle, the highest rule). The categorical imperative asserts a person’s personal responsibility for the actions he has committed and teaches not to do to others what you do not wish for yourself. Consequently, these provisions, like morality in general, are humanistic in nature, for the “other” acts as a Friend. This is the essence of the categorical imperative.
3. What are moral values? Describe them.
Moral values are the most important moral values, what is dear to a person in himself and in others: life, honor.
4. Why is the development of a person’s moral qualities impossible without self-education?
If a person lacks self-education (self-control), then he will not be able to gain the “experience of good deeds”, and therefore become morally rich.
5. What is the essence of worldview? Why is worldview often called the core of a person’s spiritual world?
The essence of a worldview consists of the totality of a person’s views on the world that surrounds him, therefore it is often called the core of the spiritual world of the individual. Worldview is the basis of human spirituality.
6. What types of worldview does science distinguish? What characterizes each of them?
Science identifies the following types of worldview: 1. ordinary - built on one’s own experience, formed spontaneously; 2. religious - the basis of this worldview is religion and 3. scientific - based on the achievements of science.
7. What do the concepts of “morality” and “worldview” have in common? What is their difference?
General - both morality and worldview are a totality and a system. And the difference is that the worldviews of different people can be different, but morality is the same.
8. What is the significance of worldview for human activity?
Based on a worldview, a person can act one way or another, because... he comes from his own views.
1. Do you think morality forces a person to act in a certain way or does it give freedom? Give reasons for your answer.
Morality always acts as moderation, the ability to self-restraint; at all times and among all peoples it has been associated with restraint, close to asceticism (asceticism is a person’s ability to limit himself, to impose a ban on his natural desires, if necessary). From this concept we see that morality forces a person to act in a certain way.
2. Scientists argue that value orientations determine a person’s life goals, the “general line of the individual.” Do you agree with this statement? Give reasons for your position.
Yes, I agree with this opinion; indeed, value orientations determine a person’s life goals, because value orientations are the core of a person, those guidelines that guide a person’s activities.
The importance of spiritual and moral guidelines
We have established that a person’s spiritual and moral guidelines are his values and beliefs. These are personality attitudes that she cannot transgress. They regulate a person’s conscious activity and help him find his place in the world, being a kind of core of his consciousness.
In fact, a person’s integrity depends on how important these guidelines are in his life. For example, not every person can commit acts of theft, treason or betrayal, because not all people are allowed to do this by their conscience, or in other words, by their spiritual and moral guidelines.
And a certain part of people are usually called “people with a burned conscience”; they are capable of unseemly acts because they do not see in them the degree of evil that really exists there. These are people with lost spiritual and moral guidelines.
Who set these standards?
Almost all socially adapted groups, castes and nations take as a guide the basic commandments of the religion they profess, or the teachings of authoritative sages.
For example, if a person is a believer, then he chooses the Bible, Koran or Bhagavad Gita as a spiritual guide, and if an atheist, then he may well follow the teachings of Confucius or Stephen Hawking.
What are spiritual and moral guidelines of a person: the golden rule of morality
A significant role in the formation of a person’s spiritual and moral guidelines is played by the rule formulated in ancient times, which is usually called the “golden rule of morality.” Its description can be found in the most ancient texts, as well as in the texts of the New Testament.
It says: “Don’t do to other people what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.”
This rule is very simple. However, if people who knew about it actually embodied it in their lives, there would be much less evil, injustice and misfortune on earth. The whole trouble is that many of us, following the sad words of one of the apostles, know where good is, but do not follow it, know where evil is, but commit atrocities.
What does an immoral life give?
What are spiritual and moral guidelines for a person who goes against the rules of the system and does not want to live according to generally accepted commandments? After all, there are nihilists who deny everyone and everything, are they happy in their little world, which is very limited by their desperate protest. Some include anarchists among them, but the latter only deny the power of man over another being; they fully accept the dominance of moral norms.
The life of such people is actually sad, and in their declining years, most of them still turn their gaze to the moral values already comprehended by other people and the actions associated with them, thereby proving that the spiritual component is a powerful backbone of every outstanding society.
The question of what a person’s spiritual and moral guidelines are is the basic problem of such a science as ethics. It is from the point of view of the category of good as the highest value that they need to be considered.
In ethics, the question of what a person’s spiritual and moral guidelines are, what their function is, is resolved with the help of definitions of the concepts “spirituality” and “morality”.
Let's look at these concepts in more detail.
Spiritual and moral education
Speaking about what a person’s spiritual and moral guidelines are, one cannot help but say about the need to organize spiritual and moral education.
Even ancient teachers thought about how to raise such a noble person. And today a lot of works have been written on this topic.
As a rule, they boil down to the fact that parents and teachers are advised to instill spiritual and moral guidelines in their children by their life example. After all, if parents tell the child to act fairly and honestly towards the people around him, but their behavior themselves are far from ideal, then the child will most likely inherit their bad example, not paying attention to their noble words.
You already know that, being a social being, a person cannot but obey certain rules. This is a necessary condition for the survival of the human race, the integrity of society, and the sustainability of its development. At the same time, the established rules, or norms, are designed to protect the interests and dignity of each individual person. The most important are moral standards. Morality is a system of norms and rules governing the communication and behavior of people, ensuring the unity of public and personal interests.
Who sets moral standards? There are different answers to this question. The position of those who consider the activities and commandments of the great teachers of mankind to be the source of moral norms: Confucius, Buddha, Moses, Jesus Christ is very authoritative.
In the sacred books of many religions there is a well-known rule, which in the Bible reads as follows: “...In everything that you want people to do to you, do so to them.”
Thus, even in ancient times, the foundation was laid for the main universal normative moral requirement, which was later called the “golden rule” of morality. It says: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
According to another point of view, moral norms and rules are formed naturally - historically - and are extracted from mass everyday practice.
Based on existing experience, humanity has developed basic moral prohibitions and demands: do not kill, do not steal, help in trouble, tell the truth, keep promises. At all times, greed, cowardice, deception, hypocrisy, cruelty, envy were condemned and, on the contrary, freedom, love, honesty, generosity, kindness, hard work, modesty, loyalty, and mercy were approved. In the proverbs of the Russian people, honor and reason are inextricably linked: “The mind gives birth to honor, but dishonor takes away the mind.”
Moral attitudes of the individual have been studied by major philosophers. One of them is I. Kant. He formulated a categorical imperative of morality, adherence to which is very important for the implementation of moral guidelines for activity.
The categorical imperative is an unconditional compulsory requirement (command), not allowing objections, mandatory for all people, regardless of their origin, position, circumstances.
How does Kant characterize the categorical imperative? Let us give one of its formulations (think about it and compare it with the “golden rule”). There is, Kant argued, only one categorical imperative: “always act in accordance with such a maxim as the universality of which as a law you can at the same time desire.” (Maxim is the highest principle, the highest rule.) The categorical imperative, like the “golden rule,” affirms a person’s personal responsibility for the actions he has committed, teaches not to do to others what you do not wish for yourself. Consequently, these provisions, like morality in general, are humanistic in nature, for the “other” acts as a Friend. Speaking about the meaning of the “golden rule” and the categorical imperative of I. Kant, the famous philosopher of the 20th century. K. Popper (1902-1994) wrote that “no other thought has had such a powerful influence on the moral development of mankind.”
In addition to direct norms of behavior, morality also includes ideals, values, categories (the most general, fundamental concepts).
An ideal is perfection, the highest goal of human aspiration, an idea of the highest moral requirements, of the most sublime in a person. Some scientists call these ideas about the best, valuable and majestic “modeling of the desired future”, which meets the interests and needs of a person. Values are what is most dear and sacred both for one person and for all humanity. When we talk about people’s negative attitude towards certain phenomena, about what they reject, the terms “anti-values” or “negative values” are often used. Values reflect a person’s attitude to reality (to certain facts, events, phenomena), to other people, to himself. These relationships may be different in different cultures and among different peoples or social groups.
On the basis of the values that people accept and profess, human relationships are built, priorities are determined, and goals of activity are put forward. Values can be legal, political, religious, artistic, professional, moral.
The most important moral values constitute a system of value-moral orientation of a person, inextricably linked with the categories of morality. Moral categories are pairwise (bipolar) in nature, for example good and evil.
The category “good,” in turn, also serves as the system-forming principle of moral concepts. The ethical tradition says: “Everything that is considered moral, morally proper, is good.” The concept of “evil” concentrates the collective meaning of the immoral, opposed to the morally valuable. Along with the concept of “good”, the concept of “virtue” (doing good) is also mentioned, which serves as a generalized characteristic of persistently positive moral qualities of an individual. A virtuous person is an active, moral person. The opposite of the concept of “virtue” is the concept of “vice”.
Also, one of the most important moral categories is conscience. Conscience is the ability of an individual to recognize ethical values and be guided by them in all life situations, to independently formulate one’s moral responsibilities, to exercise moral self-control, and to be aware of one’s duty to other people.
The poet Osip Mandelstam wrote: ...Your conscience: The knot of life in which we are recognized...
Without conscience there is no morality. Conscience is an internal judgment that a person makes over himself. “Remorse,” wrote Adam Smith more than two centuries ago, “is the most terrible feeling that has visited the heart of man.”
Patriotism is also one of the most important value guidelines . This concept denotes a person’s value attitude towards his Fatherland, devotion and love for the Motherland, his people. A patriotic person is committed to national traditions, social and political order, language and faith of his people. Patriotism is manifested in pride in the achievements of one’s native country, in empathy for its failures and troubles, in respect for its historical past, people’s memory, and culture. From your history course you know that patriotism originated in ancient times. It manifested itself noticeably during periods when danger to the country arose. (Remember the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945)
Conscious patriotism as a moral and socio-political principle presupposes a sober assessment of the successes and weaknesses of the Fatherland, as well as a respectful attitude towards other peoples and other cultures. The attitude towards another people is the criterion that distinguishes a patriot from a nationalist, that is, a person who seeks to put his own people above others. Patriotic feelings and ideas only morally elevate a person when they are coupled with respect for people of different nationalities.
The qualities of citizenship are also associated with a person’s patriotic guidelines. These socio-psychological and moral qualities of the individual combine a feeling of love for the Motherland, responsibility for the normal development of its social and political institutions, and awareness of oneself as a full citizen with a set of rights and responsibilities. Citizenship is manifested in the knowledge and ability to use and protect personal rights, respect for the rights of other citizens, compliance with the Constitution and laws of the country, and strict fulfillment of one’s duties.
Are moral principles formed in a person spontaneously or do they need to be formed consciously?
In the history of philosophical and ethical thought, there was a point of view according to which moral qualities are inherent in a person from the moment of birth. Thus, the French enlighteners believed that man is good by nature. Some representatives of Eastern philosophy believed that man, on the contrary, is evil by nature and is the bearer of evil. However, the study of the process of formation of moral consciousness has shown that there are no grounds for such categorical statements. Moral principles are not inherent in a person from birth, but are formed in the family based on the example that is before his eyes; in the process of communicating with other people, during the period of training and education at school, when perceiving such monuments of world culture that allow both to join the already achieved level of moral consciousness and to form one’s own moral values on the basis of self-education. Not the least important place in this regard is the self-education of the individual. The ability to feel, understand, do good, recognize evil, be persistent and irreconcilable towards it are special moral qualities of a person that a person cannot receive ready-made from others, but must develop on his own.
Self-education in the sphere of morality is, first of all, self-control, placing high demands on oneself in all types of one’s activities. The establishment of morality in the consciousness and activity of each person is facilitated by the repeated implementation of positive moral norms by each person, or, in other words, the experience of good deeds. If such repetition is absent, then, as research shows, the mechanism of moral development “deteriorates” and “rusts,” and the individual’s ability to make independent moral decisions, which is so necessary for activity, is undermined, his ability to rely on himself and be responsible for himself.
