morality

Definition

Conformance to a recognized code, doctrine, or system of rules of what is right or wrong and to behave accordingly. No system of morality is accepted as universal, and the answers to the question “What is morality?” differ sharply from place to place, group to group, and time to time. For some it means conscious and deliberate effort in guiding one's conduct by reason based on fairness and religious beliefs. For others it is, in the words of the UK mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), “... what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike.”