Lesson summary “Basic principles and moral standards”

Moral culture

Moral norms and values ​​are the practical embodiment of morality. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that they determine the consciousness and characteristics of people’s behavior in all spheres of life: everyday life, family, professional activity, interpersonal relationships.

Moral standards are a set of rules defining human behavior, the violation of which causes harm to society or a group of people. They are formulated in the form of a specific set of actions. For example:

• you need to give way to those who are older;
• say hello when meeting another person;
• be generous and protect those who are weaker;
• arrive on time;
• speak culturally and politely;
• wear this or that clothes, etc.

Moral suffering in the concept of moral harm

Morality is a type of social consciousness and social relations. With the help of a certain type of norms, it regulates human behavior. Concepts such as good and evil, justice, humanity formed the basis of morality. The requirements of moral standards are regulated only by the forces of spiritual influence.

In turn, moral harm is moral suffering that was caused with or without intent. They are expressed by feelings of humiliation, loss, anxiety, which can leave a mark on the human psyche in the future. The damage in this case can be both intangible and physical torment.

Moral suffering is such emotions that accompany a person when experiencing fear, shame, humiliation, depression, apathy and other negative feelings.

Moral suffering may result from the following situations:

• Attempt on the life and health of the victim or his relatives;
• Restriction or deprivation of liberty is unlawful;
• Damage to health;
• Disclosure of medical or personal confidentiality;
• Slander;
• Copyright infringement;
• Financial losses for compensation for moral damage.

The foundation for building a healthy personality

Spiritual and moral norms and values ​​constitute the image of a person who is perfect in the sense of conforming to the pattern of piety. This is the portrait you should strive for. In this way, the ultimate goals of an action are expressed. An image such as Jesus in Christianity is used as an ideal. He tried to instill justice in human hearts and was a great martyr.

Moral rules and norms play the role of personal life guidelines for a particular person. A personality sets its own goals, in which its positive or negative side is manifested. Most people strive for happiness, freedom, and knowledge of the meaning of life. Moral standards help them regulate their moral behavior, thoughts and feelings.

Morality functions in society as a combination of three structural elements, each of which represents one aspect of morality. These elements are moral activity, moral attitudes and moral consciousness.

Moral education lecture

Moral education

lecture

(Theory of education)

1. The concept of moral education in pedagogy.

2. Education of humanity

3. Fostering conscious discipline and culture of behavior.

4. Methods of pedagogical work on the formation of spiritual and moral qualities in children of primary school age.

1. The essence and nature of morality

Any action of a person, if it influences other people to one degree or another and is not indifferent to the interests of society, causes assessment by others. We evaluate this action as good or bad, right or wrong. In doing so, we use the concept of morality. Morality is a rule, a custom. The concept of ethics - habit, custom - is often used as a synonym for the concept of morality. Depending on how a person has mastered and accepted morality, the extent to which he correlates his beliefs and behavior with current moral norms and principles, one can judge his level of morality. In other words, morality is a personal characteristic that combines such qualities and properties as kindness, decency, honesty, truthfulness, justice, hard work, discipline, which regulate individual human behavior.

Human behavior is assessed according to the degree of compliance with certain rules. If there were no such rules, then the same action would be assessed from different positions and people would not be able to come to a common opinion - whether a person acted well or badly. A rule of a general nature, i.e. extending to many identical actions is called a moral norm. A norm is a rule, a requirement that determines how a person should act in a particular situation. A moral norm can encourage a child to take certain actions and actions, or it can prohibit or warn against them. Norms determine the order of relationships with society, the team, and other people.

Norms are combined into groups depending on those areas of relations between people in which they operate. For each such area (professional, interethnic relations, etc.) there is its own starting point, to which norms are subordinated - moral principles. For example, the norms of relations in any professional environment, relations between representatives of different nationalities are regulated by the moral principles of mutual respect, internationalism, etc.

Concepts of morality that are universal in nature, i.e. covering not individual relationships, but all areas of relationships, encouraging a person to be guided by them everywhere and everywhere, are called moral categories. These include such categories as goodness and justice, duty and honor, dignity and happiness, etc.

Perceiving the requirements of morality as the rules of life, society develops the concept of a moral ideal, i.e. a model of moral behavior that adults and children strive for, considering it reasonable, useful, and beautiful.

Moral education is the process of developing moral qualities, character traits, skills and behavioral habits. The fundamental basic category of moral education is the concept of moral feeling (constant emotional sensation, experience, real moral relations and interactions).

Moral education is an active life process of relationships, interactions, activities, communication and overcoming contradictions. This is a process of constant and systematic decisions, choices of volitional actions in favor of moral norms, a process of self-determination and self-government in accordance with them.

The result of moral education is moral education. It materializes in socially valuable properties and qualities of the individual, manifests itself in relationships, activities, and communication. Moral education is effective when its consequence is moral self-education (the individual’s purposeful influence on himself in order to develop desired character traits) and self-improvement (the process of deepening the general moral state of the individual, elevating the entire way of life, raising it to a level of higher quality) of schoolchildren.

Specifics of the moral education process:

• is determined by its content - public morality, the need to introduce the norms of public moral consciousness into the individual consciousness and behavior of each schoolchild;
• the originality of its goals, content, manifestations of moral education or bad manners, organization and diagnosis;
• involvement in the process of mental, labor, civil, aesthetic, physical, economic, legal, environmental, anti-alcohol education.

The moral education of a child’s personality is one of the most important tasks of the school. And this is natural, because in the life of our society the role of moral principles is increasingly increasing, the scope of action of the moral factor is expanding. Moral education is a process aimed at the holistic formation and development of a child’s personality, and involves the formation of his relationships to the Motherland, society, people, to work, to his responsibilities and to himself. In the process of moral education, the school forms in the younger student a sense of patriotism, camaraderie, an active attitude to reality, and deep respect for working people. The task of moral education is for teachers to transform the socially necessary requirements of society into internal incentives for the personality of each child, such as duty, honor, conscience, and dignity.

Regardless of the content, methods and forms of educational work and the corresponding specific goals, the teacher should always be faced with the task of organizing the moral relations of children. One’s own moral experience creates the conditions for effectively assimilating the experience of other people, which is passed on to children in the process of moral education. While accumulating his own moral experience, a child may make a mistake and act incorrectly. The teacher must help him realize and experience the wrongness and immorality of his action; Of course, we need to help him not only correct his behavior, but also influence the direction of the motives that caused this or that action. The moral education of a junior schoolchild occurs mainly and primarily in the learning process. In the lessons, children are accustomed to independent work, for the successful implementation of which it is necessary to correlate their efforts with the efforts of others, learn to listen and understand their comrades, compare their knowledge with the knowledge of others, defend an opinion, help and accept help. During lessons, children can experience together a keen sense of joy from the very process of acquiring new knowledge, as well as grief from failures and mistakes. The system of moral education is built concentrically, i.e. In each class, children are introduced to basic moral concepts. But from class to class the volume of knowledge increases, the awareness of moral concepts and ideas deepens. Already in the 1st grade, the teacher gradually introduces the concepts of benevolence and justice, camaraderie and friendship. To develop the moral consciousness of schoolchildren, the teacher helps them to comprehend both their own experience and the experience of others (examples of comrades, parents and adults, examples from literature).

In the moral education of junior schoolchildren, the personal example of the teacher and his attitude towards children are of decisive importance. Even in small things, in manners, children try to imitate their teacher. If the relationship between the teacher and students is characterized by sincerity, responsiveness, and caring, the same will be the relationship between the students. The teacher should avoid making general assessments of each student's personality. A student can be praised or condemned for his action, but the assessment of a specific fact should not be transferred to his personality as a whole and say that he is generally good or, conversely, bad in everything. The home environment and family relationships have a great influence on the moral development of the student. This is why it is important to teach parents how to raise children. The moral development of a child must be monitored as carefully as his progress in reading, writing, and mathematics.

Levels of morality (according to Kohlberg) have the following gradation:

1. The pre-moral level (up to 10 years) includes stages: at the first stage, the child evaluates an action as bad or good in accordance with the rules he has learned from adults, tends to judge actions by the importance of their consequences, and not by the person’s intentions (“heteronomous morality”) "), judgments are made depending on the reward or punishment that this act may entail.

At the second stage, a judgment about an action is made in accordance with the benefit that can be derived from it, and the child begins to judge actions by the intentions that determined them, understanding that intentions are more important than the results of the committed action (“autonomous morality”). In relation to primary school, a level must be reached when the child acts morally not only in public, but also alone with himself. It is very important to teach children to rejoice in the joy of others, it teaches them to empathize. At this age, the child is able to evaluate his behavior based on the moral standards that he has accepted. The teacher’s task is to gradually accustom children to such an analysis of their actions.

2. Conventional level (from 10 to 13 years old) - orientation towards the principles of other people and laws. In the third stage, judgment is based on whether the action will receive the approval of other people or not. At the fourth stage, judgment is made in accordance with the established order and official laws of society.

3. Post-convection level (from 13 years of age) - a person judges behavior based on his own criteria. At the fifth stage, the justification of an action is based on respect for human rights or recognition of a democratic decision made. At the sixth stage, an action is qualified as correct if it is dictated by conscience - regardless of its legality or the opinions of other people. Kohlberg notes that many people never make it past stage four, and less than 10% of people age 16 and older reach stage six.

Scientists in the field of pedagogy have found that at different age periods there are unequal opportunities for moral education. A child, a teenager and a young man have different attitudes towards various means of education. Knowledge and taking into account what a person has achieved in a given period of life helps to design his further growth in education. The moral development of a child occupies a leading place in the formation of a comprehensively developed personality. When working on the problems of moral education of younger schoolchildren, it is necessary to take into account their age and psychological characteristics:

1) Tendency to play. In a playful relationship, the child voluntarily exercises and masters normative behavior. In games, more than anywhere else, the child is required to be able to follow the rules. Their children notice violations with particular acuteness and uncompromisingly express their condemnation of the offender. If a child does not obey the opinion of the majority, then he will have to listen to a lot of unpleasant words, and maybe even leave the game. This is how the child learns to reckon with others, receives lessons of justice, honesty, and truthfulness. The game requires its participants to be able to act according to the rules. “What a child is like at play, so in many ways he will be at work when he grows up,” said A.S. Makarenko.

2) Inability to engage in monotonous activities for a long time. According to psychologists, children 6-7 years of age cannot maintain their attention on one object for more than 7-10 minutes. Then children begin to get distracted and switch their attention to other objects, so frequent changes of activities during classes are necessary.

3) Insufficient clarity of moral ideas due to little experience. Taking into account the age of children, standards of moral behavior can be divided into 3 levels:

Level 1 - A child under 5 years old learns a primitive level of rules of behavior based on the prohibition or denial of something. For example: “Don’t talk loudly”, “Don’t interrupt those talking”, “Don’t touch someone else’s thing”, “Don’t throw garbage”, etc. If a child has been taught to comply with these basic norms, then those around him consider this child to be a well-mannered child.

Level 2 - By the age of 10-11, it is necessary for a teenager to be able to take into account the state of the people around him, and his presence not only does not interfere with them, but would also be pleasant. It makes no sense to talk about the second level of moral education if the first has not been mastered. But exactly this contradiction is observed among teenagers: they want to please the people around them, but are not trained in basic behavior.

Level 3 - At level 3 (by the age of 14-15) the principle is mastered: “Help the people around you!”

4) There may be a contradiction between knowing how to do it and practical application (this concerns etiquette, rules of good manners, communication). So, when discussing an upcoming trip to the museum, we remind you how to behave in transport. Suddenly the children say:

-And I saw Seryozha sitting on the bus, and his grandmother standing next to him.

“Seryozha doesn’t know how to walk in pairs: he sometimes pushes, sometimes steps on his feet, sometimes lags behind.

“Today he almost knocked down a teacher from another class...

- This is true? - the teacher is surprised.

-Yes, but I won’t do this again! — the boy sincerely assures.

Knowledge of moral norms and rules of behavior does not always correspond to the child’s actual actions. This happens especially often in situations where there is a discrepancy between ethical standards and the personal desires of the child.

5) Uneven use of polite communication with adults and peers (in everyday life and at home, at school and on the street).

At a young age, when the soul is very susceptible to emotional influences, we reveal to our children universal moral standards, teach them the alphabet of morality:

• You live among people. Don’t forget that your every action, your every desire is reflected in the people around you. Know that there is a boundary between what you want and what you can. Check your actions by asking yourself: are you doing harm or inconvenience to people? Do everything so that the people around you feel good.
• You use goods created by other people. People make your childhood happy. Pay them for it in kind.

• All the blessings and joys of life are created by labor. Without work you cannot live honestly.

• Be kind and sensitive to people. Help the weak and defenseless. Help a friend in need. Don't hurt people. Respect and honor your mother and father - they gave you life, they raise you, they want you to become an honest citizen, a person with a kind heart and a pure soul.
• Be partial to evil. Fight against evil, deception, injustice. Be irreconcilable with those who seek to live at the expense of other people, harm other people, and rob society.

This is the ABC of moral culture, mastering which children comprehend the essence of good and evil, honor and dishonor, justice and injustice.”

For moral education, it is important to organize teaching as a collective activity, permeated with highly moral relations. Educational activity becomes a collective effort, if the cognitive task is set before children as a common one, a collective search is needed to solve it. In the primary grades, special techniques are required so that children can understand the learning task both as a general one and as relevant to them personally. Excursions into nature are a kind of school of moral education. They are conducted with students of various age groups. Such excursions provide an opportunity for teachers to instill in schoolchildren a sense of ownership of the Motherland and a caring attitude toward its property—nature. Schoolchildren's knowledge of moral standards, acquired in class, and their own life observations are often scattered and incomplete. Therefore, special work is required related to the generalization of the acquired knowledge. The forms of work are different: in primary school it could be a teacher’s story, an ethical conversation.

Ethical conversations contribute to the acquisition of moral knowledge by the younger generation, the development of ethical ideas and concepts among schoolchildren, the cultivation of interest in moral problems, and the desire for evaluative moral activity. The main purpose of an ethical conversation is to help schoolchildren understand complex moral issues, to form a strong moral position in children, to help each student understand their personal moral experience of behavior, and to instill in students the ability to develop moral views. In the process of ethical conversations, it is necessary that children actively participate in the discussion of moral problems, come to certain conclusions themselves, learn to defend their personal opinions, and convince their comrades. An ethical conversation is based on the analysis and discussion of specific facts and events from the daily lives of children, examples from fiction, periodicals, and films. The result of the conversation is a bright, convincing word from the teacher, who draws a conclusion on the issue under discussion and gives practical recommendations to the children. In ethical conversations, the main role belongs to the teacher, and he must have a good command of words

The educational process is structured in such a way that it provides for situations in which the student is faced with the need for independent moral choice. Moral situations for schoolchildren of all ages should in no case be presented or appear to be educational or controlling, otherwise their educational value may be negated.

2. Education of humanity

The humanistic worldview as a generalized system of views, beliefs, and ideals, in which a person expresses his attitude to the natural and social environment around him, is built around one center - man. If humanism is the basis of a system of certain views on the world, then it is man who turns out to be the system-forming factor, the core of the humanistic worldview. Moreover, his attitude contains not only an assessment of the world as an objective reality, but also an assessment of his place in the surrounding reality, connections with other people. Consequently, in the humanistic worldview, the diverse relationships to man, to society, to spiritual values, to activity, which constitute the content of the humanistic essence of the individual, find their expression.

In the psychological dictionary, the concept of “humanity” is defined as “a system of attitudes of an individual towards social objects (a person, a group, a living being) determined by moral norms and values, which is represented in the mind by experiences of compassion and rejoicing and is realized in communication and activity in the aspects of assistance, participation, help." However, if we proceed from the connection between humanism and humanity, then the content of the concept of “humanity” should be revealed primarily through the recognition of the value of a person, which is understood as the unity of two sides - the natural life of each individual and the social one, which includes all the functions performed by a person in society, including including the level of development of his personal qualities.

Both sides of personality are directly related to humanity. This connection is inherent in the humanistic essence of morality, which is the original form of attitude towards a person as a value. Humanity is a set of moral and psychological properties of a person, expressing a conscious and empathetic attitude towards a person as the highest value.

As a personality quality, humanity is formed in the process of relationships with other people and the establishment of interpersonal relationships. This personality quality is revealed in the manifestation of goodwill and friendliness; readiness to come to the aid of another person, attentiveness to him; reflection - the ability to understand another person, to put oneself in his place, in the empathic ability to sympathize, empathize; in tolerance - tolerance for other people's opinions, beliefs, behavior.

The education of humanity is carried out in a variety of activities, in various types of interpersonal relationships. The child must be included in empathy and complicity. Signs of indifference and callousness cannot but be noticed and analyzed by the teacher. The humanitarian professional culture of a teacher consists not only of personal adherence to the principles of humanism, but also of how the teacher himself helps and supports the student in difficult situations. An example of a teacher’s humane attitude towards students has a special educational power; it can replace lengthy discussions, conversations and stories about the humanity of other people. This, however, does not deny the possibility and necessity of moral and ethical education.

An important condition for the education of humanity is the organization of collective educational, socially useful activities, especially those types where students are placed in a situation of directly showing concern for others, providing assistance and support, protecting the younger, the weaker. Such situations can arise directly in the process of joint activity, or they can be specially provided for by the teacher.

Studying the biographies of scientists, their creative activities, life principles, and moral actions arouses great interest among students and stimulates their behavior and activities. During lessons, analysis of the problems of good and evil, genuine and abstract humanism, social justice and injustice introduces students to the complex world of human relationships, teaches them to understand and appreciate the ideas of humanism, their universal character.

3. Fostering conscious discipline and culture of behavior

One of the central places in the system of moral education of schoolchildren is occupied by the cultivation of conscious discipline and a culture of behavior. Discipline presupposes organization and order in a particular area of ​​people's life. Discipline reflects the compliance of a person’s behavior and lifestyle with the rules and norms that have developed in society. Discipline as a quality of a person characterizes her behavior in various spheres of life and activity and is manifested in consistency, internal organization, responsibility, readiness to obey both personal and social goals, attitudes, norms and principles.

School discipline is one of the forms of manifestation of public discipline. This is the accepted order within the walls of an educational institution, this is students’ compliance with the rules of relationships with students and teachers, this is the obligation for all members of the team to comply with accepted rules and regulations. Being an integral part of morality, student discipline consists of knowledge of the rules of behavior, the established order and their conscious implementation. Fixed rules of behavior determine the actions and actions of an individual. School discipline prepares the child for social activities, which are impossible without discipline. It is the result of moral education, it is no coincidence that A.S. Makarenko viewed discipline as a moral and political phenomenon, incompatible with indiscipline and disrespect for public order.

Compliance with school discipline presupposes submission to the demands of the team, the majority. The work of schools and teachers to instill conscious discipline and a culture of behavior should be aimed at explaining to schoolchildren the need to maintain discipline in the interests of the individual, the team and society. But the discipline of an individual cannot be considered only as subordination; it must be considered in the context of his freedom, as the subjective ability of an individual to self-organize and achieve his own goals in a historically developed way. The ability of an individual to choose his own line of behavior in various circumstances (self-determination) is a moral prerequisite for responsibility for his actions (O. S. Gazman). Possessing self-discipline, the student protects himself from random external circumstances, thereby increasing the degree of his own freedom.

Discipline as a personal quality has different levels of development, which is reflected in the concept of culture of behavior. It includes various aspects of an individual’s moral behavior; it organically merges the culture of communication, the culture of appearance, the culture of speech and everyday culture. Fostering a culture of communication in children requires the formation of trust and kindness towards people, when politeness and attentiveness become the norms of communication. It is important to teach children how to behave with family, friends, neighbors, strangers, in transport, and in public places. In the family and school, care must be taken to familiarize children with the rituals of congratulations, giving gifts, expressing condolences, the rules of conducting business, telephone conversations, etc.

The culture of appearance consists of the ability to dress elegantly, tastefully, and choose your own style; from observing the rules of personal hygiene, from the peculiarities of gestures, facial expressions, gait, movements. Speech culture is a student’s ability to conduct a discussion, understand humor, use expressive language in different communication conditions, and master the norms of oral and written literary language. One of the areas of work on developing a culture of behavior is the cultivation of an aesthetic attitude towards objects and phenomena of everyday life - the rational organization of one’s home, neatness in housekeeping, behavior at the table during meals, etc. The culture of children's behavior is largely formed under the influence of the personal example of teachers, parents, older schoolchildren, traditions, and public opinion prevailing in school and family.

4. Methods of pedagogical work on the formation of spiritual and moral qualities in children of primary school age

The issue of spiritual and moral education of children is one of the key problems facing every parent, society and the state as a whole. A negative situation has developed in society regarding the issue of spiritual and moral education of the younger generation. The characteristic reasons for this situation were: the lack of clear positive life guidelines for the younger generation, a sharp deterioration in the moral situation in society, a decline in cultural and leisure work with children and youth; a sharp decline in the physical fitness of young people, the replacement of physical education and concern for the healthy physical development of children. Domestic teachers, studying all the best that was developed before the revolution and after, are trying to educate a physically healthy soul, filled with spiritual energy, and an intellectually developed personality. The original curricula used at school and the development of lessons and extracurricular activities are of particular value, as they contain grains of teachers’ experience in developing students’ interest in the true values ​​of their native country.

In the moral education of primary school students, it is very important to form humane relations between children and to instill in them effective moral feelings. In this regard, many different activities are held with children at school: conversations on ethical topics, reading fiction, discussing the positive and negative actions of children. However, for this entire system of educational measures to be effective, it is necessary that every influence of the teacher has the power of a formative one.

The educational process is planned and built in the interrelation of spiritual and secular directions, and extracurricular activities are a logical continuation of the work begun in class. The leading direction is spiritual education, and when developing plans and the content of educational work, the age of the students is taken into account, and consistency in the development of the child’s personality is traced. Patriotic education is part of spiritual education. Class hours, holidays dedicated to “Victory Day”, literary evenings, “Days of spirituality and culture” involve meetings with interesting people. A huge role in the moral development of the personality of a junior schoolchild belongs to the teacher and his methodological skills. The methodology for working with fairy tales in primary school is determined by the qualitative heterogeneity of this genre. When guiding the reading of fairy tales, the teacher needs, based on the specifics of the fairy tale genre, to purposefully develop in students the optimal amount of skills that concentrate children’s attention on the main thing in the “fairy tale world”, the ability to identify, when reading and telling, episodes with similar ideological content with the same hero and determine their emotional character in order to develop children’s ability to empathize, emotional and figurative memory. A lot still needs to be done in primary schools to instill a moral sense in children and lead them to true spirituality. Let's turn to the practical side of the study.

They learn a lot of interesting things about the past from old people, many useful things in life, they learn their first work skills from their grandparents, and the latter help children learn the secrets of nature. Grandmothers introduce children to the origins of folk poetry and teach them their native language. And most importantly, they, these people who have lived a long, difficult life, teach children kindness. The kindness and love of elders for children teaches children to be kind, sympathetic, and attentive to other people. Any society is interested in preserving and transmitting accumulated experience, otherwise not only its development, but also its very existence is impossible. The preservation of this experience largely depends on the system of upbringing and education, which, in turn, is formed taking into account the peculiarities of the worldview and socio-cultural development of a given society.

The pedagogical meaning of work on the moral development of the personality of a primary school student is to help him move from elementary behavioral skills to a higher level, where independent decision-making and moral choice are required. The success of this type of activity in the formation of the moral qualities of a student depends on the literacy of the teacher, the variety of methods he uses and the emotional response of the children. In addition to the pedagogical influence, the formation of a person’s moral qualities is influenced by many factors: the social environment, various types of activities, leading types of communication, gender-role differences in children, while each age makes its own contribution to the formation of a person’s moral consciousness; The social situation that has developed in our country leaves its mark on the formation of personality.

Education of moral feelings and ethical consciousness

Morality past and present

These phenomena began to appear quite a long time ago. Each generation and community of people formed their own understanding of good and evil, their own ways of interpreting moral norms.

If we turn to traditional societies, we will see that there the moral character was considered as an unchangeable phenomenon, actually accepted in the absence of freedom of choice. A person of that time could not make a choice between accepting and not accepting the prevailing trends; he had to unconditionally follow them.

Nowadays, in contrast to legal norms, moral norms are more considered as recommendations for achieving happiness for oneself and the surrounding society. If earlier morality was defined as something given from above, prescribed by the gods themselves, today it is something similar to an unspoken social contract that is desirable to follow. But if you disobey, in fact, you can only be condemned, but not held to real responsibility.

You can accept moral laws (for your own good, because they are useful fertilizer for the sprout of a happy soul), or reject them, but this will remain on your conscience. In any case, the entire society revolves around moral standards, and without them its functioning would be incomplete.

Morality yesterday and today

The moral norms of society arose quite a long time ago. Each generation of humanity interpreted the understanding of good and evil in its own way. And also interpreted the norms of behavior in its own way. In a traditional society, we see the moral character unchanged. That is. A person of the past had no choice to accept or not accept these moral standards of humanity. He had to abide by them unconditionally.

Today, a person observes or considers ethical norms as recommendations for achieving good for himself and others. For the most part, modern society no longer observes moral laws, but legal ones.

Previously, morality was defined as a set of rules prescribed by God. However, today they are presented as a social contract, the terms of which are desirable to be observed. If a modern person violates moral standards, he will not be held accountable, but will only be condemned at a family dinner.

Adopting moral laws for oneself is everyone’s choice. But remember that they will be an excellent fertilizer for the sprout of a harmonious soul. You can reject them, then do not expect a human attitude towards your person. However, it so happens that humanity and all society revolves around morality and ethics. And without them, the modern generation of people would not have achieved humanity and virtue.

Diversity of moral standards

All moral norms and principles can be divided into two groups: requirements and permissions. Requirements include obligations and natural duties. Permissions can also be divided into indifferent and supererogatory.

There is social morality, which implies the most unified framework. There is an unspoken set of rules that operates in a particular country, company, organization or family. There are also attitudes according to which an individual person builds his line of behavior.

In order to understand moral culture not only in theory, but also in practice, you need to do the right things that others will accept and approve of.

Classification of moral principles

Moral principles are recognized by a person as an indisputable line of behavior that determines the nature of relationships in society.

Moral principles can be classified as follows:

• The principle of humanism is the highest human value, expressed in love for one’s neighbor, protection of dignity, recognition of the right to a happy existence and self-realization.
• The principle of altruism is a moral norm that calls for providing disinterested assistance to those in need. The opposite of altruism is egoism.
• The principle of collectivism is the possibility of joint coexistence to achieve a common goal. It consists of cooperation, mutual assistance, and democracy. Impossible to implement without discipline.
• The principle of justice is equal rights and freedom for all members of society. Social and economic benefits are available to everyone without exception and are distributed depending on the amount of effort made by each individual.
• The principle of mercy is the willingness to sympathize and help everyone in need, regardless of their social status and appearance.
• The principle of peacefulness is based on the recognition of human life as the highest value. It assumes respect for national and regional characteristics and state sovereignty. Proclaims the right to a peaceful life.
• The principle of patriotism is love for the Motherland, care for it, readiness to defend it from enemies, pride in state achievements, respect for history and respect for national property.
• The principle of tolerance is the acceptance of the diversity of cultures without the desire to suppress or correct them.

Lend a helping hand to someone in need

High moral principles

The main thing for a person is not only to know moral standards, but also to rely on them in practice. Conscious application of moral norms and rules allows us to call a person highly moral.

High moral principles can be assigned the following characteristics:

1. “Allowed” is a person’s internal beliefs that cannot harm anyone.
2. “Necessary” or “must” - performing actions that can help another person, sometimes to the detriment of one’s own interests.
3. “Prohibited” are actions that are condemned by society and entail administrative or criminal prosecution.

Important! Moral principles are formed throughout a person’s life and can change as experience and knowledge accumulate.

High moral ideals

Moral principles of communication

Communication ethics offers the following moral norms and principles:

• priority of other people's or public interests over personal ones;
• conscious avoidance of using life's benefits for the sake of achieving a set goal;
• tackling complex social problems and working under extreme conditions for higher goals or ideals;
• responsibility and free care for those in need;
• building relationships with members of society based on kindness and benevolence;
• politeness and respect for the interlocutor, the use of generally accepted ethical standards;
• communication is a two-way process, not a monologue, each participant makes some contribution to it;
• equality of parties participating in communication, regardless of gender, age, social status;
• sincerity in expressing feelings, truthfulness of transmitted information;
• clarity and accessibility for all participants in communication;
• consistency and correct order of communication elements (question - answer, incentive to respond).

Thus, the moral and ethical principles of communication are based on mutual assistance and mutual trust.

Moral standards of communication

Perhaps the importance of morality is exaggerated?

It may seem that following moral standards shackles a person into narrow boundaries. However, we do not consider ourselves prisoners when using the instructions for this or that radio device. Moral norms are the same scheme that helps us build our lives correctly, without coming into conflict with our conscience.

Moral norms for the most part coincide with legal norms. But there are situations when morality and law come into conflict. Let us examine this issue using the example of the “thou shalt not steal” norm. Let's try to ask the question “Why does this or that person never steal?” In the case where the basis is fear of judgment, the motive cannot be called moral. But if a person does not steal, based on the belief that theft is bad, then the act is based on moral values. But in life it happens that someone considers it his moral duty to do something that, from a legal point of view, is a violation of the law (for example, a person decides to steal medicine in order to save the life of a loved one).

Life principles

All people have different ideas about how to live, how to achieve success, how to raise children, and so on. Life principles are the commandments of life, according to which it is customary to build one’s destiny. When a person remains true to his principles in any situation, he is calm and confident that his actions are correct. Deviations from the principles of life threaten the emergence of anxiety, stress and guilt. Life principles are determined by a person in the process of existence and communication with other people. They can change with age, and this is completely normal.

The boomerang principle

The boomerang rule has been known to many since childhood; everyone remembers the proverb: what goes around comes around. Translated into modern language, the life boomerang rule says that everything good that a person does towards other people will return to him in kind, everything bad also returns as a boomerang, and when you absolutely do not expect it. Some are sure that our whole life is a boomerang of events, joyful and sad, sad and cheerful, and only we can decide for ourselves what awaits us ahead. By doing good deeds, people prepare a foundation for their future, and they have the right to expect the same from fate.

Talion principle

This principle has been known since ancient times; it sounds like this: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” and means that any wrong act must be punished in proportion. The principle of talion appeared with the awakening of morality among people, when they began to fear causing unjustified harm to criminals. The Bible does not support people's principles based on this behavior; on the contrary, Jesus taught not to respond to an insult in kind, but to “turn the other cheek.” Other religions, for example, Islam, do not reject the principle of talion; some actions, according to the suras of the Koran, should be punished equally.

Principle of morality

Rules based on moral standards are considered to be the moral principles of a person. The principles of raising children are based on moral principles. Morality defines the concept in society of good and evil, what is fair and what is not, what behavior is recognized as worthy and what is immoral. Human morality is based on concepts such as:

• Love;
• honor;
• will;
• Liberty;
• responsibility;
• friendship;
• care.

The principle of the golden mean

This rule of Aristotle is based on the fact that in any matter it is necessary to observe moderation, trying to avoid excessive excesses; what is between two extremes is good. For example, we can consider courage, since this quality distinguishes real men, and is the golden mean between two other character traits - cowardice and recklessness. Only by understanding where the line is that transforms the norm into excess can you achieve a state of complete harmony with yourself and with the world around you.

The Greatest Happiness Principle

Every person dreams of feeling happy. The state of happiness is a continuous, unclouded receipt of satisfaction from life; this is what the teaching of utilitarianism strives for. Happiness itself and the satisfaction in it must be perceived in the broadest sense. True happiness, free from selfishness, is the highest goal, according to the Greatest Happiness Theory, and is based on several steps:

1. Analyzing the situation and thinking about possible actions.
2. Determining which action can benefit not only one person, but as many people as possible at the same time.

Principle of justice

Many people believe that the principle of justice can only be used to choose punishment for criminals in jurisprudence, but this rule can be applied in ordinary life. The principle of justice can be considered one of the main principles of man; it is easy to observe. Justice distinguishes two extremes – equality and inequality.

1. All people should have the same rights and freedoms.
2. Inequalities can be social or economic, and must benefit all people equally.

The Importance of Moral Education

You should not expect that the moral environment will develop on its own. It also needs to be built, learned, that is, worked on oneself. It’s just that, along with mathematics and the Russian language, schoolchildren do not study the laws of morality. And, getting into society, people can sometimes feel as helpless and defenseless as if they went to the blackboard in 1st grade and were forced to solve an equation that they had never seen before.

So all the words that good behavior fetters, enslaves and makes a slave out of a person are true only if moral standards are perverted and adjusted to the material interests of one or another group of people.

What are moral principles

Moral principles are a form of manifestation of the internal moral requirements of a particular person, a group of people or an entire society. Human society is constantly transforming, and moral standards are changing along with it: what was considered unacceptable and reprehensible some time ago can now be considered normal and not cause condemnation.

The formation of moral principles is greatly influenced by religion, spiritual teachings, culture, education, and personal beliefs of each individual. Adhering to moral standards, a person will not allow himself to descend into the state of a wild animal, and will keep his instincts within certain limits accepted in a given society.

Social hunger strike

Nowadays, finding the right path in life worries a person much less than social discomfort. Parents care more about their child becoming a good specialist than about being a happy person in the future. It becomes more important to enter into a successful marriage than to know true love. Giving birth to a child is more important than realizing the true need for motherhood.

Moral demands for the most part appeal not to external expediency (if you do this, then you will succeed), but to moral duty (you need to act in a certain way, since this is dictated by duty), thus having the form of an imperative, considered as direct and unconditional command.

Moral standards and human behavior are closely interrelated. However, when thinking about moral laws, a person should not identify them with regulations, but fulfill them, guided by his own desire.

Education of morality

The cultivation of moral qualities in an individual (what is this?), their cultivation, of course, should first of all be dealt with by the family in which the child is growing up. Moms and dads, grandparents, from a very early age, should instill in their children the concepts of good and evil, good and bad deeds.

I think there are many different ways, but the main ones are :

1. personal example - a child copies the behavior of his parents, introduces it into his life strategy, so it is worth doing more kind, good deeds. Even if an adult says that fighting is bad, but he fights himself, the offspring will not hear the words (or he will experience cognitive dissonance), but will imitate actions;
2. Reading good fairy tales, parables and proverbs about morality to your child. Stories form imaginative thinking, corresponding emotions and feelings, which become the basis of the inner world.

A person who grew up in such conditions cannot be immoral. It is enough for adults to pay attention to this issue during childhood and school years - then this worldview becomes “ingrained” into the psyche, automatic. Changing it is difficult and sometimes unrealistic.

“Today the boundaries of universal human values ​​and moral norms are blurred”

Anna Zakharova , journalist, editor of the documentary film studio “07.Production”: “Morality is one of the factors without which society cannot exist. We know many examples from history when a society that rejected moral principles sooner or later outlived its usefulness, decayed and ceased to exist. From a Christian point of view, morality is obvious - it is based on God's Law of Love. But at the same time there are realities - today society is heterogeneous both in the field of religious doctrines and in the field of philosophy of life. Therefore, the boundaries of universal human values ​​and moral norms are blurred. At the same time, the Law of Love cannot be learned and accepted by society through forceful imposition. From this point of view, it seems to me that “moral control” is something not entirely clear. Moreover, in our realities, where are the boundaries and guarantees that this control will be carried out precisely on Christian principles? Again: who are these people who should control morality? On the other hand, complete permissiveness is also a road to nowhere. The way out, I see, is to promote moral principles. That is, to create something (works of art, literature, cinema, etc.) that will be a worthy alternative to an immoral lifestyle. After all, it is always easier to condemn a person who acts badly and go further than to show him another path, to give him the opportunity to make a choice towards the purity and beauty of human relationships. I also remember the first centuries of Christianity, when believers had to live and coexist with people who sang of debauchery, revenge, and love of money. At the same time, the believers simply did their job - they lived like Christians. And society still reached out for this beauty and light. Although there is an area in which it is necessary to take a particularly responsible approach to the issue of morality - this is school education. We cannot force a person to adhere to moral standards, but we also do not have the right to put some ambiguous and dangerous things into young souls. This is not a question of control, it is a question of parental and social responsibility. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to control, say, the content of school programs. Controlling the spheres of art is hardly possible to do this humanly, so it is better to create an alternative. Controlling television is rather the same as controlling art. We need to direct our efforts so that there are channels focused on the moral, cultural, and developmental components. But simply making everyone obligated is unlikely to add morality to society.”

Moral principles

Moral requirements for society that everyone must adhere to form the principles of morality. We can assume that they were first voiced in the Bible in the form of the Ten Basic Commandments. Modern society adheres to other principles of morality that are known to every person, these are the following theses:

1. Man is the highest value (humanism).
2. It is necessary to selflessly help loved ones (altruism).
3. It is important to be able to sympathize and love everyone (mercy).
4. We must strive to make everyone around us feel good (collectivism).
5. We must understand that for every act there will be an appropriate punishment (justice).
6. It is necessary to learn to be tolerant of other people’s worldviews, religions, and lifestyles (tolerance).
7. It is important to love your homeland and be ready to give everything for it (patriotism).