This is a question that I thought deeply about last week. To answer this question, let me first start by defining the term immoral in my own words. Immoral behavior is a behavior that is seen as wrong by the moral standards of society. This could be anything from cursing, smoking, drugs, or all the way way to murder. As you can see, immoral action is a huge category that encompasses actions that can just be seen as bad habits, to actions that can be punishable by death. So, should all of these actions be illegal?
I don't think that there is much of a difference between the definitions of the terms illegal and immoral because something being illegal means it is not accepted by law and something being immoral means that it is not accepted by the culture. It is just a difference between culture and law. So, the next question would be which term makes a person less likely to commit to the act. Speeding is not really seen as immoral, but it is illegal, yet people still do it all the time. On the other hand, getting drunk all the time is seen as immoral yet people still do it all the time. This shows that both could be ineffective at times, but both terms also have an upside.
Making certain actions immoral rather than illegal allows people to feel more freedom in their life. After all, no one is perfect and to hold everyone to perfect standards of society that can be legally punishable would be ridiculous in my view.
Making all immoral actions illegal may lower a person's desire to do that immoral action, but not everybody sets the same standards for immoral actions. Some people may not think that gambling and smoking are immoral. Let me just say that I am not arguing that if people don't see something as immoral then it shouldn't be illegal because I am sure that there are people out there who don't see murder as immoral, yet it still should be illegal. What I am saying is that there are certain actions that don't physically affect other people that I don't think should be illegal because it would be holding society to too perfect standards.
Do you think that everything immoral should be illegal?
This is a really fascinating topic! You're right - different people have different views of what is and isn't moral. How do you decide? Clearly there are thing like, as you mentioned, murder or other violent crimes. Those should be illegal. But legislating morality is a difficult job and leads to a slippery slope. Thanks for the thought-provoking topic!
ReplyDeleteWow Isaac, this was so profound. I have not really thought about this, but I do now think that people should be able to do immoral actions as long as it does not effect anyone else. I think People should be able to get drunk and do things freely because it is their choice.
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