[net.philosophy] The morality of morals

clauzon@watarts.UUCP (Cecilia Lauzon) (02/23/85)

I'm doing a little paper for my philosophy class.  I thought a news posting
would help broaden my viewpoints. My topic concerns the rightness, or morality
of *imposing* a set of morals on others. For instance, I think that many laws
are morally based. Marriage has to go through legal channels for the
dissolution of the contract even though both parties may agree to the 
dissolution.  Why should society dictate the lifestyle of law-abiding citizens?

Any kind of discriminatory moral system I hold as being immoral (e.g. (im)Moral
Majority).

Often people in Christian fundamentalist-type backgrounds end up neurotic 
because they've had to deal with repressive lifestyles imposed on them
by their parents.  How moral or right is this for them?  There are a lot
of issues here.  I hope to get some discussion generated on this topic.

The ideas I receive from this discussion are only to help me explore new ideas,
not to write my paper for me.