WHAT IS THE MORAL SUBJECT? - PHILOSOPHY - 2025

The moral subject, in philosophy, is the individual who has the ability to discern between good and bad, based on the training he obtains according to the moral and ethical conceptions generated throughout the course of his life.

Philosophers use the term to refer to the individual who chooses and reflects on moral or ethical issues. The Hellenist Jean Pierre Vernant, for example, defines it as “the person seen in his agent aspect, the self considered as the source of acts for which he is not only responsible to others, but with which he feels himself internally committed. ”.

With this conception, Jean Pierre affirms that the subject "is responsible for what he did yesterday, and that he experiences with such greater force the feeling of his existence and of his internal cohesion as his successive behaviors are linked and inserted in the same framework".

Thomas Aquinas agrees with the philosopher Aristotle in the teleological conception of nature and the conduct of man: all action tends towards an end and the end is the good of an action.

As a moral subject, man has a moral conscience, responsibility, freedom, practical wisdom and dignity.

The human being as a moral subject

The concept of the moral subject has been formed in ethical and political philosophy. The expression is linked to the appearance in philosophical thought of notions as subject and individual.

A subject is a being who is an actor of his actions, since those actions are his own decision. In addition, the subject is capable of forging intelligent knowledge.

With this concept, philosophers designate the subject who chooses and reflects on moral and ethical issues. The formation of the human being as a moral subject can be approached from several perspectives: according to the set of investigations that different disciplines have carried out on the socialization process and another perspective refers to the various studies and theories of moral development elaborated by psychology.

Daily life

In daily life, people coexist in society as socializing agents, bearers of values. Continuously the subject is creating a certain experiential indoctrination and becomes a moral educator through various paths such as family, school and social life in general.

That socialization builds identity. This is not born with the human being but is about a constant reconstruction in which the judgments, the interactions with the other individuals that surround him and the own orientations and definitions of himself that each one is elaborating are involved.

This is how identity is the product of an intricate web of interactions and identifications.

The complexity of identity formation is that the reference groups are multiple. The child or young person must build their own identity starting from a progressive integration of their positive and negative identifications.

It is possible that several identities coexist without excluding each other, since the sense of belonging is included. You are part of a community, country, groups and family, among others.

It is in the different spaces of socialization where the identity of the individual is constructed and interacts, is where the moral subject is constituted.

Characteristics of the moral subject

Human beings have certain behavioral traits that define them as a moral subject, with the freedom to decide on their actions. Among those traits or characteristics are:

Moral conscience

It is the knowledge that a being possesses of himself and of what surrounds him. It involves different cognitive processes related to each other. It applies to the ethical, to what is related to good and evil. For Thomas Aquinas, conscience is framed in personal identity. With that conscience it acquires the supreme rank in the moral sphere, "the human being cannot act against his conscience".

Freedom

It consists of the ability to choose. Often the individual makes decisions that involve risks and responsibilities.

The responsability

Make up for freedom. If you are free and are not conditioned to act in one way or another, at least you are obliged to take charge of your own actions

Intelligence or practical wisdom

Wisdom is a character that is developed by applying one's intelligence through experimentation. With it, the moral agent maintains an internal debate to formulate the problems, opportunities, orientations and reasons for his works.

Dignity

It is associated with the respect that everyone has for being a subject and not an object. Each person has the same value.

Morals and ethics

Morality presupposes a human nature that must be constantly watched. The human being must be governed by his own good since otherwise he could not coexist with others in society, he would be a non-rational animal.

For its part, ethics refers to a relationship of the subject with himself where he takes responsibility for his actions, being independent of all authority, custom or social pressure.

Morality is a set of norms, values ​​and beliefs that are accepted in a society and that function as a guide for conduct and assessment to establish what is right and what is wrong.

The human being, in his childhood, will attend to an external morality, an imposed discipline, an objective and collective responsibility. Over time it will respond to a rational morality, an inner discipline and subjective and individual responsibility.

Thus, ethics is different from morality because while the latter is based on cultural commandments and obedience, ethics seeks to base human thought on the way of life.

Ethics focuses on human actions and the aspects of them that are related to good, virtue, duty, happiness and life fulfilled.

Ethics studies what a moral act is, how a moral system is rationally justified and how it is applied at the individual and social levels.

The term "moral subject" is paradoxical, since morality would imply the negation of subjective choice, however, the concept of moral subject connotes the very definition of the ethical.

References

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4. 4. Prieto, F., (2012) Practical Wisdom: in the intention of a good life with and for others. University of San Buenaventura. Bogota Colombia. No. 158. Vol LIV.
5. 5. Rodriguez, A., (2004) General Ethics, 5th edition. Navarra, Spain. Publisher: EUNSA.
6. 6. Sampson, A., (1998) Colombian Journal of Psychology. ISSN-e 0121-5469. Vol. 7, No. one.
7. 7. Thiel, U., (2011) The Early Modern Subject: Self-Consciousness and Personal Identity from Descartes to Hume. New York, USA. Publisher: Oxford University Press.