Why is man the only moral agent?

Answer 1

By "moral agent" we understand a creature able to act morally. To act morally supposes a creature has the ability to know that its actions have moral consequences. Among animals, only man has the faculty of intellect, which allows man to understand that his actions have good or evil consequences. Further, man can know that he is the source of the action that leads to these consequences and, as such, is responsible for them.

In order to be able to make a moral act, man also has the faculty of will, that is, a man can choose how to act even when understanding whether the act is good or evil.

Because of the faculties of intellect and will man can understand cause and effect, good and evil, consequences and personal responsibility and thus every act a human being does when the faculties are not inhibited, is a human act by a moral agent.

Answer 2

If man were really moral, the world we live in would be a different place. The jails would be almost empty; companies would be run for the benefit of their shareholders, but with the public good in mind; there would be no official corruption. The poor and disadvantaged would be looked after equitably, and there would be a universal health service in all countries rich enough to afford one. Of course, this is an ideal that has never been lived up to, so we can not really say that man must be moral.

However, a civilised society depends on most people being moral most of the time. As a whole, people must abide by some moral and ethical rules out of self-interest. And if conscience, religion or fear of hell do not motivate some people to abide by those rules, we need secular laws and the penalties that go with them.

Answer 3

you need to be moral for many reasons. First of all you need to be moral to get to heaven. On judgment day immorality will not help you at all. So if you want to get to heaven be moral.

The need to be moral:To understand why we have to be moral we must know about the two basic forces we have.

They are,

1. Involuntary/ automatic force - mighty, eternal, uncontrollable force

2. Voluntary/ manual force - small, temporary, controllable force.

Advantages of being moral:

1. Voluntary force is necessary to deal with a change. If we have sufficient voluntary force we need not have to be moral. We can be immoral secretly or in a way acceptable to the society.

However, if our Voluntary force is depleted then we would have just uncontrollable Involuntary force. Then our behavior has to be acceptable to all. Therefore, we have to be moral always.

2. If we are religious we have to be moral even if we can afford to be immoral because if we can get rid of our voluntary force we can use our mighty involuntary force, which we call god.

Answer 4

This is incorrect, many animals have morality as well. In one experiment, hungry rhesus monkeys refused to electrically shock their fellow monkeys, even when it meant getting food for themselves. In another study, a female gorilla named Binti Jua rescued an unconscious 3-year-old (human) boy who had fallen into her enclosure at the Brookline Zoo in Illinois, protecting the child from other gorillas and even calling for human help.

Man has the unique ability of language which allows us to express our morality and make it more abstract and complex. However, man is not exclusive in having morality.