Capping Morality

Do we put a limit on our ethics and morals? While most of us are equipped with moral safeguards that stop us from committing heinous acts of cruelty or selfishness, or at least punish us for minor offences with feelings of guilt or remorse; where does the development of our morality stop?

You can argue that we are the only creatures on Earth that understand the concept of morality. While animals may not be out and out evil to each other, you can't really say that they're charitable or sympathetic when it doesn't benefit them in some way. You could say the same about us, but now we're getting dangerously close to the subject of free will which would take me off in another direction.

To avoid digressing, I think it's safe to say that human beings are the most ethically and morally developed species on the planet. The counter argument includes nuclear weapons, rainforests, serial killers, and whaling; but anyone who argues those points as a counter to humanity being morally upstanding is actually disproving their own point.

My argument is that there is a lot of written work on ethics, morality, good and evil, justice, and things like the golden rule. It means we have an understanding about those things that are not simply automatic reactions; they are things that we can learn from others and make a choice about, rather than just inheriting behaviours unthinkingly (I know I mentioned that I don't want to go into the realms of free will, so I'm trying to keep this 'Free Will Lite').

The question that occurred to me recently was: at what point are our ethics or morals 'good enough'?

If we only have animals to compare ourselves to, we can say that we are the most morally superior beings. Then, without competition or greater comparison, we have no real reason to improve. Our technology grows; but this increase in power is not matched by a proportionate increase in ethics. Our morals can simply stagnate while our responsibilities multiply.

Those who subscribe to theology can try to match their ethos to the morals of their god/s, but then you're comparing the morality of a deity to the morals of mortal men and women.

We've had developments in not-so-distant human history. Human rights and the abolishment of slavery are things that began as things people may have had to consciously double-check themselves on; but are now built into the values we are learn growing up.

I'm not saying that things are perfect, because that's my point. Will there come a time when we, individually or as a race, say we have attained the highest moral standards possible? Or will we stop at necessary rather than possible? Have we already reached that point? Will we see a time when our ethics roll back to the way they were in darker times? How many of us already consider ourselves, individually, to be morally 'good enough' and don't bother with improving our behaviour to be more righteous?