Ethics: Do we create right and wrong or discover right and wrong?

Ethics Discovering Right and Wrong Pojman

In all the world and in all of life there is nothing more important to
determine than what is right. Whatever the matter which lies before us
calling for consideration…will meet the situation, and be demanded to do right and avoid wrong.
C. I. LEWIS, THE GROUND AND NATURE OF RIGHT

We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live.
SOCRATES, IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC

Some years ago, the nation was stunned by a report from New York City.
A young woman, Kitty Genovese, was brutally stabbed in her own neighborhood
late at night during three separate attacks while thirty-eight respectable,
law-abiding citizens watched or listened. During the thirty-five minute struggle,
her assailant beat her, stabbed her, left her, and then returned to attack her two
more times until she died. No one lifted a phone to call the police; no one
shouted at the criminal, let alone went to Genovese’s aid. Finally, a seventyyear-
old woman called the police. It took them just two minutes to arrive, but
by that time Genovese was already dead.

Was this a moral failing?

Join us in these discussions over the next months. Here is a PDF of the book we will use. Read the first two chapters for the next meeting.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xezj7FPddS3dyGF0kbmpF8C4RId_GtCE/view?usp=drive_link

Moral precepts concern norms; roughly speaking, they concern not what is, but what ought to be. How should I live my life? What is the right thing to do in this situation? Should I always tell the truth? Do I have a duty to report a coworker whom I have seen cheating our company? Should I tell my friend that his spouse is having an affair?
The practice of morality need not be motivated by religious considerations. And moral precepts need not be grounded in revelation or divine authority—as religious teachings in-variably are. The most salient characteristic of ethics—by which I mean both philosophical morality (or morality, as I will simply refer to it) and moral philosophy—is its grounding in reason and human experience.
Morality is also closely related to law, and some people equate the two practices. Many laws are instituted in order to promote well-being, resolve conflicts of interest, and promote social harmony, just as morality does, but ethics may judge that some laws are immoral without denying that they are valid laws. For example, laws may permit slavery, spousal abuse, racial discrimination, or sexual discrimination, but these are immoral practices.
It is arguable that he has a moral obligation that overrides his legal obligation and demands that he act to save the innocent man from execution.

TRAITS OF MORAL PRINCIPLES
A central feature of morality is the moral principle. We have already noted that moral principles are practical action guides, but we must say more about the traits of such principles. Although there is no universal agree-ment on the traits a moral principle must have, there is a wide consensus about five traits:

Prescriptivity
Universalizability
Overridingness
Publicity
Practicability

Prescriptivity refers to the practical, or action-guiding, nature of morality. Moral principles are generally put forth as injunctions or imperatives (e.g., “Do not kill” “Do no unnecessary harm,” and “Love your neighbor”).

Universalizability Moral principles must apply to all who are in the relevantly similar situation. If one judges that act X is right for a certain person P, then it is right for anyone relevantly similar to P.

Overridingness: Moral principles have hegemonic authority. They are not the only principles,
but they take precedence over other considerations, including aesthetic,
prudential, and legal ones. The artist Paul Gauguin may have been
aesthetically justified in abandoning his family in order to devote his life
to painting beautiful Pacific island pictures, but morally, or all things considered,
he probably was not justified.

Publicity: Moral principles must be made public in order to guide our actions. Because
we use principles to prescribe behavior, give advice, and assign praise and blame, it would be self-defeating to keep them a secret.

Practicability; A moral theory must be workable; its rules must not lay a heavy burden on agents. It might be desirable for morality to enjoin more altruism, but the result of such principles could be moral despair, deep or undue moral guilt, and ineffective action. Practicability may cause the difference between ethical standards over time and place.