What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Morality is defined by what the majority likes at a given time and place, and immorality by what they dislike.
- In plain terms
- Morality is just what most people like at that time.
- What can you take from it?
- Morality can be seen as a reflection of majority opinion.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is morality just popularity?
- How do you distinguish right from popular?
Another view
It reduces ethics to popularity which ignores inherent rights.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
A culture is in its finest flower before it begins to analyze itself.
Permalink to quote #55 The ideas of Freud were popularized by people who only imperfectly understood them, who were incapable of the great effort required to grasp them in their rela…
Permalink to quote #57 Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of human life is to…
Permalink to quote #54
Related quotes
So long as you are a slave to the opinions of the many you have not yet approached freedom or tasted its nectar: But I do not mean by this that we ought to be …
JulianJulian quote #7 The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.
Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. Clarke quote #22 In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing.
James Russell LowellJames Russell Lowell quote #31