Okay, if you don't like the word "moral," how about "ethical?"

When one says "moral," most people think one is talking about religion or sex because that's the context within which they usually hear the word. And most people seem to feel that morality is a strictly personal thing.

But it's not that limited. I was using the term in the more formal philosophical sense. It falls within the field of Ethics, and in that context, it is not subjective, or "yours is yours and mine is mine." It's a matter of determining standards of behavior to guide the actions of an entire society and all of its members. It is the philosophical basis of Law. It is also the basis of political principles—which seems to be an oxymoron these days. You hear a lot of talk about it, but see damned little of it in action, and when you do, it is applied relatively (it's immoral for Clinton to lie about his sexual activities, which was a private, domestic issue that affect a very small number of people emotionally, but physically harmed no one; however, it's okay for Bush to lie about the reasons he wanted to go to war, which is continuing to result in the violent deaths of a yet to be determined number of people).

Moral (ethical) question: is lying per se immoral? One test of many: what if everybody did it whenever they felt like it? How would this affect a well-ordered society?

Moral principles, once determined and agreed upon, apply to everyone. That's Philosophy 101.

If it's wrong for me as an individual member of society to kill someone, it is equally wrong for the society as a whole to do so.

Don Firth