morality (redirected from Moral compass)

morality [mo-ral´ĭ-te]

accordance with widely shared conventions of right or good conduct that form a stable, but usually incomplete, social consensus; it includes the concept of moral ideals. See also virtue.

principle-based common morality a type of ethical thinking based on premises that are unphilosophical common sense and tradition and come from the morality shared by members of a society. Principle-based theories have an emphasis on obligation and are pluralistic (in contrast to teleological and deontological theories, which are monistic, i.e., have one supreme, absolute principle supporting all other guides in the system). The principles are generally accepted in most types of ethical theory and are what are called “middle level” principles in that they are not the most general principles but are those likely to be acceptable to proponents of different normative theories. This type of thinking has been most influential in bioethics and in nursing.