Morality and Pragmatism

I consider morality and pragatism to be the same. My view is that morals developed in ancient cultures as people discovered what rules were necessary for people to live together without ending up killing each other. The ancient communities that survived and prospered in the long term are those that devopled successful rules. Those communities and their rules evolved into the modern culture & morals we have today.

However, as cultures and techbology develops, what was pragmatically moral then may not be so pragmatic now. For example, I understand the Old Testiment says that if a man dies, the man's brother should marry the widow. This may have been pragmatic in ancient Judea, but in the modern age of life insurance, employment opportunities for women, and opportunities for second marraiges, this rule is no longer pragmatic.

Also, ancient cultures did not have to confront issues like persistant vegitative states, embryonic stem cell research or downloading copywrited music and movies from the Internet. Modern cultures have to decide what is most pragmatic from a long-term societal view, and that becomes part of our morality.

But some things don't change. Murder as a means to settle disputes and theivery always have and continue to be disruptive to smoothly running human communities, so they continue to be both immoral and non-pragmatic from the community persepctive.

I've often heard that people who lie, cheat, steal, abuse drugs and cheat on their partners are taking the "easy path." I disagree. It may be easy in the immediate momment, but it makes life more difficult. These people end up living in fear of and dealing with consequences of being fired from jobs, jail terms, broken relationships and increased health problems. I think my life is easier because I don't worry about these things so much. For me, that's both pragmatic and moral.