Separating Morality From Worldview: Studying Ethics Throughout Time and Across Cultures

Abstract

Seven schools of thought, varying in cosmology and age, were studied in order to glean the ethical precepts and virtues to which each school of thought adhered. These injunctions were put in list-form and compared with respect to both semantics and content. The purpose of this investigation was to look for evidence of a consistent set of injunctions that humans have valued regardless of cultural upbringing, in an attempt to discuss a common morality without discussing various worldviews, which often conflict with each other. The method employed by this thesis provides a way of discussing a common morality without discussing worldview, although the specifics of what a common, or universal, morality may contain were not determined.