"acting morally" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It can be used to describe the way someone is behaving or handling a situation. For example, "In order to maintain peace with her neighbors, Sarah decided to act morally and invited them over for dinner."
So in ordinary cases, if you act morally, you are perceived as acting morally, and if you act immorally, you are perceived as acting immorally.
Pretending you're moral, saying your moral is not the same as acting morally.
By contrast, Bradley argues that in acting morally we choose and will and act in terms of the idea of a state of affairs which represents a superior self to be realized.
Acting altruistically, at least with regard to those in the group, is almost equated with acting morally, regardless of its effects on those outside of the group.
Still others locate the morally relevant difference between humans and animals in the ability to talk, the possession of free will, or membership in a moral community (a community whose members are capable of acting morally or immorally).
The question is: what sort of motivations do we have for acting morally, and what expectations should we have with respect to those around us about whether they act in that way for reasons intrinsic to moral motivation, or simply because they wish to appear a particular way?
Stoics believed it was always appropriate to act virtuously, but acting virtuously can only occur when a man is "perfectly good", and since men are not "perfectly good" then physicians cannot act virtuously, in other words, be morally perfect.
In particular moral paternalism should be distinguished from legal moralism, i.e. the idea that certain ways of acting are morally wrong or degrading and may be prohibited.
Glaucon challenges Socrates to defend his claim that acting justly (morally) is valuable in itself, not merely as a means to some other end (in this case, the reputation one gets from seeming just).
I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it". He said the price of oil would be one of the war's main benefits.
"We can't back down now, where you hand over the whole of the Middle East to Saddam...I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it".
