Those of us who remember the early days of Superman remember that he fought for 'truth, justice and the American way.' Over the years, America seems to have lost her way a bit; instead of living by ideals of morality, justice and excellence, much of our society has slipped to a greed and expediency-driven one.
Outliers are defined and the ideals of morality, responsibility, good will, duty, and principle are applied to the care of patients whose financial means are meager and to those whose care is physiologically futile.
The definition has evolved, in tandem with our ideal of morality, and we should be thankful for this.
Sacrificing science to a religious ideal of morality was a holy plank of the Bush administration, with the result a cascade of hypocritical consequences and frustration.
"The objects with which he surrounds himself are there to express the ideals of scholarship, morality and refined taste".
Thus, even if in theory, as it were, a theory could be developed that most closely approximated the ideal demands of morality and justice, but was incomprehensible to the average person lacking the requisite background in the esoteric intricacies of, e.g., decision theory, such a theory could not count, notwithstanding its intrinsic virtues, as an ideal norm for any democratic society.
Dewey argued that the British utilitarians carried this inquiry most deeply with their ideal observer theory of morality, which identified the standard with that by which an informed impartial and benevolent observer appraises conduct — namely, its tendency to promote everyone's welfare.
But it should be the case, for the phronimos no longer retains the degree of residual individuality which is required by the next level of morality, Ideal Morality).
Values, identifications and forms of identity, ideals, could be solid grounds of morality.
Friedrich Nietzsche, who was originally one of Wagner's champions, chose to use Parsifal as the grounds for his breach with Wagner; an extended critique of Parsifal opens the third essay ("What Is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?") of On the Genealogy of Morality.
This view of supererogation locates it in the open-ended dimension of morality, that of ideals rather than principles, what Urmson calls "the higher flights or morality" and Bergson "the morality of aspiration".
