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Morality vs Propriety - What's the difference?

morality | propriety |

As nouns the difference between morality and propriety

is that morality is recognition of the distinction between good and evil or between right and wrong; respect for and obedience to the rules of right conduct; the mental disposition or characteristic of behaving in a manner intended to produce morally good results while propriety is the particular character or essence of someone or something; individuality.

morality

English

Noun

  • (uncountable) Recognition]] of the distinction between good and evil or between right and wrong; respect for and obedience to the rules of right conduct; the mental disposition or characteristic of [[behave, behaving in a manner intended to produce morally good results.
  • * 1841 , , Heroes and Hero Worship , ch. 3:
    • Without morality , intellect were impossible for him; a thoroughly immoral man'' could not know anything at all! To know a thing, what we can call knowing, a man must first ''love'' the thing, sympathize with it: that is, be ''virtuously related to it.
  • * 1910 , , Theft: A Play In Four Acts , "Characters":
    • Ellery Jackson Hubbard. . . . A man radiating prosperity, optimism and selfishness. Has no morality whatever. Is a conscious individualist, cold-blooded, pitiless, working only for himself, and believing in nothing but himself.
  • * 1911 , , Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens , ch. 16:
    • Science and art without morality are not dangerous in the sense commonly supposed. They are not dangerous like a fire, but dangerous like a fog.
  • * 1965 , " King Moves North," Time , 30 Apr.:
    • It may be true that you cannot legislate morality , but behavior can be regulated.
  • (countable) A set of social rules, customs, traditions, beliefs, or practices which specify proper, acceptable forms of conduct.
  • * 1912 , , Pygmalion , act 5:
    • I have to live for others and not for myself: that's middle class morality .
  • * 1917 , . The Yukon Trail , ch. 14:
    • He smiled a little. "Morality is the average conduct of the average man at a given time and place. It is based on custom and expediency."
  • (countable) A set of personal guiding principles for conduct or a general notion of how to behave, whether respectable or not.
  • * 1781 , , "Sheffield" in Lives of the Poets :
    • His morality was such as naturally proceeds from loose opinions.
  • * 1994 , "Man Convicted of Murder in '92 Bludgeoning," San Jose Mercury News , 4 Nov., p. 2B:
    • Deputy District Attorney Bill Tingle called Jones "the devil's right-hand man" and said he should be punished for his "atrocious morality ."
  • (countable, archaic) A lesson or pronouncement which contains advice about proper behavior.
  • * 1824 , , St. Ronan's Well , ch. 16:
    • "She had done her duty"—"she left the matter to them that had a charge anent such things"—and "Providence would bring the mystery to light in his own fitting time"—such were the moralities with which the good dame consoled herself.
  • * 1882 , , "Vanitas Vanitatum" in Ballads , p. 195:
    • What mean these stale moralities ,
    Sir Preacher, from your desk you mumble?
  • (uncountable, rare) Moral philosophy, the branch of philosophy which studies the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.
  • * 1953 , J. Kemp, "Review of The Claim of Morality'' by N.H.G. Robinson," ''The Philosophical Quarterly , vol. 3, no. 12, p. 278:
    • Robinson sums up the conclusion of the first part of his book as being "that the task of the moralist is to set in their proper relation to one another the three different types of moral judgment . . . and so reveal the field of morality as a single self-coherent system".
  • (countable, rare) A particular theory concerning the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.
  • * 1954 , , "Ethics and Moral Controversy," The Philosophical Quarterly , vol. 4, no. 14, p. 11:
    • Hume's morality' which ‘implies some sentiment common to all mankind’; Kant's '''morality''' for all rational beings; Butler's ' morality with its presupposition of ‘uniformity of conscience’.

    Usage notes

    * Although the terms morality'' and ''ethics'' may sometimes be used interchangeably, philosophical ethicists often distinguish them, using ''morality'' and its related terms to refer to actual, real-world beliefs and practices concerning proper conduct, and using ''ethics'' to refer to theories and conceptual studies relating to good and evil and right and wrong. In this vein, the American philosopher , ed., ''The Philosophy of Brand Blanshard , Library of Living Philosophers, ISBN 0875483496, "Autobiography", p. 85.

    Synonyms

    * decency, rectitude, righteousness, uprightness, virtuousness * (personal guiding principles) morals * conventions, morals, mores * (lesson or pronouncement which contains advice) homily * (branch of philosophy) ethics, moral philosophy * ethics, moral philosophy

    Antonyms

    * amorality, immorality

    Derived terms

    * antimorality * morality play * morality tale

    Related terms

    * moral * morale * moralise / moralize * moralism * morals * mores

    External links

    * * *

    References

    Anagrams

    *

    propriety

    English

    Noun

  • (obsolete) The particular character or essence of someone or something; individuality.
  • (obsolete) A characteristic; an attribute.
  • (obsolete) More generally, something owned by someone; a possession.
  • * 1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury :
    • I was fearful of giving You a very sensible Disgust, in making You'' seem the ''Propriety'' of ''one Man'', when You know Yourself ''ordained'' for the Comfort and Refreshment of ''Multitudes .
  • The fact of possessing something; ownership.
  • Suitability, fitness; the quality of being appropriate.
  • * 1773 ,
    • I find such a pleasure, sir, in obeying your commands, that I take care to observe them without ever debating their propriety .
  • * 1850 ,
    • Now, if we may, with propriety', refer to the people one question, why may we not, with equal ' propriety , refer another?
  • Correctness in behaviour and morals; good manners, seemliness.
  • * 1811 , (Jane Austen), :
    • Elinor then ventured to doubt the propriety of her receiving such a present from a man so little, or at least so lately known to her.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 27 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=The neighbor is eventually able to sell her home despite Homer’s pants-less affronts to propriety and decency and Bart falls deeply and instantly for one of its new inhabitants, a tough but charming and funny tomboy girl named Laura (voiced by Sara Gilbert) with just the right combination of toughness and sweetness, granite and honey.}}

    Related terms

    * proper

    References

    * "Propriety" at Dictionary.com