Value Judgements and the Moral Ideal

The complex moral framework proposed by Hector-Neri Castañeda back in his 1974 book The Structure of Morality deserves to be more well-known and to be further elaborated. According to it, one should distinguish between a moral code adopted by a certain community and the moral ideal providing a vantage point wherefrom moral codes can in principle be criticized and changed in an effort to secure moral progress. Accordingly, a value judgment may have a different assessment, depending on whether one considers it merely form the point of view of a certain moral code or from the standpoint of the moral ideal. The moral ideal must combine possible demands of self-sacrifice with a concern for the happiness and self-realization of each person. The extremely difficult task of characterizing this ideal in an intercommunitarian way can take advantage of current empirical and philosophical research on happiness. Some moral issues relating to children and women rights that immigration and globalization phenomena have made particularly vivid nowadays will be considered to illustrate this framework.