morality

noun7

1. •
   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.

   • 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. — 1911
2. •
   A set of social rules, customs, traditions, beliefs, or practices which specify proper, acceptable forms of conduct.

   • I have to live for others and not for myself: thats middle class morality. — 1912
3. •
   A set of personal guiding principles for conduct or a general notion of how to behave, whether respectable or not.

   • His morality was such as naturally proceeds from loose opinions. — 1781
4. •
   A morality play.

   • The Moralities displayed something more of art and invention than the Mysteries; in them virtues, vices and qualities were personified, and something like a plot was frequently to be discovered. — 1862
5. •
   (rare) A particular theory concerning the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.

   • 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’. — 1954
6. •
   (rare) Moral philosophy, the branch of philosophy which studies the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.
7. •
   (no longer used) A lesson or pronouncement which contains advice about proper behavior.

   • What mean these stale moralities, / Sir Preacher, from your desk you mumble? — 1882