Amoralities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of having no concern for right or wrong ; behaviors that demonstrate indifference to ethical standards
2. A condition characterized by absence of moral values ; specific actions that ignore accepted moral rules
3. The quality of being unconcerned with moral judgments ; conduct reflecting a neglect of moral considerations

Etymology: Morality arrived in English from Anglo-Norman "moralité" and Middle French "moralité", both descending from Late Latin "moralitas", which was built on Latin "mos" (custom, habit, way of behaving). So the core idea sitting under all these words is simply "how one customarily behaves," and the moral sense of "good conduct" grew out of that. The Latin "mos" is also the ancestor of the English "mores," the customs of a society, which keeps the older sense of habitual conduct visible. The prefix "a-" is the ordinary Greek negating particle, meaning "without" or "not," and it was attached to "morality" in English to form "amorality," a word for the absence of any moral sense, rather than for immorality, which means actively violating moral standards. The distinction matters: an immoral person knows the rules and breaks them, while an amoral one sits outside the framework altogether. "Amoralities" is simply the plural of "amorality," used when several distinct instances or kinds of this absence are being discussed.

Synonyms: immoralities, unethical behaviors

Antonyms: moralities, ethics