What is Amoral?

Amoral is an adjective of two genders that classifies someone without a sense of morality , that is, it is neither against nor in favor of the principles of morality .

Amoral is that which is outside morality, that is, it is that which is neutral with regard to ethics. In a practical sense, an amoral individual lives without the subjective conditions required for his acts or judgments to be moral.

The state or quality of a person without moral obligations or ethical principles is designated as amorality.

Difference between amoral and immoral

These two words are related to the term moral , whose origin is the Latin term moralis , which reveals acceptable behavior in a society.

The difference between immoral and amoral is that the amoral individual is not aware of moral norms, and therefore his behavior is not shaped according to morality. On the other hand, those who are immoral are aware of the rules of morality, but even so, they practice acts that are repudiated by the majority of society. (for example: a worker who accepts a bribe to break a rule).

Let’s look at the following example: a baby gets lost from its parents during an excursion and lives more than ten years in the jungle, being raised among chimpanzees. One day, the teenager is found by a group of biologists who take him to the city. When he returns, he manages to escape from an institution, and walks the streets without clothes, stealing to eat and doing his business wherever he goes. For a person who was raised in that society, this behavior can be considered immoral, but in reality the child is amoral, because he does not know the rules of morality and he did not know that what he was doing was considered wrong in that context.