The dictionary defines morality as "1. standards of conduct that are accepted as right or proper; 2. The rightness or wrongness of something as judged by accepted moral standards; 3. A lesson in moral behavior." (Encarta, 1999) All three of those definitions have a strong element of the larger society in them.
Public discussions of moral behavior also emphasize the social nature of judging behavior. In Great Britain, Tony Blair gave a speech where he argued for a "new social morality" that included duties as well as rights ((Lloyd, 1996)). Such comments demonstrate the difficulty of establishing whose morality is the right one. Blair is a politician, and it seems reasonable that he was motivated by his political ambitions at least as much as he was concerned about the moral development of individuals. But in addition, most people probably already include their duties in what they consider moral behavior. For instance, in a family the parents have a duty to provide the minimum amounts of support for their children, including food, clothing, shelter, and education. If they don't send their children to school, they are not doing their duty. If the parents divorce, we require both parents do everything they can to support the children financially. If they fail to feed their children adequately, the state will come in and either make sure that happens or make other provisions for the children. We have duties all around us. Fail to meet those duties, and we are judged by others as flawed.
Hume sees the pressure to be moral as coming from outside ourselves. We want to be happy, and in order to be happy we have to meet other people's expectations. Aristotle believed that individual reason played an important role, but Kant may have been closer to the truth, seeing a combination of reason and will (Davenport, 2000). I that applies to my high school situation. Reason would have told...
Will, however -- my own choices over my actions -- dictated that the pledge itself was coercive. That is, it was an attempt by someone else to force me to do something I might not want to do.
Cheating is obviously wrong, but an isolated incident doesn't change much, and if the problem is rampant it still is not my duty to fix it. That is the duty of those who run the school. I did not let myself be coerced into doing someone else's job for them. According to Bricke (Garrett, 2001), Hume believes that our moral choices involve our own desire as well as beliefs about what is right and wrong, and looking at my own life so far I think that is true. Cheating is wrong, but I did not want to get my friend into a lot of trouble. Even if this person had not been my friend, I did not want to go against the student mores, which would have caused me to be ostracized had I reported the cheating. But ultimately I also decided that it was not my business -- not my duty -- to be a police force of one. Sympathy for others, right and wrong, and society's expectations all went into this decision. I don't think Hume can validly say that all people will respond to society's pressures, or be sympathetic to others any more than we can say that all people are always rational when it comes to what is right and what is wrong.
Bibliography
Davenport, Manuel M. 2000. "The Mystery of Morality." Journal of Power and Ethics, April 1.
Encarta. World English Dictionary. 1999.
Garrett, Don. 2001. "Mind and Morality: An examination of Hume's Moral Psychology (Review). The Philosophical Review, January 1.
Hume, David. "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals." 1751.
Lloyd, John. 1996. "Cakes, ale and virtue." New Statesman, December 20.
