The moral ideal is an unattainable but necessary condition for individual and social existence.

In our world, everything has its own value - material and spiritual. But not everyone knows exactly what spiritual values ​​are. As children we value the love and care of adults, as teenagers we begin to become attached to material things, and as adults we can be consumed by the pursuit of material values.

For the rest of my life I have remembered the words of an elderly teacher who lived in our house about the priority of moral values ​​over material ones. That day we passed the exam at school and relaxed on a bench in the yard. An elderly woman approached us and made a remark, to which we responded with rudeness. And so, after many years, her words became clear: “Do with people the way you want them to do with you.” This is also called the boomerang effect.

Matter and Spirit

Philosophers of all times and peoples have sought an answer to the question of what comes first—spirit or matter. There is still no generally accepted answer to the question posed, and there is no consensus regarding the predominance of matter over spirit. Only one thing is obvious: there are perishable and incorruptible substances. The incorruptible substance includes the soul and spiritual values. Spiritual values ​​are something that cannot be touched or tasted, but it brings pleasure.

On a note! Spiritual values ​​are certain ideals that cannot be assessed or measured.

Spiritual values ​​also include moral principles, which a person carefully protects and is ready to defend their significance. Moral principles are formed in childhood under the influence of parental upbringing. The child begins to realize that his behavior can be good and bad. The little man understands that good deeds will be rewarded, and bad deeds will be punished. Although a person’s action cannot be touched with one’s hands, it nevertheless exists and can be assessed positively or negatively. This is how acquaintance with spiritual categories begins.

With material categories it is much easier - you can touch them, you can buy them or make them yourself.

Material assets include:

• banknotes;
• goods in the store;
• jewelry;
• real estate;
• luxuries.

Spiritual values ​​cannot be sold or exchanged, seen or tactilely felt. They are invisible and are located in the inner world of every person. Animals have no spiritual values ​​- only instincts.

Spiritual categories include:

• friendship;
• Love;
• devotion;
• understanding;
• creativity, art;
• religious feelings;
• moral ideals;
• moral qualities.

Attachment to material values ​​is typical of young and middle-aged people. It is very rare to find an elderly person for whom material things are of particular importance. This comes from the realization that money will not help you gain love and friendship. This realization may have taken years.

Spiritual categories relate to the inner world of a person and form him as a person. Thanks to them, a worldview and an individual view of the world are formed, and the search for truth and beauty is carried out. With the help of spiritual guidelines, we make the right (from our point of view) choice every day and make responsible decisions.

Human cultural values

A person lives in society. This or that society, if we consider it as a society, lives in accordance with its own rules and traditions, which are also called culture. A person cannot exist without a specific goal. It is culture that puts forward certain goals for the individual. This is not a scientific definition. Science identifies causes that exist in certain time periods. The goals that a person sets for himself allow him to predict the future. It is determined by the actions of the individual.

In the animal world there is no system of values ​​from which the definition of what the ideals of culture is formed. But it exists in human society. Moreover, the goals that an individual sets for himself are largely determined by culture. The culture of a particular society is based on traditions. It develops at the genetic level. That is, it is passed on from generation to generation. Society sets a difficult task for a person - to preserve culture. Throughout the evolution of mankind, there have been a large number of different cultures. There was Chinese, Egyptian, Old Russian. Each of them cared about passing on its value system to the next generation.

Moral ideals

This spiritual category is worth talking about separately. Psychologists include the following moral ideals:

• meaningful;
• aesthetic;
• actually moral;
• family.

Meaningful ideals express our worldview position. It is usually formed by education at home and at school. Then the worldview can change dramatically if life circumstances contribute to this. Worldview shapes the individual’s attitude towards the world and people around him.

Aesthetics refers to emotional experiences and reflects the state of a person’s soul. Aesthetic feelings are formed as the individual self-realizes in society. This category includes a sense of the beautiful and the tragic, the sublime and the comic.

Moral values ​​themselves determine the relationships between members of society. These include patriotism, mutual assistance, the concepts of good and evil. The desire to fulfill a moral duty to parents, the Motherland and society is formed in the process of raising a child by parents and school. In the future, moral categories can expand and cover such concepts as honor, conscience, personal dignity, justice and philanthropy.

Family values ​​underlie the moral education of a person as a unit of society. It is in the family that the first experience of socialization of a small citizen takes place. Without a family, the child would have repeated the fate of Mowgli, who was deprived of a clear example of social relations. In the family, the child receives his first lessons of good and evil, eats spiritual food along with material food, and is formed as a member of society.

Ideal human life

From all of the above, we can say that each person has his own value system. Each person sets certain goals for himself. By achieving them, a person realizes his ideal of life.

For one, the ideal in life is family, for another, material values. Each of us has our own ideal of life. Everyone makes efforts to achieve it. To do this, he sets goals for himself. This is very important, it is the goal that motivates a person to develop in the direction he needs.

Spiritual Concepts

Now let's look at the basic spiritual concepts accepted in our society. I would like to say right away that spirituality is not only religious feelings. The concept of spiritual includes everything that is not material. Religious leaders do not agree with this, but from a psychological point of view this is exactly the case.

Spiritual categories:

• beauty;
• good and evil;
• true;
• art;
• creation;
• Love.

Beauty is an intangible phenomenon; it cannot be touched. But in the soul, beauty leaves an indelible mark, giving pleasure and pleasure. However, beauty in our world manifests itself only through a material medium - the human body, voice, work of art, locality. Everyone’s sense of beauty is different, and it largely depends on upbringing and local mentality. What is considered beautiful by Europeans may be perceived as ugly by Asians, and vice versa. Therefore, beauty is a very relative category.

Good and evil are also formed under the influence of spiritual categories. These concepts do not coincide in different social formations. In Russian society, a person who knows how to sympathize with others and extends a helping hand to everyone in need is considered kind. A kind person does not think of life for his own sake; he needs to help others and live in their interests. To bring benefit to the world is the credo of kindness. Accordingly, evil is the complete opposite of good.

Truth also cannot be touched with hands or tasted/smelled. However, many more people died because of the truth than because of enmity. The search for truth haunts modern people too: it has not yet been found. Truth, like beauty, is different for everyone. Sometimes the truth is perceived as a lie, and a lie is considered the truth. Why is this happening? Even philosophers have no answer to this.

Love also belongs to spiritual categories. This is exactly the feeling that all people on earth need. Love meets a newborn baby in the person of its mother and accompanies it throughout its life. Love can be different - friendly, marital, parental, filial - but it is always based on altruism. If altruism is absent in a relationship, true love is out of the question. Love is always empathy, loyalty, respect and trust.

Art belongs to the category of spiritual values ​​from the very beginning of human existence. Through art, people express their attitude towards the world, other people and society as a whole. Art is the expression of one's feelings and emotions through words, movement, singing or pictures. Art can be realistic and surreal, depending on what creative position the artist takes and how he perceives the world.

Creativity is closely related to art , through which people realize their abilities and talents. Creativity includes monuments to outstanding figures, literature, poetry, painting and music. Creativity is inherent only in man, therefore he has spiritual needs for self-expression through sound, movement and color.

However, creativity is necessarily expressed through material substance. Therefore, in order to purchase a work of literary genre or a painting, you need to pay money.

Attitude of scientists

The standards and moral values ​​of different times differed from each other. Many famous thinkers and poets raised this topic in their own works. For Aristotle, the moral standard consisted of self-contemplation, knowledge of the truth and detachment from worldly affairs. According to Kant, within any personality there is a “perfect man.” The abstract for his actions is the moral standard. This is a typical internal compass that brings a person closer to perfection, but at the same time does not make him perfect. Each philosopher, scientist, and theologian had his own image and his own awareness of the moral standard.

Example: list of 50 goals

• The list of 50 goals is divided into areas of life.

Coming up with goals can be difficult if there is little practice and awareness. Therefore, it is useful to look through examples of general development goals and adapt the ones you like.

We offer examples that lead to personal development, to the acquisition of experience, and to the expansion of ideas about oneself and the universe. It is advisable to have something else behind these goals, but they will already develop you if you decide to achieve them. I collected goals that are more environmentally friendly for our little head.

Health and sports

1. Step by step course. Draw a mind map of your health.
2. Swim 500 meters. Dive to 8 meters.
3. Eliminate 2-3 unhealthy foods from your diet.
4. Run 10 km.
5. For a whole week, eat only home-cooked food.
6. Strengthen your position in life I am ok, others are ok.
7. Learn to play table tennis and tennis.
8. Rocking chair. Work out for 2–3 months. Get a rank.

1. Understand the element of your calling: man - man, man - machine, man - symbols.
2. Increase your income by 2 times.
3. Live a week without urgent matters (outside of vacation).
4. Passive income. 100$/month
5. Work for a company. The company's goals help you realize your dreams.
6. Financial control. Record expenses and income for six months.
7. Gain experience in hiring and firing employees.

Surroundings, friends

1. Public performance. Speak to an audience of 30 people.
2. Get the hang of getting to know each other.
3. Be able to listen to your interlocutor.
4. Organize a board game evening.

1. Attend a group therapy training session with an experienced psychologist. Make your own opinion.
2. Loving is life-affirming. Cure neuroticism.
3. Marry or get married for love.
4. Take on the role of father or mother. To raise, not raise, a child.
5. Arrange a “spontaneous” trip.

1. Visit another continent.
2. King of the hill - climb the pyramid.
3. Swim in two oceans.
4. Live for 2 months in an unfamiliar country.
5. Be spontaneous. They are not afraid to look stupid.

1. Read 12 popular science works in a year.
2. Get a driver's license. Drive along the serpentine road.
3. Learn English. Speaking level is above average.
4. Learn a second foreign language at a basic level.
5. Live according to your goal plan for the year and achieve 70%.
6. Write 10 articles.
7. Dine at the top restaurant in the city and leave no tip.

Creation

1. Learn to draw. Paint 5 pictures.
2. Learn to play a musical instrument. Play a melody on the flute, keys, guitar, drums.
3. Choose a hobby and think about how to earn income from it in the future.
4. Know how to dance. Do a choreographed dance for 1 minute.
5. Sing a song at karaoke or in the studio.
6. Handmade creativity. Crafts made from paper, fabric, clay, plasticine, leather.

Spirituality

• Maybe God is an atheist? He rarely sees people and begins to doubt that they exist.

1. Develop the ability to overcome conviction. To learn something that would challenge my early understanding of it.
2. The ability to overcome an old habit. Retrain yourself in something.
3. Formulate your purpose.
4. Practice meditation. Take a course or seminar.
5. Bring the life balance wheel to 7–10 points.
6. Read the New Testament. Form an opinion.
7. Learn to overcome fears. Overcome 5 fears.
8. Get an unconventional experience. Astrology, out-of-body experiences, constellations.

See also: Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos (Great Akathist, read on Saturday Akathist)

Impact on the development of society

Awareness of the moral standard extends to the entire society. A person dreams of creating himself in a society that will be built on humane and fair principles. In this case, the standard is the image of such a society, in which there can be an expression of the interests of certain social groups, their concepts of higher justice and the social system that would be the best.

The moral characteristics of a public standard consist of the equal distribution of actual benefits between members of society, the relationship between human rights and obligations. Highly moral elements include the capabilities of the individual, his place in life, his contribution to public life and the amount acquired in return for this. Moral standards determine the positive characteristics of life and the ability to achieve a happy existence. In striving for perfection, which is the ultimate goal of all endeavors, man and society must use only moral means.

Target

Moral standards certainly contribute to the self-education of the individual. A person, through an effort of will and the awareness that the goal must be achieved, strives to achieve and conquer the heights of the moral plane. Moral standards are the basis on which moral frameworks and norms are formed in the future. All this happens on the basis of interests in a person’s life. The current situation in which the individual finds himself is also important. For example, during the war years, moral standards focused on the image of a courageous, valiant, generous person who possesses a weapon, but uses it only to protect his own land and his own relatives.