The Impact of Moral Beliefs on Personal and Societal Well-Being

This chapter explores how morality impacts individual and social well-being in ways that are not directly related to either violence or political institutions. The first part of the chapter considers arguments for why the belief in moral realism is necessary for personal well-being. The second part examines how the widespread rejection of morality could be expected to impact people’s personal relationships with one another. A key question here is whether the abandonment of morality would lead to an overall decline in the kind of social capital that is integral to individual well-being. In the third part of the chapter, my concern is more with investigating whether the widespread acceptance of a prominent forward-looking account of morality—namely utilitarianism—would lead to better outcomes than moral abolitionism. After arguing that there are no compelling reasons for why believing in moral realism is more conducive to happiness on either the individual or societal level than denying it, I conclude by discussing how the belief in morality can actually detract from one’s happiness.