Morals - individual and collective - are constructs used by societies to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Although we tend to talk about them as though they are universal standards by which we all live, they are actually very specific to individual cultures at a particular point in history. This means that at any given time, what one culture considers morally acceptable, another might consider entirely unacceptable. For example, until the early-to-mid 20th...
Morals - individual and collective - are constructs used by societies to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Although we tend to talk about them as though they are universal standards by which we all live, they are actually very specific to individual cultures at a particular point in history. This means that at any given time, what one culture considers morally acceptable, another might consider entirely unacceptable. For example, until the early-to-mid 20th century, there were still a few tribes in remote parts of the world that practiced cannibalism for spiritual purposes. In almost all other parts of the world this behavior would have been shocking and completely amoral, but for that tribal culture it was considered acceptable under certain circumstances.
Edgar Allan Poe was alive during the first half of the 19th century and the Tell-Tale Heart was published towards the end of his life in 1843. During this time, slavery was still legal in many parts of the country, women rarely worked outside the home, and immigrants or people of color were very often treated as though they were inferior to whites.
These are only a few of the major differences between the early-to-mid 19th century and today, but you'd probably agree that enslaving others, treating women as servants, and generally treating minorities as though they are inferior are, by contemporary standards, pretty amoral.
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