Amoral Vs Immoral

Amoral and immoral are two different terms that have varied meanings. Unfortunately, many perceive both as one and the same. To clear up the confusion, please read on.

Amoral is someone who is not aware (doesn’t know) how to differentiate between what is wrong and what is right. Literally, the prefix ‘a’ means the absence of morality. Hence, an amoral has not accepted the moral standards set by society to which he could be judged. This can also include those who don’t have the ability to know the rules or set guidelines of morality. This is closely linked to how we see babies as they are innocent beings who don’t understand morality, although they are merely incapable of doing immoral acts at this age.

An amoral person has no sense of care or conscience whether the act he is doing is morally wrong ‘“ good thing if it is the other way around. This person escapes from the moral world as he is outside the confines of morality itself. It is different from immoral in the sense that showing disapproval isn’t always the case. A good example is in the sentence, ‘According to the historian, the protagonist has an amoral stance with regard to slavery.’ In this example, the protagonist did not clearly specify that he is anti or pro slavery because he just doesn’t care about the entire issue.

On the other hand, immoral is someone who does things that aren’t good enough in the moral sense. Using ‘im’ as the prefix to the word ‘moral,’ immoral is literally translated as not moral, unmoral or non-moral. Thus, this person continues to do things even if he knows it is really wrong. When this term is used as an adjective to describe the trait or characteristic of individuals then it almost always shows a sense of disapproval. An immoral person may always swindle other people or may be involved in extramarital relationships or other situations that are not congruent to the status quo. Doing these acts makes this certain individual immoral.

To further exemplify how different these two terms are, here is one good example. Henry committed an act of infidelity against his wife and is now known as an immoral person by his peers and friends. But sadly, he didn’t mind them as he is an amoral person.

1. An amoral person does not care about morality (what is right or what is wrong) mainly because he doesn’t understand or doesn’t know what morality is (to begin with).
2. An immoral person is someone who is doing things contrary to morals.

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