ABSTRACT
Morality depends on large and stable areas of agreement in respect of either moral rules or higher-order moral principles. But the actual size of these areas of agreement varies according to the kind of moral rule involved. Thus, on rules relating to kindness to others, tolerance, truthfulness, fidelity and honesty there is a large area of agreement among the whole of mankind, because such rules are conditioned by basic human natural tendencies; but on rules relating to sexual behaviour, marriage and divorce, the area of agreement is relatively small. When one find that legal rules or religious taboos militate against what they regard as some particular and legitimate human need, that they feel justified, if they are humane people, in condemning such rules or taboos as immoral. Ethical disputes occur in contexts where one person claims that such and such an action, or such and such a course of conduct, is right, while another person claims that it is wrong.
