The spectrum of ethics: morality, amorality, and immorality

     All thoughts of morality are based within the social contexts and agreements of a society. In other words, in spite of our social upbringing and lessons, there are few (if any) actions that are universally "good" or "bad".
     However, we do not live within a potential, alternate, parallel universe. Within current Earth conditions, laws, and priorities, there ARE items of "good", "bad", and "mixed". It is within this context that people, and actions, are evaluated according to the morally approved/disapproved conditions of the society.
     In this context, the non legally sanctioned killing of another is considered murder (there are many times at which such killing IS legally sanctioned). In this context, there is the notion of personal ownership of property and the unwilling (and non legally sanctioned) transfer of such property is considered theft.
     The term ethics is generally used in the same manner as the matter of luck. If you wish someone luck, it is assumed that you are wishing GOOD luck for them. If you ask whether someone is meeting ethics standards, it is assumed that you are asking about the achievement of GOOD ethics codes.
     Ethics or morality, it is possible to be positive, neutral, or negative. Someone who is actively trying to achieve the "good" standards and actively avoid the "bad" standards is guiding their life/actions according to morality.
     Someone who does not care about meeting "good"/"bad" standards evaluates their actions according to some other criterion. It could be financial/money, ego-reinforcement/narcissism, or some other criteria. This is called amorality. A psychopath is, in fact, an amoral person. They don't actively go against the societal norms unless it meets some other desire -- for "fun", for profit, for self-aggrandizement, for curiosity, ... If it meets their criteria for desirability, they are perfectly agreeable to do what society wants them to do. It does not matter to them.
     In the corporate world, a business is more likely to be amoral than immoral -- as being moral or amoral is most likely to increase profits. Within recent (30 year) history, there is the story of the car manufacturer who determined that the gas tank was likely to explode in a certain percentage of accidents. Accountants determined that the number of likely accidents, and subsequent lawsuits and damages, was less expensive than changing the design. Another worldwide consumer corporation has run cost analysis figures on deaths from improper (but likely) use of their products -- determining the likely costs of lawsuits and damages versus the loss of profits in not heavily marketing the product. These are both instances of amorality.
     So, what is immorality? That is the active pursuit of "bad" actions and the avoidance of "good" actions. Sometimes, it is difficult to distinguish between amoral actions and immoral actions as the objective, observable, results are often the same. The above corporate actions might be considered by many to be immoral but they are not done primarily to violate societal standards -- violation of those standards is secondary to their primary goals (in the above cases -- to increase profits).
     It is, of course, completely possible for an individual, or group, to deliberately pursue immoral activities. These are the "villains" of history or within books or movies or even popular media. Unlike within amorality, it is the active pursuit of socially disapproved behavior that is the goal. Doing "bad" things is the purpose.
     Another factor in the morality spectrum is that, based upon societal approved/disapproved conditions, it is not constant and, thus, can change. What was moral in one century may be considered immoral (or amoral) in a subsequent century. For example, slavery was widely considered acceptable in the 1700s and before. While slavery still exists within the current period, it is no longer considered acceptable. It has moved from moral to immoral. And, during the transition period in the 1800s, people who fought to eliminate slavery were often considered to be behaving immorally while, from the viewpoint of our current time, it is now considered very moral and their opposition considered immoral.
     While it is quite natural to view things of the past according to the current standards of morality -- it is dangerous to alter historical records to impose current morality and lose the reality of the past.