What does "northern and Latin moral codes" refer to in the following paragraph? Thanks.
"The United States, Canada, Western Europe (with the exceptions of Greece, Spain, and Portugal), Australia, and New Zealand possess equivalent political institutions, similar economic structures, approximately equal levels of development, roughly the same moral and religious beliefs, and congruent cultural traditions. Of course, there are marked differences between American presidentialism and European parliamentarianism, between the Scandinavian and the Italian governments, between French and American capitalism, between Swedish and Italian average incomes, between the Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations, between northern and Latin moral codes, between the cultures of Paris and New York."
codes - a comprehensive collection of regulations and rules of procedure/ of laws.
It refers to Northern American or/and Northern European moral codes and Latin moral codes[ French language - and not only- is of Latin origin].
It is said that Latin people had very strict moral codes, which were quite different from those of other nations.
"Many of the great religions share many of the same moral precepts. This is in part because many religions have developed in the same historical and social traditions and are related to each other. Judiasm and Zoroastrianism both developed in the Middle East and share some of the same mythology. Christianity of course developed from Judiaism. And Islam was heavily influenced by both Judiasm and Christianity. But even religions outside of these traditions share moral precepts. This suggests that there are certain basic moral precepts that are widely held by all people. There are also differences between the moral code of the great religions. This also suggest that morality is not entirely a matter basic precepts, but rather issues that humans have to wrestle with and establish for themselves. And some of these moral precepts have changed over time..."
Last edited by Teia; 22-Sep-2007 at 19:46.
I think it is a bit simpler than that - it is the contrast of Mediterranean moral codes with North European moral codes, the latter being imbued with restrictive Protestant ethics. "Latin" here refers to those countries where a romance language [one that derives from Latin] was spoken.
Oddly, Romania does not usually come into this group!
Last edited by Teia; 23-Sep-2007 at 08:03.
Weird, isn't it?
It may be that Romania was often lumped into "Balkan" or "Transylvanian" and also that the "Latin countries" are primarily Roman Catholic.