I thought you generally needed some sort of underlying worldview or metaphysic to determine appropriate moral action.
Otherwise, you are using other people and/or environment as your model, which doesn't really get you anywhere absent some sort of overarching framework because you have no way to evaluate what you *should* be doing because you have no objective yardstick, so to speak.
Everything you wrote depends on an individual's definition of "should be doing." Every person's worldview is heavily influenced by other people. You could argue that "school" or "the church" or "the law" are objective yardsticks, but all of these things come from people: the books are written by people, the words are spoken by people, and the ideas come from people, not from the institutions
per se. And they all vary everywhere you go, according to people's different ideas and beliefs. So, no objectivity there. IMO, there
is no objective yardstick. We all have to figure it out for ourselves (ideally by keeping the rights of others in mind at all times, but that's just my personal outlook).
"Mom/Dad and my teachers taught me to do whatever is necessary to 'get ahead' to get money and status. This has worked for me so far, so it must be what I should do. If I sell just a small number of bogus mortgages today, I won't be really causing a lot of damage but
I'll make a lot of money. Besides everyone else is doing it, so it must be okay.
"
"Mom/Dad and my teachers taught me to do whatever is necessary to 'get ahead' to get money and status. This means that I should do whatever is necessary to get an A on that take-home exam. The exam says I have to do it by myself, but this class is supposed to be a
gut class and this exam is
hard!!! That's not fair, so it's totally okay if I work with other students. And I should be doing whatever I can get get ahead.
"
"Mom/Dad and my school taught me that I should be taking classes because I'm interested in learning about the subject, and that 'getting ahead' by any means possible can lead to serious problems. It says here that I have to do this take-home exam by myself. I should do it alone so that my grade reflects what I've learned. Besides, getting caught cheating would be way worse than getting a bad grade on this test.
"
