The English language contains many prefixes meant to indicate some form of negation. While it may appear that many of these are roughly equivalent, they may offer slightly different interpretations. You may be unable (adjective) to perform, but you can disable (adverb) a machine. Even though they both use the root word able, “unable” and “disable” do not carry the same meaning.
We can observe a similar phenomenon with the difference between “uninterested” and “disinterested.” And just as they both use the same root word moral, “immoral” and “amoral” aren’t exactly interchangeable either. The difference here can be a little subtler.
Before we dive into discussing the words “immoral” and “amoral,” we must first start with a rough definition of morality. In short, morality refers to the prevailing rules and principles that determine what is right and what is wrong. Each society and each culture defines its own morality, either officially or unofficially. Most of us would likely agree that giving to charity is “good” moral behavior, whereas stealing from a helpless granny is “bad” behavior.
Given this, and given that both a- and im- are used as negative prefixes, the assumption is that “immoral” and “amoral” both mean the same thing: they’re used to describe behavior or actions that are deemed “wrong” or “bad” by society. That’s partly true. The difference has to do with the person (or object) performing the behavior or action.
Immoral is used where the person (or object) knows the difference between right and wrong, and chooses to do the “wrong” thing regardless. They are fully aware that their actions will be seen as going against morality, but they simply don’t care. The evil villains in many movies and TV shows come to mind; indeed, they may revel in their immorality.
Amoral is used where the person (or object) does not understand the difference between right and wrong. They may not even have a sense of the concepts of right and wrong. They don’t grasp the issue of morality whatsoever.
The termites that are chewing through your shed are not acting in an immoral fashion; they are amoral, because they don’t know (presumably) that their destructive actions are causing you harm. We are clearly making some assumptions here. Maybe the termites are acting out of malicious intent. I suppose we can never know. That said, most would agree that nature is amoral, because it is neither good nor bad. It just is.
Ask William Shakespeare and he’ll tell you that everything in this world is effectively amoral. It is neither good nor bad. Thinking it makes it so. When a young child does something wrong, we may view him in an amoral light. He doesn’t know any better.
Or maybe he does and he’s just being naughty. In which case, little Billy is definitely being immoral.
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