Ethics/Morality

What is morality?  Is morality a set a social, political, and religious norms?  Or could mortality be a set of universal laws that every human follows out of basic instinct?  How does morality affect our lives? Plato says the good life is defined in terms of the moral life.  This means that one may judge the quality of one's life by how moral that person is.  Aristotle says the moral life is defined in terms of the good life. This means the opposite of Plato's theory.  So how is right?  Another view is Rational Egoism, which says that the good life overrides the moral life.  This means that personal well being overrides any moral obligations.  Contrasting ths view is Utilitarianism, which says that the moral life overrides the good life.  This means that one must hold moral obligations above personal well being.  For those who have seen the movie Watchmen,  one of the main characters makes use of Utilitarianism (but I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet).  I personally view morality a set of socail, political, and religious norms.  If these rules were not given to us, it is hard to tell if would still act civilized.