Late Victorian Cambridge was enjoying debates about man, mind and God. Mackie in a post-war, turbulent world, pluralist context sketched out a practical system of morality whilst nevertheless concluding that absolutes could not be determined. He debated frameworks of principle and process as conflict reduction mechanisms which members of a society might reference as they bring ethical form out of formlessness. The UN Declaration of Human Rights , ethical values that are embodied in law or company codes of conduct include principled expressions that transcend individual freedoms, the pluralities of politics and rivalries of competing sectional interest groups or business rivals. Unrestrained murder could never be permitted in a stable, orderly community that wants to prosper and enable all its citizens to live their lives to the full.
Social codes govern theft, property rights, matters relating to individual liberty and obligation.
Specific rules may not reflect principles which those taking an absolute line on ethics would argue apply universally and independently of context. Such principles may relate to concepts and fundamental perceptsions of rights and duties in respect of liberty, life, truth, children, the common good. The Athenians were quite happy about the practice of slavery and some comunities still exclude women or mistreat another tribe. It is easier if we can attribute such rules to a deity - the faithful within their system of belief and without an open, external view, can merely accept without question. The issues mean that we can stand back from situations we confront and explore alternative actions.