The influences of social force on ethical standards William Shakespeare, a British poet and playwright, describes in his play Hamlet: “There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so. The author thought that there is no absolute ethical standard and that ethical standards are set by human beings. So how do people judge whether a person is ethically right or wrong? People measure the person's behavior, based on the social norms and legal obligations that society holds. So, what is the origin of the ethical standards that society demands today? Referring to his book “Convention: A Philosophical Study”, David Lewis, former professor in the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University, defines social norms: Because certain points of view construct any form of conformity, it tends to be constituted as a discipline because people are willing to follow with authority the rules that others also follow. It's mainly because humans have been brainwashed to believe that if they have a rule, they have to follow it. Even if the order or rule does not correspond to free will, the person is likely to follow the rule because being obedient makes them feel comfortable. (Fromm 685-686) People with authority in the past could take advantage of this human nature. They established rules in which they could benefit and protect themselves, and they brainwashed citizens into believing that properly obeying the rules will bring national peace and prosperity. The rules, which were used to control innocent citizens with human nature of obedience, have implicitly leaked into the ethical standards of contemporary society because people have become accustomed to those rules over a long period of time… middle of paper… ..or this obedient human nature, the possibilities for development could have been eliminated. Almost all people in this era can accept today's social structure. However, the citizens of ancient Rome and the French kingdom also adapted to their society. Most of them simply deny the fact that their social structure is totally distorted, blindly obeying. Likewise, if this nature of obedience is recommended over and over again, people lose the possibility of a development like the French Revolution. There is a possibility that people in contemporary society do not realize that their social structure is in some sense distorted. It is true that obedience often plays a positive role in establishing consensus and harmony. However, blindly obeying ethical norms is not an exclusively positive solution, since remnants of the past have penetrated the ethical norm and negatively influence.