A moral code is a system of teleological measurement which grades the choices
and actions open to man, according to the degree to which they achieve or
frustrate the code’s standard of value. The standard is the end, to which man’s
actions are the means.
A moral code is a set of abstract principles; to practice it, an individual
must translate it into the appropriate concretes—he must choose the particular
goals and values which he is to pursue. This requires that he define his
particular hierarchy of values, in the order of their importance, and that he
act accordingly.