Question #7
Is there a difference between morals and ethics?
posted by Journey | 4:43 PM
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2 Comments:
In general practice? Probably very little. As a form of rhetoric, however, there is a difference.
Morals: the idea of what is right and wrong.
Ethics: dates back to ancient aesthetic criticism and rhetoric; derived from "ethos" ("character"). Some modern thinkers have taken this to mean "ideal excellence". It can also carry with it a sense of systemization or the "science of morals".
I guess in the end I might say that "morals" are more about what you think and feel, while "ethics" has more to do with the way you act.
I was really waiting for more responses, but I guess I scared people. This all came about because of some stupid quiz I never quite finished which asked if I believed something war morally correct. And I found myself thinking, "Morally, never. But ethically, it probably depends on the circumstance."
After I determined that the dictionary was no help, I read several essays on morals and ethics, and what the difference is (if any). And I think the connotation that I seem to have acquired is that morals are static. Not through the course of your life, but at any moment, in a given situation, an action is morally right, morally wrong, or morally ambiguous and cannot be judged otherwise in that moment.
Ethics, on the other hand, seem to me variable by circumstance. I guess that's why we refer to "professional ethics" as if they're separate from ordinary, every-day ethics. Or why something might be ethically right but morally repugnant.
As an example, I believe that killing people is morally wrong. But if someone is trying to do gross harm to me and my family, I'm probably going to decide that killing that person is the only ethical choice.
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