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Aspinator
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15 Sep 2020, 12:40 pm

My friend and I were talking about the difference between ethics and morality. We agreed that ethics is knowing right from wrong and morality is a personal thing; acting on what is right or wrong. Its like ethics is the forest and morality like an individual tree? Is ethics like an universal standard and morality depends on the circumstance? Please help me understand this better.



vermontsavant
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15 Sep 2020, 1:14 pm

According to the Greek they are essentially the same thing,Ethikos meant in Greek;Morality or showing moral character.

Rooted in the Greek word Ethos meaning custom or habit.

In modern society morality is more rooted in a religion or philosophy whereas ethic's is more intellectual or pragmatic.

Example:Having an affair shows poor "morals"

Example: John has a good work "ethic"

So morality seems more irrational and ethics more rational or practical.

Someone would call a bad business practice unethical but someone would call bad personal behavior immoral.


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GGPViper
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15 Sep 2020, 3:45 pm

Quite a few (ok, actually *a* lot) of books, treatises, articles, and pamphlets have been written on this subject.

Alas, as there is no way of scientifically determining the independent physical existence of either ethics or morality, establishing the proper relation between the two is no small task.

One fairly common approach is actually the opposite of the one described by the OP: That morality are the general principles and maxims while ethics are specific rules derived/deduced from these.

Some examples:

  1. Sanctity of human life (Morality) -> Thou shalt not kill (Ethics)
  2. Sanctity of all life (Morality) -> Go Vegan! (Ethics)
  3. Sanctity of the home (Morality) -> Get off my lawn! (Ethics, Clint Eastwood)
  4. YOLO (Morality) -> ????????? (Ethics)
  5. All who are not of good race in this world are chaff (Morality, Mein Kamp) -> The Holocaust (ethics)
  6. Shoot first, ask questions later (Morality) -> BANG! (Ethics)
  7. Humans are fundamentally equal (Morality) -> One man (or woman), one vote
  8. ????????? (Morality) -> Some men just want to watch the world burn (ethics)



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15 Sep 2020, 6:39 pm

'Ethics' is the set of principles governing individual or a group conduct, while 'Morality' encompasses 'Ethics' in relation to the concepts of 'Good' and 'Evil'.

If your morality dictates that it is 'good' to convert people to your religion, then your ethics would likely include both ordinary conversion methods (i.e., classes, lectures, speeches, tracts, et cetera), and extraordinary methods (i.e., guilt-tripping, coercion, brain-washing, torture, et cetera).

And if your morality dictates that 'sin' is 'evil' and requiring the death penalty, then your ethics would likely dictate that you seek out and execute not only ordinary criminals (i.e., thieves, murderers, rapists, et cetera), but also extraordinary criminals (i.e., apostates, blasphemers, heretics, non-believers, et cetera).


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