Tyler
07-01-2006, 12:42 PM
I just spent a good 30-minutes reading around 15 different websites on what the difference between ethics and morals is.
The consensus seems to be that morals is the belief of what is right and wrong and that ethics is the study of morals.
Some people say that ethics are more business-related whereas morals are more personal decisions on what is right and wrong. For example drinking and one-night stands may be considered immoral when overpricing a product may be considered unethical.
Still others say that both words are basically synonymous with no real difference.
What I liked best was the following quote by Michael Reiss:
A lot of people tend to think that ethics and morals are just the same thing, what other people tend to do, is to think that morals are the sort of beliefs that everybody has about what is right and what is wrong. And to have an ethical viewpoint, you have to be able to give some reason to it. So you might feel morally it is wrong to eat animals for example, but if you have an ethical viewpoint on it, you have to have some sort of analysis, some set of arguments about why it would be wrong to eat animals, or whether it might be wrong to eat certain animals, but acceptable to eat others.
Basically, I want to know how to use the terms "moral" and "ethical" correctly. If ethical is the study or science of morals, how then does the adverb "ethically" work? Semantics at work..
The consensus seems to be that morals is the belief of what is right and wrong and that ethics is the study of morals.
Some people say that ethics are more business-related whereas morals are more personal decisions on what is right and wrong. For example drinking and one-night stands may be considered immoral when overpricing a product may be considered unethical.
Still others say that both words are basically synonymous with no real difference.
What I liked best was the following quote by Michael Reiss:
A lot of people tend to think that ethics and morals are just the same thing, what other people tend to do, is to think that morals are the sort of beliefs that everybody has about what is right and what is wrong. And to have an ethical viewpoint, you have to be able to give some reason to it. So you might feel morally it is wrong to eat animals for example, but if you have an ethical viewpoint on it, you have to have some sort of analysis, some set of arguments about why it would be wrong to eat animals, or whether it might be wrong to eat certain animals, but acceptable to eat others.
Basically, I want to know how to use the terms "moral" and "ethical" correctly. If ethical is the study or science of morals, how then does the adverb "ethically" work? Semantics at work..