Difference Between Ethics and Morality
- Ethics are a formal system of beliefs that guide our behaviour, while morality is more personal and can vary from individual to individual.
- Ethics are usually based on logical reasoning and a shared set of values, while morality is often based on gut instinct or religious beliefs.
- Ethics tend to be more objective, while morality is often subjective.
- Ethics are universal, while morality is often culture-specific.
- Ethics are transcendent; they govern all aspects of life. Morality deals with specific issues such as politics, economics, religion and family matters. When someone does something immoral, it usually relates to one of these specific areas. In contrast, ethics applies universally to every aspect of life and when someone does something unethical, it has more implications than just in one area.
- Ethics applies to groups and organizations, while morality applies to individuals. As a result, ethical practices don’t always mesh well with organizational cultures and vice versa.
- Ethics asks people to think about what they do before they act; morality asks people to examine their actions after the fact. For example, someone might have had an opportunity for an extramarital affair but resisted because it would have been unethical rather than because it would have been wrong. Or perhaps somebody might give money to charity because they believe it is the right thing to do, not because they fear eternal damnation.
- In terms of thinking through what we should do in certain situations, ethics tells us how we should behave while morality only tells us if we did the right thing once we’ve behaved in some way.
- Ethics will help you determine whether your behaviour was good or bad, while morality may help you decide whether your intentions were good or bad.
- Both ethics and morality play important roles in shaping human civilization.
Difference Between Ethics and Morality
Many people throw around the terms ethics and morality without understanding what they mean or how they differ from one another. If you want to be able to speak intelligently about your ethical code and why you follow it, you need to understand the difference between ethics and morality, so you can explain it to others. Here’s the difference between ethics and morality, including some differences in opinion and examples of each.
Table of Content
- Introducing an Ethical Dilemma
- What is Ethics?
- What is Morality?
- Where does Morality come from?
- Ethics vs. Morals
- Difference Between Ethics and Morality