Morals and Ethics

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Are Morals and Ethics two sides of the same coin OR Can an action be Ethical BUT Immoral OR Moral BUT Unethical?!?!?

If the final two are correct give an example of each situation?!?!?

Comments

I think Wikipedia will give a far better discussion than I can.

Briefly, and >>as I understand it<<<:

= Morals/Morality is behaving in accord what the society that we are embedded in, views as correct. In my USA, a century ago, a mixed race couple was immoral and almost always fatal to the Black man involved. Today, mostly no big deal.

= Ethics guides behavior in ways that are much closer to what we, >as humans<, ought to be doing.

Mixed race couples always were and always are -> ethical <- (The short phrase is: "Love is Love".)
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Morality is "But Mom, all the other morons are doing it!"
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Ethics is "Here is what our best thinkers over the last three thousand years have had to say: ...."
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Morals/morality is much closer to "which way is the wind blowing?"

Ethics is the question "Is this proposed action in accord with Humanity's highest ideals: Freedom, Justice, Kindness, Equality, Balancing Autonomy and the needs of Society (*), seeking the best Outcome for All, not just for 'me and mine", Fairness ...

Coming to the forefront is the question: "Does this proposed action benefit or harm the Earth as a whole?"

One test for the "Fairness" of a situation is this: Arrange it as you wish. Then a 'magic being' rolls the dice and plops you into a random position in that situation. Would you be reasonably content with being placed, at random, in any/all of the positions? (**) Shortest version is "You cut, I choose".

(*)
== "Autonomy" is me driving through an active school playground with my assault weapons on burst fire.
== "Needs of Society" is: "Don't do that."
(**) Fancy name is "Veil of Ignorance".
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For just a small sampling of the questions that can arise, look into "The Trolley Problem".
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>>> >>> Again, all of the above is limited by my lack of study, lack of knowledge, and my understanding. <<< <<<

A quote I like

bryony marsh's picture
“Ethical behaviour is about doing the right thing even when no one is watching – even when doing the wrong thing is legal”
– Aldo Leopold

Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh

Singular Being vs. Community

The difference between ehtics and morals was explained to me as morals being basically the ethics of community.
So ethics is the set of values of you as singular being and morals is the set of values in a specific community.
There should be a large overlap between the two, as communities should share basically the same set of values in each individual member, but reality shows us otherwise.

Simply put

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

Ethics has to do with character. Morality has to do with behavior. There was a time in our country where journalists adhered to ethical guidelines that said they should thoroughly research their story to be sure that their facts were correct before submitting it to be printed and editors held their feet to the fire on that. There were no laws governing what was printed in a newspaper. Today, it seems that journalists have laid aside those ethics and now print the most scandalous version of the story regardless of the validity of the facts cited.

Morality is a bit harder to define. Basically if a person know what it right to do, and does anything else, they have acted immorally. For example; if I witness an accident and I can clearly see one party is at fault and I fail to come forward and give my account of what I've witnessed, I've acted immorally.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt

What Would John Wooden Do

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – John Wooden

Morals are transitory while ethics are based on centuries of tradition. They roughly equal the difference between reputation and character.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)