Morals vs. Ethics

Main Difference

The main difference between Morals and Ethics is that the Morals is a action patterns of groups and Ethics is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct.

• Morals

  Morality (from Latin: moralis, lit. ‘manner, character, proper behavior’) is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper and those that are improper. Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of conduct from a particular philosophy, religion or culture, or it can derive from a standard that a person believes should be universal. Morality may also be specifically synonymous with “goodness” or “rightness”.

  Moral philosophy includes moral ontology, which is the origin of morals; and moral epistemology, which studies the knowledge of morals. Different systems of expressing morality have been proposed, including deontological ethical systems which adhere to a set of established rules, and normative ethical systems which consider the merits of actions themselves. An example of normative ethical philosophy is the Golden Rule, which states that: “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.”Immorality is the active opposition to morality (i.e. opposition to that which is good or right), while amorality is variously defined as an unawareness of, indifference toward, or disbelief in any particular set of moral standards or principles.

• Ethics

  Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concern matters of value, and thus comprise the branch of philosophy called axiology.Ethics seeks to resolve questions of human morality by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime. As a field of intellectual inquiry, moral philosophy also is related to the fields of moral psychology, descriptive ethics, and value theory.

  Three major areas of study within ethics recognized today are:

  Meta-ethics, concerning the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions, and how their truth values (if any) can be determined

  Normative ethics, concerning the practical means of determining a moral course of action

  Applied ethics, concerning what a person is obligated (or permitted) to do in a specific situation or a particular domain of action

• Ethics (noun)

  moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity

  “a code of ethics”

  “medical ethics also enter into the question”

• Ethics (noun)

  the moral correctness of specified conduct

  “many scientists question the ethics of cruel experiments”

• Ethics (noun)

  the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles

  “neither metaphysics nor ethics is the home of religion”