8/4/2019 Ethics vs Mral

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[Ethics is] is the philosophical study of morality. The word is also commonly used interchangeably with 'morality' to mean the subject matter of this study; andsometimes it is used more narrowly to mean the moral principles of a particulartradition, group, or individual. Christian ethics and Albert Schweitzer's ethic

s are examples."

-- John Deigh in Robert Audi (ed), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 1995

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My own comment:

Often the word "moral" purports to describe something as if there were a fact ofthe matter. As if "murder is wrong" were the same sort of claim as "snow is whi

te".

In this sort of usage, the ethical needn't be the factual. It might be unethical(that is, a breach of a particular code) for doctors to sleep with their patien

ts; but it's possible that there are circumstances where no one would call it im

moral.

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"What is ethics? The word itself is sometimes used to refer to the set of rules,principles, or ways of thinking that guide, or claim authority to guide, the ac

tions of a particular group; and sometimes it stands for the systematic study ofreasoning about how we ought to act. In the first of these senses, we may ask a

bout the sexual ethics of the people of the Trobriand Islands, or speak about the way in which medical ethics in The Netherlands has come to accept voluntary euthanasia. In the second sense, 'ethics' is the name of a field of study, and often of a subject taught in university departments of philosophy...

Some writers use the term 'morality' for the first, descriptive, sense in whichI am using 'ethics'. They would talk of the morality of the Trobriand islanderswhen they want to describe what the islanders take to be right

Peter Singeror wrong. They would reserve 'ethics' (or sometimes 'moral philosophy') for thefield of study or the subject taught in departments of philosophy. I have not adopted this usage. Both 'ethics' and 'morality' have their roots in a word for 'customs', the former being a derivative of the Greek term from which we get 'ethos', and the latter from the Latin root that gives us 'mores', a word still usedsometimes to describe the customs of a people. 'Morality' brings with it a particular, and sometimes inappropriate, resonance today. It suggests a stern set of

duties that require us to subordinate our natural desires -- and our sexual desires get particular emphasis here -- in order to obey the moral law. A failure tofulfil our duty brings with it a heavy sense of guilt. Very often, morality is

assumed to have a religious basis. These connotations of 'morality' are featuresof a particular conception of ethics, one linked to the Jewish and Christian tr

aditions, rather than an inherent feature of any ethical system.