In everyday speech we normally use the words “ethics” and “morals” as synonyms; However, there are important differences between both terms, or at least that has been the case throughout history.
Although they are closely related, there are at least 6 differences between ethics and morality, and it is advisable not to confuse these concepts with each other. These refer to multiple characteristics, both conceptual and epistemological.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies and systematizes the concepts of good and evil, as well as other related ones. This discipline aims to rationally define what constitutes a good or virtuous act, regardless of the culture in which it is framed.
Ethical systems, consisting of prescriptions regarding the patterns of behavior that people must follow, have been traditionally proposed from philosophy and religion.
It is considered that ethics originated in the time of Ancient Greece ; The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, as well as Stoicism or Epicureanism, are some of the first manifestations of the use of this term.
During the Middle Ages, Christian ethics predominated in the Western world, later expanding to much of the world. Later, philosophers such as Descartes, Hume and Kant would recover ideas from the Greek masters and would contribute in a key way to the conception of ethics in the following centuries.
Definition of morality
Morality is defined as the set of rules that govern the behavior of people who are part of a given society, so that they can contribute to the maintenance of stability and social structure
The concept of morality is usually related to conformity with the implicit and explicit laws of a social group, which are transmitted to individuals within the socialization process to which they undergo throughout their development. In this sense, the moral part of the traditions and values of the context in which we were raised.
Morality most likely arose as a natural consequence of the organization of human beings into groups. As societies became more complex, the norms of interaction that structured them would have progressively transformed into moral rules and explicit laws, especially with the appearance of writing.
Religions have had great historical weight in the establishment of moral codes. While in the Western world Judaism and Christianity have largely determined social norms, in Asia Buddhism and Confucianism have done so above all.
Differences between ethics and morals
Many people believe that today the concepts ‘moral’ and ‘ethics’ mean basically the same thing, at least from the point of view of colloquial language.
However, from a theoretical and historical point of view we can find several differences between these two terms.
1. Object of interest
Morality is responsible for determining which behaviors are appropriate and which are not in a given context, while ethics refers to the general principles that define which behaviors are beneficial for all people.
Ethics is a normative discipline and morality is descriptive ; Thus, ethics differs from morality in that it seeks to define correct behaviors, rather than those that are accepted by a society.
In other words, if ethics is a rather static element that serves as a reference to understand the type of behaviors that regulate the functioning of society in a given context, morality is of an applied nature, taking into account everything that intervenes. in the decision to act in one way or another.
2. Scope of application
Ethics is situated at the level of theory, trying to find general principles that promote harmony between people. On the other hand, the moral tries to apply the rules determined by ethics to a large number of specific situations, according to the description of what happens in each case.
Therefore, ethics has a theoretical, abstract and rational character, while morality refers to the practical, telling us how we should behave in our daily lives through more or less explicit rules and statements.
3. Origin and development
Ethical standards are developed by specific people through reflection and evaluation of what is understood by human nature. These individuals will then apply the rules to their behavior.
In some cases individual ethics can influence a large number of people, even becoming a tradition ; This has frequently happened in the case of religions, systematizations of the ideas of their prophets. Once this point has been reached, we would move on to talk about morality to refer to the intergenerational transmission of such an ethical system.
In a synthetic way we can say that ethics has an individual origin, while morality is derived from the norms of our social group, determined in turn by a previous ethical system. Morality is the generalization of that kind of descriptions about what is good and what is bad, its way of forming an abstraction about what should be done and what should be avoided.
4. Choice
As we have said, ethics starts from individual reflection, while morality has a more imposing and coercive nature: If a person does not comply with social norms, they are likely to receive punishment, whether social or legal, since morality cannot be created by a single person, but rather has to do with shared ideas of what is good. to do and what is bad or what should even be a reason for punishment.
Ethics is based on the intellectual and rational value that individuals give to their attitudes and beliefs, unlike morality, which is determined by culture and is therefore rather irrational and intuitive. We cannot choose morality, only accept or reject it; Therefore, it has to do with conformity with the norms of our social group.
Moral norms act on us from the outside or from the unconscious, in the sense that we internalize them in a non-voluntary way as we develop within a certain social group. We cannot remain outside of them; We always take them into account, whether to defend them or to reject them.
Ethics depends on voluntary and conscious choices, since this concept defines the identification and following of certain rules in order to act in the way that seems correct to us from a personal point of view. Furthermore, since it is more of an individual scope, it gives a certain margin to reflect on whether something is right or not, depending on the circumstances.
6. Degree of universality
Ethics aims to be universal, that is, to be able to be applied in any context, since ideally it starts from the guided use of thought, not from blind obedience to rigid rules. This discipline seeks, therefore, to establish absolute truths that remain such regardless of the context in which they are applied, as long as the person has the capacity to act rationally. Kant, for example, tried to raise objective ethical principles, above culture or religion.
On the contrary, Morality varies depending on society; Behaviors that may be accepted in some social groups, such as gender violence or child exploitation, would be considered immoral by people in other societies, as well as from an ethical point of view. In this sense we can say that morality is largely influenced by cultural relativism.
