h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Anyone want to have a go at explaining how these differ?

I have ethics
She has the morals of...
Alla God's chillun got problems.

Good one, Kea. I suspect my research will be too late, so

Morals are about an individual submitting to a group's ideas of right and wrong, whereas ethics are defined as consciously determined principles of behaviour, sometimes even an explicit code of conduct, which an individual may choose to follow

Moral behaviour is about conformity. You merely abide by the rules.

Ethical behaviour requires individual choice/thought, insight, and empathy, etc.

According to wikipedia, morality is a set of rules intended to encourage an individual to pursue virtues and avoid vices (and, of course, these can differ depending on culture although many are universal). Ethics, on the other hand, is the philosophical study of morals: ie what actions would bring about a moral outcome in a specific situation.

I don't understand the notion that morality has anything to do with accepting the group concensus. This would mean that, for example, someone who considers themselves of good moral character would have to partake of bloodsports in a society that encourages them and avoid them in a society that doesn't. I don't think that's a definition of morality at all, it's more a definition of the old "when in Rome" saying; ie one should simply do what others around them are doing even if it seems ridiculous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality

That about does it if you ask me Zagreb, morals and the people who define them often dont make sense, but morals are a set of rules that blatanly arent concerned with what makes sense just what the makers and keepers of those moral rules "say" they like or do not like.

Ethicical discussions often make me uncomfortable because I end up making conclusions contrary to my own ingrained and comfortable paterns of thinking.

"That about does it if you ask me Zagreb, morals and the people who define them often dont make sense, but morals are a set of rules that blatanly arent concerned with what makes sense just what the makers and keepers of those moral rules "say" they like or do not like."

Morals often do makes sense (eg prohibitions against murder, prohibitions against theft) but it's up to ethics to stop them from being self-contradictory or ridiculous (eg a poor starving man stealing an apple from the orchard of a very wealthy man *is* theft but it's very hard to argue that it's morally wrong). Another problem is that many morals are based around religion which means they're not based around rationality nor needs but instead reasoning which is extremely old and may be completely absurd or based around long-forgotten prejudices.

Well I didint say morals *dont* make sense I said they arent concerned with what makes sense. Where there is a na overlap that is more often than not there by accident rather than design. Moreover in a lot of moral codes which prohibit murder on one page will advocate it on another.

Professional bodies often have a code of ethics by which to abide, not a code of morals. I would say that morals are more personal, but that's an off-the-top-of-my-head definition.

TRiG.

I think the usual distinction is that morals are personal codes of behaviour, and that ethics are to do with expectations about wider or broader group or social behaviours. However, the terms are often used interchangeably.

One example is about professional codes of conduct - professional ethics. Many different professions have these, and not just obvious groups like doctors, police officers, lawyers or counsellors. These state what is acceptable and what is not acceptable behaviour for people holding those posts. For example, the question of what a police officer may legitimately do in order to investigate a crime raises ethical questions. Can she plant evidence? Can she lie or deceive suspects during the interview process? What degree of persuasion can she use in obtaining evidence? These are ethical questions - what is acceptable conduct for a police officer.

Morals are usually about private conduct - what we do as private individual citizens, rather than what we do professionally or through playing certain other roles in society. On common liberal views of society, ethics is the business of society at large to a much greater extent than morality, which is a private matter.

However, I don't think the distinction is completely clear.

I would tend to agree with Otto's version too, but it seems a number of people here think it's the other way around?

Yes, I tend to think the other way round.

"Well I didint say morals *dont* make sense I said they arent concerned with what makes sense. Where there is a na overlap that is more often than not there by accident rather than design. Moreover in a lot of moral codes which prohibit murder on one page will advocate it on another"

Fair enough; sorry if I misunderstood.