Difference Between Morals & Ethics

Ethics and morals address questions on how to act.

It might be accepted that there is significant overlap between the meanings of "ethics" and "morals." But the terms are not interchangeable and a distinction must be made between them for proper understanding.

Definitions

Webster's defines "ethics" as "the principles of conduct governing an individual or group." Webster defines "morals" as "sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgment."

Significance

Based on the definitions, ethics is a code of behavior based on one's station in life, providing an overall framework for conduct. Morals are a person's assessment of the rightfulness or wrongfulness of action within the framework provided by ethics.

Types

Within the ethical frameworks associated with any group, there exists two major types of ethical models. As argued by Thomas Shannon and Nicholas Kockler, in "An Introduction to Bioethics," "deontological ethics" refer to principle or authority-based actions and "teleological ethics" refer to goal-oriented actions.

Considerations

According to Shannon and Kockler, another ethical model is "consequentialism" or "situation ethics," which was popularized in the mid-1960s. In this model, "moral obligations are established, not by an evaluation of obligations, but by an examination of consequences or outcomes of various actions." On a personal, or moral, level "one must know which of the many possible goods is best and, therefore, the basis for right action."

Warning

Deonontological and teleological ethics often neglect the current situation or circumstance, relying greatly on prescribed models. Consequentialism often dictates an action without an appeal to an established model, which makes proper judgment of an outcome difficult.

Prevention/Solution

Shannon and Kockler suggest that these two ethical models, deontological/teleological and consequentialism, be used in "creative tension with one another." In this way, the models may be "mutually corrective" and "attentive to both our (moral) obligations and various outcomes."

References

• "An Introduction to Bioethics"; Thomas Shannon, Nicholas Kockler; 2009

Resources

• "Moral Discernment"; Richard Gula; 1997