Ethics And Morality

Morals and ethics relate to the conduct of “right” or “wrong”. While in most cases people confuse these terminologies and use them interchangeably they are normally different. Ethics is the provided rules by a different source to guide a person in certain functionality. For instance, the principles of religion and the codes of conduct in certain profession or workplaces are referred as ethics. Morals on the hand explain a person’s principles relating to what he/she sees as right or wrong. Morality is that system that is used to define is an action or act is moral (right), immoral (wrong) or no moral implication (neutral). These two are the rules and principles of conduct that are either recognized by a particular class or a person to compass the need to do right or wrong.

Sources of ethics and morality

There are a lot of sources of morality and ethics in use. Moral codes have in bigger part been derived by theologians who have interpreted the holy books like Christian Bible, the Jewish Torah and the Islamic Quran. Believers of these religions accept any conclusion from theologians as absolute truth. Evolutionary sociobiologists believe that human behaviours and morality elements originated from the primate societies and early humans. They believe in the evolution and adaptation of the moral codes of small hunting groups to nations that exists today. Another source that is a subject to debates currently is the science of morality. The a concept that objective and superior system of ethics and morality can be obtained by studying the culture of the human being then applying scientific methods for the purpose of maximizing the wellbeing of the people.

Conflicts between ethics and morality

Ethics does conflict with morals depending on different professional perceptive. An example in which ethics and morals conflict is in the law profession where a lawyer whose morals dictates that murder is punishable and reprehensible but due to professionalism his ethics requires her to protect his client in the best way possible even if he is aware that the client is guilty. Another example is in the medical field, in many countries a doctor is not allowed to euthanize a patient even when the patient request based on the ethics of the health profession. However, the doctor may have a different view based on his personal beliefs on the right of the patient to die as per his morality.