Ethics vs Morals
From the title, may be some of you will have some thought in your mind, that this story will be serious topic, talk about philosophy, and many complicated things. Yaaa, may be kind of that but not really that serious. This time, I wanna share my thought about ethics and moral. Why? Why must that topic?
Several days ago, when I sat in my class, we talked about what’s difference between ethics and moral. The day after that class, I had another class and we talked about same topic. Last semester, I had one class that studied about bioethics. Time changed and I had some thought in my mind about that matter. That’s why I wrote this story.
Same but different.
First, if we wanna know and learn about something, especially this kind of topic, we must know definition of ethics and moral. It’s important because every confusion that occur when we talked about this topic can be traced back to the origin meaning. Ethic come from Old French (etique), Late Latin (ethica) and Greek (ethos) that referred to customs or moral philosophies. Morals come from Late Latins’s moralis, which referred to appropiate behavior and manners in society. So, we can say that the two — ethic and moral — have same meaning, not synonyms, but meaning originally. If this two words have same meaning originally, why’d people distinct this two? What’s the differences ? Why there are conflict that occur because this topic? We can start from this case.
One professional example of ethics conflicting with morals is the work of a defense attorney. A lawyer’s morals may tell her that murder is reprehensible and that murderers should be punished, but her ethics as a professional lawyer, require her to defend her client to the best of her abilities, even if she knows that the client is guilty.
From that case, we can see conflict between application of ethic and moral understanding. There are some differences between moral and ethic and this time I wanna hare about that different according to Diffen.com :
- What are they?
Ethics : The rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group or culture.
Morals : Principles or habits with respect to right or wrong conduct. While morals also prescribe dos and don’ts, morality is ultimately a personal compass of right and wrong. - Where do they come from?
E : Social system — External
M : Individual — Internal - Why we do it?
E : Because society says it is the right thing to do.
M : Because we believe in something being right or wrong. - Flexibility
E : Dependent on others for definition. They tend to be consistent within a certain context, but can vary between contexts.
M : Usually consistent, although can change if an individual’s beliefs change. - The “Gray”
E : A person strictly following Ethical Principles may not have any Morals at all. Likewise, one could violate Ethical Principles within a given system of rules in order to maintain Moral integrity.
M : A Moral Person although perhaps bound by a higher covenant, may choose to follow a code of ethics as it would apply to a system. “Make it fit” - Origin
E : Greek word “ethos” meaning”character”
M : Latin word “mos” meaning “custom” - Acceptability
E : Governed by professional and legal guidelines within a particular time and place
M : Transcends cultural norms
From the differences between ethics and morals above, have you understand about ethics and moral ? Or you become more confuse ? May be we can look at another case.
Cheating. Do you know about cheating? Have you cheat before in your study life ? Did you always honest in everything you do?
In general, cheating is inappropiate behavior. Some people very very very hate a person that cheat. Why? Did cheat is bad? Which point of view that you choosed ? If we see from religious’s poin of view, there aren’t one of the teaching that say you can cheat. On the contrary, based on Christian’s point of view that I believed, CHEAT IS FORBIDDEN. Why? Because cheat is unhonest behavior and contra with Creator’s human design that said God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes. So, if we cheating, that will oppose God’s word.
But, what if we used another poin of view? Can cheat become good things ?
In my opinion and after neverending thought, I think there aren’t point that said cheat is right. But I don’t know if in another place or another belief or another point of view, cheat is good thing.
So, what is ethic and what is morals?
There’s argument that said ethic is science or theory, meanwhile morals is practical. If we know theory about something, how we do that theory depend on our interpretation. Many people know about same theory, but when we want to applicate that theory, every people will have different point of view, based on their understanding, their inner thought, their beliefs, or their religious. That’s why cheat is ethic’s violation because there aren’t theory (ethic) — based on my knowledge — that said cheat is good thing.
Then, after we know and discuss about all the things above, what should we do? Should we always stand our know-how in the midst of contra between ethics and morals ? If I must give an answer, I’ll said yes, because if we do not stand in our belief, we will easy get influence from others and we will stop in point that said “I do not believe anyone”. Yes, we can not depend on other people. We only depend on the truth — the real truth — that is God’s Word as The Creator of Us and All Universe. Because He is the way, the truth and the life.
If you do not agree with this story or there are some point that contra with your belief or understanding, it’s okay. I just wanna share my thought and my story. But if you wanna know more about some point or have further discuss, feel free to contact me :) God Bless You
Reference :
“Ethics vs Morals.” Diffen.com. Diffen LLC, n.d. Web. 15 Sep 2016.< http://www.diffen.com/difference/Ethics_vs_Morals
