Ethics and Morality

Every day, in every situation we are all confronted with ethical decisions and problems. All of these situations and our responses to them shape who we are as ethical and moral beings and contribute to our own self-image. As people living we are constantly bombarded with information about ethical decisions and moral controversies and are subjected to continuous theories of what is morally and ethically right and acceptable? But what is morality? What is ethics? How do people arrive at ideas about acceptable behavior in ethical and moral situations? 

The most common form of ethics deals with right action in regards to personal life and others, and most, if not all, codes of conduct are really ethical codes, how to act in given situations for the good of all concerned. Ethics may also deal heavily with obligations and duty, to either a community or to oneself. Ethics deals with what is right or good in relation to a group or society and highlight the ways in which an individual should act if the wish to be ethically right.

Morality is very similar to ethics; in fact most people interchange the two terms, yet it also has certain differences that set it apart. In the more important ways in which morality differs from ethics is that morality is mainly a personal choice and belief. As such it is harder to concretely say whether some action or thought is morally right in general sense, yet in many cases morality fits with ethics very nicely and the two are not at odds. 

Given that the two are so similar and inter-changeable any situation dealing with one will in most respects deal with the other. Any ethical dilemma will involve a moral one as well, and any moral dilemma will involve an ethical problem. But, not all situations pose problems or difficulties, some situations may simply highlight the ethical implications of the action or actions taken. Any situation will have a moral component, how one should act in this particular instance is defined and guided by their moral code, and on a large scale how will this instance affect the ethical code of that person within in the society in which they live.

The only way to find a moral and ethical compass is to view all occasions as an instance of choice, and to balance the personal moral code with the societal ethical code. There are countless examples of these types of choices, and continuous chances to re-evaluate and refine one’s personal code, and ones societal code.