Ethics and morals: differences and similarities
Often the concepts of "Moral and ethic" they are intermingled and used as absolute synonyms, since it is not entirely clear what the differences and similarities between the two terms are. However, "ethics" and "moral" are two words that are distinguished from each other by slight nuances in their meaning. In this lesson from a TEACHER we explain in detail the meaning of the words "ethics" and "morals" as well as differences and similarities that exist between them.
The concepts of "ethics" and "moral" are closely linked to the philosophical field. Thus, starting from questions of a philosophical nature, we can define ethics as that set of guidelines or standards that people use as a guide to conduct in all aspects of their lifetime.
Thus, ethics establishes the behavior that human beings must follow and respect in order to live in peace with ourselves and with those around us.
Faced with the concept of ethics, the word "moral" is used to refer to the social principles on which each person configures their way of behaving within a community. That is, morality contains all those socially determined values according to which we judge that a thing is right or wrong, is right or wrong, and from there we act one way or another, depending on corresponds.
Thus, morality has an eminently practical reflection, because it conditions the way in which we behave in our daily life.
Many are the similarities between "ethics" and "morals". In the first place, etymologically both words share the same meaning of 'custom'; the word "moral" comes from Latin we and "ethics" comes from the Greek ethos.
Furthermore, both terms refer to ways to proceed in life, that is, they indicate precepts and norms of behavior of human beings.
However, "Moral and ethic" are two words that also have some differences between them. For example, ethics acts on a theoretical and psychological plane, since it is a way of thinking prior to development of our acts, while morality refers to the implementation of these ethical values.
A) Yes, morality is a concept with a social base, and therefore, different in one society and another, which guides the conduct of all the people belonging to each specific community. Against this, ethics focuses more on individual thinking of each human being, based on a personal and deep reflection that can influence or condition the behavior of that particular person.
Another of the main differences between "ethics" and "morals" is that the first of them has an internal origin in man, that is, it is born from the thought and consciousness of each person as individual entity, while morality is a term that starts from social premises, which is why it is externally imposed on each person, since it governs the social guidelines that human beings must adhere to if they want to belong to a community determined.
