Understanding Morality versus Ethics
Isn’t it interesting that so much debate can erupt the moment you put these two words into the same room – Morality and Ethics.
Morality is a Moving Target
In the context of history we have morality. But what are morals? I think that’s where it gets confusing for us because we exist in a time and place with cultural influences that affect what could be considered moral.
For example, what is the legal age of sexual consent? That depends where you live, I guess. It could be 13 years old or 18 years old or something entirely different. There is the morality of gay relationships… dress codes… and religious observation of the institution of marriage.
At any point in time and specific to individual culture there are sets of established rules that we agree (or disagree) to abide by – called Morality. It’s a moving target.
Ethics is an Immovable Target
The next thing that needs to be said is that ethics and morality are not interchangeable terms. This is a critical point because most confusion about ethics versus morality stems from the misconception about their similarity.
Ethics are a set of rules that apply regardless of the location and point in time an event occurs.
For example, at the birth of the American nation it was entirely moral to have slaves – but it was never ethical. That’s a big distinction when you think about it because nearly every signatory (if not every one of them) to the Declaration of Independence were slave owners.
Immoral no… unethical yes.
And slavery, to further the example, is unethical whether it happens today and whichever the culture – in Australia, Europe, Congo or the Balkans – or whenever the historic period. If you don’t think slavery exists listen to Kevin Bales’ TED talk on how to combat modern slavery.
However Ethics Does Teach Us About Context
It gets a little more interesting. Take murder – something we would all consider clearly unethical – as the taking of another person’s life. So when is it immoral and when is it unethical?
Go back and reread the article again if you’re confused… for example, it may be perfectly moral to stone a girl to death for being raped in some cultures BUT it will always be unethical. At the same time if somebody is directly trying to take your life and you have to kill them to survive then that is entirely ethical.
No act in itself is either ethical or unethical. It’s all about the context of the situation (unlike clearly defined culturally bound morality). That’s what makes ethics remotely interesting.
