Do you consider yourself an ethical person? Before answering that question, think about one more: Have you ever taken an action that damaged your morals? It may be a little difficult to talk about these two themes — not only because of the reflection they suggest, but also because of the need to understand the two concepts objectively.
After all, do you really know what is ethical and what is moral? When we try to define something so abstract in a few words, we end up getting confused. But if you want to have a good posture in all areas of your life and precisely define your values, it is essential to delve into this topic. With the article we prepared, learn more about it!
Ethics and morals: what's the difference?
To start talking about ethics and morals and the impact of these two concepts on your life, we need to understand what they mean. For this, we will analyze the etymology of the two words, identifying which terms they originate from.
The word “ethics” comes from the ancient Greek language, from the term “ethos”. When written as “êthos”, it refers to character, and, if written as “éthos”, it represents a custom. Coincidentally, the word “moral” comes from the Latin “moris”, which is a translation of “êthos”, indicating “custom”.
So, in a simplified way, ethics is character and morals is custom. By this definition, we could understand that the two words are almost the same thing, but not quite. In fact, when studied by philosophy and sociology, an important difference between ethics and morals was identified.
Morality is a set of behaviors and rules that have been consolidated from a culture. It is what tradition asks a person to do. In Europe, for example, morals were based on Christianity, for example, and people's behaviors were supposed to follow God's teachings.
Therefore, a moral person is one who follows the customs and rules of the place where he developed. If she does not follow these definitions, she will be considered immoral by the other inhabitants of the region.
To illustrate, imagine that a community has the habit of eating meat. In this context, all individuals who eat meat are moral, while those who do not are immoral. In another community, however, the prevailing habit is not to eat meat. In this case, the moral ones are the ones who don't eat meat and the immoral ones are the ones who do.
And how does ethics come into this? Unlike morals, ethics is a more individual and reflective concept. It's the way a person interprets morals and makes decisions based on that. That is, following the example presented, ethics manifests itself when an individual in the community who eats meat begins to question whether this is the most correct food for himself and for nature.
Through the reflection made by this individual, he will decide whether to continue eating meat or not. If he understands that it is not right to eat meat, he will act immorally in that community, but he will have an ethical stance, because, according to his interpretation, ethical behavior is not to eat meat.
On the other hand, if the individual understands that eating meat is the right thing to do, he will have combined the morals of the community with his own ethics, so he will not feel unethical if he continues to eat that way. In this example, he would only be unethical if he believed that he should not eat meat and continued to eat just to respect the morals of the people.
From this explanation, we understand that ethics and morals are not the same thing. While morality refers to the customs of a people, ethics is the reflection on these customs. However, both concepts help us to live better in society, in addition to helping us define what our values ​​are.
And what difference do ethics and morals make in my life?
You don't live in a community whose only custom is to eat meat or not to eat it, right? So maybe you're still wondering why it's so important to learn about ethics and morals and how these two concepts apply in your life, in an objective way.
An important point about morality is that it is often used to define the laws of a society. So they are more than a custom you can choose to follow. In fact, they can manifest as mandatory behaviors.
However, sometimes the morality of a people is transformed through ethics, which is the reflection on customs that have been practiced for a long time. And this transformation of morals becomes a new law, which must be followed by everyone. Can you think of an example of this? See what we separated:
1) Abolition of slavery
Long ago, slavery of black people was legalized in España. As a consequence of this, treating a black individual as inferior or seeing him only as a commodity, being able to even sell him, was part of the people's morals. White people were following morals, which were slow to be questioned through ethics.
Fortunately, when slavery was abolished, ethics came into play over morals, which changed. What was once considered normal and moral has become forbidden and inappropriate. In a long process, which is not yet over, black people began to conquer the rights that white people always had, and it became immoral, unethical and illegal to treat them as inferior to others.
Now you are already realizing how ethics and morals act in your life, aren't you? Even before you understood the concepts, your behaviors were already driven by them. In addition to the example we mentioned, we can think of something more everyday, which divides opinions: the español way.
2) Spanish way
The jeitinho español is the set of behaviors that are not exactly in accordance with the rules, but that are not necessarily illegal either, such as cutting the line. This is a Spanish way to get faster service or to act in traffic. So many people do it that the behavior has become part of España's morality, a custom. But this does not mean that this is an ethical attitude.
When reflecting on the español way and how it can harm some people to the detriment of others, an individual can choose not to follow it. Instead, he will continue to respect the queue in this case, even if it costs him a little more time. The reason for the individual to take this attitude is that, in his ethics, it is wrong to act otherwise. He even judges as unethical those who follow the Spanish way.
3) Ethics in the work environment
There is yet another well-known application of ethics. In the last example, let's look at ethics in a work environment. Even if, conceptually, ethics is an individual reflection on morals, at work it is a little different. There are many professions that have their own ethics, a set of rules that must be followed.
The ethics of a profession is defined from the reflections that professionals in the field have already made about a certain activity. They lead to acceptable behaviors for a practice and must be followed by everyone in the environment. It's not like the morals of a people, because it's not about customs passed down from generation to generation.
A health professional, for example, must keep all patient information confidential, in accordance with the ethics of the profession. But a journalist, upon discovering information of public interest, is not obliged to maintain secrecy, and may even disclose it. So every profession has an ethic and you should know what the ethic of your craft is to avoid problems.
4) Now it's your turn!
After checking examples of ethics and morals that are part of your life, now it's your turn to reflect on this topic. How is morality driving your behavior? Are you a person who follows society's traditions without questioning them, or are you always thinking about what is expected of you?
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In your work environment or when making simple everyday decisions, do you act on autopilot or do you follow the rules that are imposed? And how do you feel about it? If you could change something in society, would you change morals or ethics?
From the content presented, we conclude that ethics and morals are important for life in society, after all, in many situations, if you do not follow the morals of the society in which you live, you can receive a punishment for it. Or, by acting unethically, you may be excluded by your friends and co-workers. Keep thinking about it to act better and better!
