Topics Ethics

Question Is there a clear-cut distinction between morality and ethics, or is the distinction to be found largely in linguistic usage? For example, immoral behaviour suggests behaviour that breaks some socially accepted code, but so does unethical behaviour. However, in the latter case, the code may be less widely applicable, such as a journalistic code of ethics. Or is it that morality has, at its base, religious belief, while ethics need not necessarily have that, but is more secular? Andrew Taylor

Accepted:
January 3, 2006

Comments

There have been philosophers who distinguish between morality and ethics in one or another way, but I don't think that there is an agreed upon distinction among philosophers today. Most use the terms interchangeably.

I agree that most philosophers use the terms interchangeably, and that there is no generally agreed upon distinction. But one reasons for thinking that there is a distinction to be made is to consider whether the general approach to values is rule-based or agent-based. Virtue theorists (whose approach to value is agent-based) in many cases see no important distinction between what other philosophers call moral virtues (such as honesty), and other virtues, which might be just as important to pursuing the good life. So, Aristotle lists gentleness and wittiness among the many ethical virtues, along with honesty and generosity. There is nothing immoral about being gruff (as opposed to gentle) or humorless (as opposed to witty), but gentleness and wittiness are included, for Aristotle, among the ethical virtues.