What is Ethics?
Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to establish objective standards of right and wrong conduct. In general, ethics deals with questions regarding what actions people should take when presented with different situations, such as disclosing confidential sources to authorities or engaging in sexual activity. Ethics differs from morality as its focus lies more on people’s subjective interpretations of right and wrong conduct rather than being objective in nature.
Philosophical traditions encompass utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics as ethical traditions. Utilitarianism asserts that ethical decisions should be based on what brings the greatest benefit to society; deontology emphasizes duty-oriented obligations like telling the truth or keeping promises; while virtue ethics investigates moral character traits like courage and compassion.
Business ethics applies ethical principles to business conduct. For instance, when large corporations encounter criticism from consumers and NGOs due to seemingly irresponsible treatments of workers or the environment, it must carefully examine its ethics before making adjustments as required.
What is Morality?
There are various definitions of morality. One approach suggests that morality should be defined as the code most rational people would endorse under certain specified conditions; but this definition leaves much content unspoken for, leaving its conditional elements vague, as well as not providing any specific direction for behavior.
Conversely, many philosophers have provided descriptive definitions of morality. Though not as precise as normative definitions, they come much closer to providing actual theories than the basic schema described above.
Descriptive moralities tend to focus on preventing harm for members of certain groups, though their content varies widely; some societies place greater emphasis on purity and loyalty than harm prevention; meanwhile, utilitarian philosophers focus on decreasing harm as the central element of morality.
