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Author Topic:   Ethics vs. Morals: do origins matter?
ReverendDG
Member (Idle past 4110 days)
Posts: 1119
From: Topeka,kansas
Joined: 06-06-2005


Message 1 of 7 (380912)
01-29-2007 11:48 AM


This is a rather tough topic to start out with but, i think i'm going to give it a shot as one of my next tries at a PNT
As I was looking at stile's topic on morality god or darwin topic, i thought about morality and ethics and what they really are, as well as what they mean.
My thoughts wandered to the validity of both of them when it comes to where they come from, do they matter to how people view them? Do morals have more meaning than ethics because of the supposed origins of them?
or do ethics have more validity, since they have more flexibity from thier origins?
My frame of mind when it comes to morals and ethics are this, morals come from the authority of something spiritual or supernatural in origin,while ethics come from human interaction and observation, from there to human reasoning.

"no intelligent agent who is strictly physical could have presided over the origin of the universe or the origin of life." - William Dembski

Replies to this message:
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AdminNem
Inactive Member


Message 2 of 7 (380978)
01-29-2007 2:41 PM


Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

  
jar
Member (Idle past 394 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 3 of 7 (380982)
01-29-2007 2:45 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by ReverendDG
01-29-2007 11:48 AM


Morals = Ethics
I would say that Morality and Ethics are the same thing. Where folk often confuse things is when they try to bring in the concept of Sin.
Sin is definitely purely religious.

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.2


Message 4 of 7 (380989)
01-29-2007 2:55 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by ReverendDG
01-29-2007 11:48 AM


I don't think that your distinction really works.
As I see the words used, "ethics" is used to refer to professional codes of conduct and to philosophical views. "Morality" is more general and refers to many things including some that would have to be described as cultural values. Ethics might, then, be more considered and more intellectually based than morals in general.

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AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8513
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 5 of 7 (380999)
01-29-2007 3:27 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by ReverendDG
01-29-2007 11:48 AM


Each Defines the Other
Just for jollies I checked an number of on-line dictionaries.
In most cases they ues "ethics" to define "morals" and use "morals" to define "ethics."
In those volumns that do not use this neat little trick, there appears to be no substantial distiction between the two.

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Hyroglyphx
Inactive Member


Message 6 of 7 (381017)
01-29-2007 4:21 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by PaulK
01-29-2007 2:55 PM


Morals = ethics
As I see the words used, "ethics" is used to refer to professional codes of conduct and to philosophical views. "Morality" is more general and refers to many things including some that would have to be described as cultural values. Ethics might, then, be more considered and more intellectually based than morals in general.
I think in the current vernacular we use ethics, as you say, in reference to conduct on the professional level. I was going to concur with you, but after reading the definitions of both, morals and ethics appear to mirror one another in definitional terms.

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis

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subbie
Member (Idle past 1254 days)
Posts: 3509
Joined: 02-26-2006


Message 7 of 7 (381022)
01-29-2007 4:25 PM


Ethics vs. morals
PaulK's point is accurate to a degree. In many professions there are rules that are considered ethics for that profession that few people would consider have implications for morality.
For example, attorneys are required to hold money belonging to clients in a separate bank account from their own. An attorney will face sanctions if a client's money is commingled, even if the attorney never touches that client's money. Another example. In Tennessee, real estate agents are prohibited from disclosing to a potential buyer the dollar value of another buyer's offer. They can disclose that there is another offer and talk generally about how good an offer it is, but cannot say exactly what the amount is.
Some of these rules of ethics are prophylactic in nature, designed to prevent actions that most people would agree are immoral. However, in many cases, there's nothing immoral per se in the prohibited actions themselves.

Those who would sacrifice an essential liberty for a temporary security will lose both, and deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
We see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat

  
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