What is ethics ?
Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society. It is a system of moral principles which affect how people make decisions and lead their lives.
At the heart of ethics is a concern about something or someone other than ourselves and our own desires and self-interest.Some common ethical principles include honesty, equality, respect for rights, integrity, adherence to the law, etc.
How can ethics be defined?
Ethics can be defined as a discipline which deals with a set of principles on the basis of which human conduct is evaluated as right or wrong.
What is the source of ethics?
Ethics has been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures.
How can ethics be useful?
Ethics provides us with a moral map, a framework that we can use to find our way through difficult issues.However, for many issues there isn’t a single right answer – there may be several right answers. In such cases, all ethics can do is eliminate confusion and clarify the issues. After that it’s up to each individual to come to his own conclusions.Sometimes, there are no right answers, just some least worst answers are there and the individual must choose among them.
What are various features of ethics?
• Ethics depend upon the context in which they are operating. They vary in their meaning and intensity according to time, place and person.
• Ethics operate at different levels such as individual, organisational, socio-cultural, political and international level.
• Not all conducts of human beings are the subject matter of ethics. For example, man’s compulsive actions, accidental actions and hypnotised actions are not the subject matters of ethics. Only man’s voluntary actions which he does with his free choice are the subject matter of ethics.
• Ethics does not study the voluntary actions of all human beings. It studies voluntary actions of only those human beings who live in society i.e. man’s those actions which affects other members of the society.
Is ethics same as morality?
Ethics and morals relate to “right” and “wrong” conduct. While they are sometimes used interchangeably, they are different:
• Ethics refer to rules provided by an external source, e.g. codes of conduct in workplaces or principles in religions. Morals refer to an individual’s own principles regarding right and wrong.
• A person strictly following Ethical Principles may not have any Morals at all. Likewise, one could violate Ethical Principles in order to maintain Moral integrity.
• Ethics can vary between contexts. An individual’s morals are consistent across all contexts.
Examples of conflict between ethics and morality:
• One example of ethics conflicting with morals is the work of a lawyer. A lawyer’s morals may tell him that murder is reprehensible and that murderers should be punished, but her ethics as a professional lawyer, require him to defend his client to the best of his abilities, even if he knows that the client is guilty.
• Another example can be found in the medical field. In most parts of the world, a doctor may not euthanize a patient, even at the patient’s request, as per ethical standards for health professionals. However, the same doctor may personally believe in a patient’s right to die, as per the doctor’s own morality.
