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Ethics Definition and Concept Made Easy With Examples

This document discusses ethics and provides examples to distinguish ethics from morals. It defines ethics as the study of what is right and wrong in human conduct based on moral principles. While morals refer to adhering to societal or religious rules, ethics requires using reasoning to understand situations and determine the right course of action. It gives an analogy comparing a car driver following rules to morals, and an engineer understanding principles to ethics. The document also covers topics like the essence, determinants and consequences of ethics, as well as dimensions of ethics in private and public relationships.

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Hritik Sharma 1902629
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122 views6 pages

Ethics Definition and Concept Made Easy With Examples

This document discusses ethics and provides examples to distinguish ethics from morals. It defines ethics as the study of what is right and wrong in human conduct based on moral principles. While morals refer to adhering to societal or religious rules, ethics requires using reasoning to understand situations and determine the right course of action. It gives an analogy comparing a car driver following rules to morals, and an engineer understanding principles to ethics. The document also covers topics like the essence, determinants and consequences of ethics, as well as dimensions of ethics in private and public relationships.

Uploaded by

Hritik Sharma 1902629
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

Ethics – Definition and Concept Made Easy; With

Examples
clearias.com/ethics-definition

Alex Andrews George

Ethics is the study of what is right or wrong in human conduct. This is a branch of
Philosophy which studies moral principles. Hence, Ethics is also known as Moral
Philosophy.

Ethics vs Morals

Many people use the words Ethics and Morality interchangeably. However, there is a
difference between Ethics and Morals.

To put it in simple terms, Ethics = Morals + Reasoning.

🙂
To have an ethical viewpoint, you should be able to give some reason for it. Yes, Ethics is
Moral Philosophy, and Philosophy is all about reasoning

For example, you might feel that it is morally wrong to steal, but if you have an ethical
viewpoint on it, it should be based on some sets of arguments and analysis about why it
would be wrong to steal.

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To be moral is all about adhering to what is described (by society or religion). But to be
ethical, you should figure out what is right – by applying some principles and considering
all the complexities involved. Clearly, the ethical life is the harder path.

Ethics and Morals – An Analogy with a Car Driver and an


Automobile Engineer

Let’s take the case of a car driver and an automobile engineer. The car driver knows how
to drive a car, but he may not know the engine mechanism or design principles. However
an automobile engineer is concerned with how the car works, and the principles involved.

Connecting the above example with ethics and morals, you can see that following morals
is just like driving the car without understanding the working principles of the engine. But
if you follow ethical principles – you would be using reasoning and analysis (just like the
automobile engineer in the above example) to understand the situation/case better. If the
engine starts to create trouble, the engineer may be able to use the problem-solving
approach as well.

Ethics and Human Interface – Topics Covered:


Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human actions
Dimensions of ethics
Ethics in private and public relationships

Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human


actions
Ethics is all about reasoning about how one should act in a given circumstance – ie. how
to do the right action.

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Essence of Ethics
Ethics is the study of morality. The essence of Ethics (core of ethics) is to understand
those philosophies which guide us in determining what is right or wrong.

Determinants of Ethics
Determinants are the sources from which the ethical standard arises. There are multiple
determinants of ethics like

Religion
Law
Society
Individual
Knowledge
Time

Consequences of Ethics
A consequence is the outcome of any act. Doing good with proper reasoning (being
ethical) has many positive consequences like

Safeguarding the society.


Feeling good.
Creating credibility.
Satisfying basic human needs etc.

However, being unethical has many negative consequences like

Loss of trust.
Nepotism.
Corruption.
Crimes etc.

Dimensions of Ethics

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Ethics is not just a theoretical science, it has a lot of applications in day to day life. Being
multi-dimensional in nature, ethics is divided into four main branches. They are:

1. Meta-Ethics (Ethics about Ethics)


2. Prescriptive Ethics (Normative Ethics)
3. Descriptive Ethics (Comparative Ethics)
4. Applied Ethics.

We will see the different branches of ethics in detail, in the next post – Dimensions of
Ethics.

Ethics in Private and Public relationships

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Individuals should be ethical in both private and public relationships. In doing so, they
should also try to achieve a right balance between private an public ethics.

Ethics in Private Relationships


Private relationships largely involve relations with family and friends and hence are
informal in nature. Private relationships are often driven by emotions and not by
reasoning. This can result in unethical practices.

For example, helping your friend to cheat in an exam (unethical). Also, remember the
Ramayana story where Kaikeyi tried to put her son Bharata on the throne, ahead of
Rama – the elder son of Dasharatha (unethical).

Ethics in Public Relationships


Public relationships involve relations which are formal in nature. This can include co-
workers, government officials, or strangers. There can be legal or social obligations as
well.

Ethics in public relations can come into play at:

Social Ethics – tolerance towards other sections, peace and harmony etc.
Political Ethics – constitutional ethics, national interest etc.

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Organisational Ethics – impartiality, honesty, hard work, efficiency, corporate
governance etc.
International Ethics – ethics in diplomacy, respecting international treaties etc.

For Extra Reference:


1. Book Published by – Chronicle
2. Book Published by – McGraw Hill
3. Book Published by – Arihant
4. Book Published by – GKP/Access

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