Response – Comparison Between Ethics and Morals

Response – Comparison Between Ethics and Morals

Peer Response 1

Hello,

I agree with your viewpoint regarding the difference between ethics and morals. As you rightly put it, ethics are the building blocks that lead to the development of morals. I agree with your position because no one is born with standard ethics, but everyone learns them from their social circle, including parents (Rosenstand, 2018). Once ethical standards are established, one can choose the morals by which they will live. Having outstanding ethics and morals significantly supports one in leading a satisfying life and successful career since they help maintain social relationships. I agree with your post because, with the right moral grounding, one does unto others what they expect to be done in return hence no selfishness (Rosenstand, 2018). Also, your point raised another important point; ethics have transformed you into a spiritual person. I agree with your point because spiritual teachings are one of the sources whereby one can learn ethics from. However, your post fails to categorize you into any of the existing moral lenses. As such, based on your opinion, I may conclude that you align with moral subjectivism.

References

Rosenstand, N. (2018). The moral of the story: An introduction to ethics (8th ed.). Mcgraw-Hill Education.

Peer Response 2

Hello,

This is a great post: you provided an insightful piece that exhaustively distinguishes ethics and morality. As you rightly put it, ethics are shared by a community, whereas morals are informed by personal choices (Gilman, 2005). You used a relevant example- whether a homeless addict should be offered money or not. Some may feel that offering such individuals money is a charitable activity, while others may see it as a ploy to bolster their addictive habits. I also agree that ethics can help when interacting with others because once one embraces high ethical standards, they become objective and approach interactions fairly and rationally.

I agree with your opinion on Plato and Aristotle’s viewpoints about the contribution of literature, art, and plays. While Plato avers that art, poetry, and other related works are based on falsehoods, Aristotle feels they reflect society’s events. Finally, although I hold a different view, you have satisfactorily defended your alignment with moral absolutism. Since moral absolutism prescribes universal moral and ethical standards, there is a reduced chance of experiencing chaos in relationships.

Reference

Gilman, S. C. (2005). Ethics codes and codes of conduct as tools for promoting an ethical and professional public service: Comparative successes and lessons. Prepared for the PREM, the World Bank.

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FIRST DISCUSSION TO RESPOND TO in 100-150 WORDS: From a philosophical point of view, do ethics differ from morals? ethics: Theoretical, principled questioning of moral rules or guidelines. Basically, my understanding or the way I view ethics is to be the building blocks to have morals that you can firmly stand on eventually with more time lived. Ethics are passed down to you from numerous different avenues throughout life. Mom and Dad are the main lines to the beginnings of your ethics. Then later on in life when your ethics become black and white to you mentally, your morals start to develop to the point they are standards you live by.

How might it be advantageous to you in your daily life or in your career? In your daily life, you may not know or understand this at a young age, but you need things to do and to keep your mind busy to continue to grow. Having great ethics and morals also comes from making mistakes in life to learn from. If you have a great work ethic it may help you get to the top of your career choices. Having good morality will help you gain and keep good people around you in your life.

How might it change your beliefs about reality and the meaning of life? I don’t think it has changed anything for me. I think it has made me look at things from a matter-of-fact view. certain things didn’t have a title for me and now they do. Also, being a spiritual person, I believe in a higher power even more now than when I was younger. When you have been through what I have and you have seen things that you can’t explain it will make you drop to your knees and say thank you, lord. My story is real and has led me to believe you can come back from anything in life but bad health.

Do you think philosophy can teach you anything about ethics or is ethical knowledge something that one can attain only from one’s family, religious or cultural tradition, or perhaps simply from life experience? ethics are given to you by other folks and maybe some situations. but they are usually somebody else’s before they become yours. They are the skeleton of your thought process. Morals are simply what a person believes to be right or wrong. That can be a feeling of something being wrong or it can be right or wrong based on the ethics you accumulated over time.

What does the philosophical study of ethics cover, discuss, or explain that might not be part of a discussion of morality? Moral philosophy is simply the study of what folks believe is the good or bad, right, or wrong way to live life.

Is a philosophical examination of morality essential for a true or deep understanding of what it means to lead a morally good life? I do not believe this to be the case. The reason why I say this is because all these years I believed morality and ethics to be the same. but in learning these true definitions I have come to realize I have really lived a morally good life without ever philosophically examining morality until now in this class.

3. Plato’s views on what I would call pop culture, plays, literature, music etc. was that they were morally wrong and would make men and women of society long for fame and popularity. Whereas Aristotle had different views of these things as he believed these things were merely imitations of everyday life and true stories of love and struggle. I believe in todays world when it comes to movies, video games, music etc. that we are seeing the effects of what Plato was trying to warn us about. More mass shootings, more hunger for personal attention and things that are not morally responsible. As tech starts to shape our lives and bring our communications closer together somehow, we are getting more divided. The uneducated and untraveled voices have gotten louder, and ignorance is becoming the norm.

4. To be honest I have never thought about myself through any of these lenses until now. Mostly because I did not know they all existed. ethical relativism, moral skeptic, and moral subjectivist are all very new terms for me to try and categorize myself into. Says most students believe in ethical relativism but there are no universal moral truths there so for me that cannot stand alone. I don’t believe in the all or nothing frame of mind. I believe each of these frames of mind has something positive and negative to contribute. Ethical absolutism is a slippery slope because no rule can apply at all times to every single person. Situations change things if only for a moment in time. I would say I personally lean towards moral subjectivism, but I also believe in some universal truths like treating people the way you want to be treated is on the top of my list. If we all lived that way life would be sweeter.

SECOND DISCUSSION TO RESPOND TO in 100-150 words: 1. Ethics can be defined as a code of conduct that is shared by a community, whereas morality is a code for an individual person. Ethics differ from morality, in that ethics discuss cultural, societal, and communal norms. With that said, multiple people, who live in the same community or culture, may all have variations in their own personal codes of morality. For example, two people from the exact same country or city may have different beliefs of what is the most moral conduct to display toward a homeless person asking for money – one may think it harmful, because it may enable a potential drug or alcohol addiction, while in the meantime, the other may think it benevolent and charitable. I believe that a philosophical examination of morality is not essential to lead a morally good life, but can greatly enhance one’s resolve and understanding of what that means. I believe this because philosophy is not a field that is intentionally studied by every person in the world who abides by a strong ethical or moral code – however, these same people may have deeply internalized a clear cut code of what is right and wrong in spite of that.

2. I think that the philosophical study of ethics will deeply affect my relationships with other people. Specifically, I think it will heavily influence and guide my interactions with others, on a daily basis, in both my personal life as well as in my career. It will allow me to have a more objective view towards my own beliefs about reality and the meaning of life, as well as that of others, and enable me to be more fair and balanced in my engagements with them. I think that ethics is primarily absorbed by people via their families, cultures, and faiths, (evidence being that many people who don’t study philosophy in a formal setting still have developed a strong code of ethics) but the philosophical study of it can edify these codes that already exist within the individual. For example, someone may be a devout Catholic, but their piety might possibly be more rooted in the fact that they happened to be raised in a Catholic country and tradition, versus their own independent examination and acceptance of Catholic doctrine for themselves. The ethics may not change, except the philosophical study of their own ethics might possibly enrich and deepen their existing faith.

3. Plato believed that the influences of poetry, plays, literature, and other forms of written or artistic expression were detrimental to one’s ethical knowledge because they are fundamentally based in falsehood. Conversely, Aristotle believed that these mediums of expression and communication are instinctive imitations of our human nature, that they often indicate something deeper about our own values, ethics, and morality as a people, and that we can even learn from them. I personally agree with Aristotle’s point of view, because I find that poetry, literature, and art in general are extremely reflective of human nature and morality. For example, throughout all of history and across all cultures, the various art periods and movements found within a society has tended to reflect and represent the thoughts, feelings, and ethics of the people in those societies. Specifically, in Western art we see a shift around the European Enlightenment Era in which the focal point of society shifted inwards from God towards man himself, which paralleled a decentralization of religion in public life, replaced with greater study and emphasis on what were considered the natural rights of man. The art became less focused on religious subjects, and more on secular and intellectual subjects, such as ancient Greek stoicism.

4. I believe in moral absolutism, because any alternative to this concept ultimately leads to chaos and disunity among mankind. Not everyone can have their own “right” and “wrong”, because their motives will differ, and lead to people harming one another. For example, if morality were purely subjective, (going beyond the subtle variations we spoke of earlier, with the “giving money to the homeless” example) my morality could be completely based in serving myself. My next door neighbor could have a morality completely based in serving his self. If we were living on a plot of land that had a resource, such as crops, game animals, or fresh water, then there would be no moral incentive for us to share the resources fairly. We would more than likely try to hog all of the resources for ourselves, to ensure maximum security and wealth. It might even lead to us killing one another over it. This is, in my opinion, an example that demonstrates the importance in being rooted in a fundamental and shared code of ethics, and what would happen on a larger scale in the world, should we fall prey to the idea that morality is a completely subjective and self-serving concept.