Further Thoughts on Ethics & Morality

I’ve been getting a lot of hits on my site lately from people searching in Google for the difference between Ethics & Morality. They’re probably getting here to this site because of this post I wrote a few weeks ago. Because of this, I thought that I'd flush out my own opinion on the subject a little bit more today:

Ethics is a term that most people unfortunately use interchangeably for morals. What I mean is that when they say that they want or expect another person to “act ethically” what they’re saying is that somewhere deep inside of them, they believe there is a behavior code that other people are expected follow. This code is based on a number of things- religious beliefs, normative social behaviors, public policy, and cultural beliefs.

But that’s not Ethics.

Ethics is historically the pursuit of ‘the good life.’ It’s an ideal. It’s a theoretical. It’s a utopia of sorts that we hope to move toward as we make our world a better place. Thanks to Mills (although we can see the roots of this ideal as far back as Socrates), ethics is normally used on a macro level rather than an individual one. Basically, his theory of utility says that the highest good is when the greatest amount of peoples enjoy a happy life. Different ethical theories hardly ever counteract this matrix although there are plenty of disagreements regarding the semantics of what good, happiness, and the greatest amount mean.

A little current events application:

When we ask a business to act ethically (if we really mean ethically) we’re saying: “Do the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people and make the most people happy as you can.”

Most people assume that this means that no one lies or disregards other people’s money- but in theory, if a business can prove that lying and cheating a bit leads to greater returns for the majority of the people, they might have grounds to claim that they are acting ethically (for the good of all) when they deceive us.

Let’s counteract this understanding of Ethics with a better understanding of Morality (or Morals).

I’ve come to believe that people often use word ethics rather than morals because morality has a religious overtone. Morality obviously elicits images of Morality Plays and other Catholic traditions. And since not all people agree on religious issues, it’s assumed that when we’re discussing the public sector (i.e. business or government) we need to use a more secular term. Now, it’s true the religion does play a big part in informing our morals. Since religious and cultural upbringing play a big part in what values we inherit, it follows that morals (loosely defined as an inherited understanding of right and wrong) tend to be at least tutored by religion if not overtly religious in nature (yes, even for the atheist).

But consider the phrase: “The moral of the story is…”

Take for instance, the old Aesop Fable of ‘The Tortoise and the Hare.’ The hare is expected to win because of his speed, but as the story progresses the determined tortoise overtakes him as he vainly takes a little nap. Victory goes to the tortoise and the “moral” (or lesson learned) is that those who work steadily rather than quickly and haphazardly are the ones who accomplish their goals.

 It’s within this example that I believe we find a much richer definition of morals/morality. Morals are the behaviors and expectations that we place on ourselves as a story or narrative progresses around us. Sure, this is partly religious because we learn from the stories of those who are in a religious community with us- but it’s also very secular.

Today, I drove passed a major wreck on the highway. Afterward, I began noticing all the little “Drive Safely” markers on the side of the road that are placed there after a fatal car accident. Believe me, my behavior and expectation was shaped in that moment. My “Morals” were adjusted and I slowed down a bit. The story/narrative of this road is that recklessness=death.

Let’s go back to the Business Example Again:

Suppose we asked Businesses to act morally in addition to ethically? Suppose we expected that as the story/narrative of history unfolds they should adjust their behavior to match?

From a young age, we’ve all learned that lies are (almost) always found out and the aftermath is generally more terrible than telling the truth in the first place. And if it wasn’t learned at a young age, within the past ten years we’ve seen plenty of businesses that were caught in lies and destroyed by them.

Asking a business to act morally, is to ask them to keep their eyes on those road markers and adjust their behavior accordingly. It’s expecting them to realize that there are certain behaviors (lying, cheating, stealing, killing) that simply don’t end well for anyone. Doing those things might make them a quick buck, but it’s rather short sighted if it ends up destroying their entire infrastructure over the course of time. It makes them like the Hare in Aesop’s Fable.

We need to be more like the Tortoise.

Summary:

Ethics is a theoretical pursuit of the good life (for as many people as possible) and morals are lessons learned and behaviors changed based on the story we find ourselves in. Asking someone (or a business or a government) to act ethically might not yield the results we want if we actually want them to act morally.