In these notes, I will clearly distinguish morality from ethics by explaining the meaning, nature, and dynamics of morality. Hence, these notes will briefly address the question “What is morality?”.
It must be noted, however, that the difference between ethics and morality is not that significant. In fact, the former is essentially synonymous with the latter. Etymologically speaking, ethics comes from the Greek word ethos, while morality from the Latin word mos (or mores, if it’s used in a plural form), both words referring to customary behavior. For this reason, we may use the word “immoral” in lieu of the word “unethical”, or we may use the word “moral” instead of the word “ethical”. This is the reason why we say that a “moral person” or “ethical person” is one who is good and does the right thing, and an “immoral person” or “unethical person” is one who is bad and does what is wrong.
As we can see, the terms ethics and morality can be used interchangeably. However, there is a fine line that divides the two. In other words, we can distinguish one from the other in some respects.
The first idea that came to our mind when we ask the difference between morality and ethics is that the latter generally refers to the systematic study of the rightness and wrongness of a human action, while the former is generally understood as the rightness or wrongness of a human action. In this way, we can say that ethics is the specific branch of philosophy that studies the morality (that is, the rightness or wrongness) of a human act. With this, we may initially conclude that ethics is the science of “morals”, while morality is the practice of ethics.
Based on the above initial discussion on the difference between the two terms, we can now draw the idea that ethics attempts to provide systems of moral principles and the reasons why these principles are valid. Hence, ethics is more concerned with theories that can be used to explain why a particular moral principle is valid or not, right or wrong. It is for this reason that ethicists have come up with some of the basic ethical principles that may help determine the rightness or wrongness of a human action.
Some of these basic ethical principles are: 1) Respect for persons, 2) Truthfulness and Confidentiality, 3) Autonomy and Informed Consent, 4) Beneficence, 5) Non-maleficence, and 6) Justice.
Now, as already mentioned, morality refers to principles of right and wrong behavior or rightness and wrongness (that is, goodness and badness) of human actions. And more importantly, in determining the rightness or wrongness of human actions, the moral agent is guided by the broader rules or principles of ethics. For instance, the person’s moral belief that killing is wrong may stem from the basic ethical principle of “Respect for persons” or “Non-maleficence”. Indeed, this example further explains the basic difference between ethics and morals: if ethics says that killing is wrong because it violates the basic ethical principles of “Respect for persons” or “Non-maleficence”, morality, on the other hand, says “Do not kill” because it is wrong. Again, this is the reason why ethics is understood as the science of morals, while morality is the practice of (the basic principles of) ethics.