Transcript Ethics vs. Morality

Ethics vs. Morality
Imagine:
 A student offers you a copy of the final
exam for the course you absolutely
need to get into your program at
university.
 What “should” you do? Why?
 What do (would) YOU do?
The importance of the questions
“Should?”
Ethics
The criteria we
use for our
answer to the
“should”, our
Why
“Would?”
Morality
Putting our
ethics into
action
Ethics and Morality
Morality
Ethics
Greek ta ethika  Latin moralitas
Focus: customs
Focus: good
shaping
life
character
How we attain
The good we
the good (rules)
tend towards
ETHICS GUIDES MORALITY
 Ethics gives vision to our
action.
 Ethics is like
understanding musical
theory, reading music,
understanding technique;
 Ethics is like
understanding the laws of
physics at play when
driving a car
 morality is actually
playing music, hitting the
right notes, correctly
interpreting the musical
phrase
 morality is like good
driving
Ethics
Understanding the fundamental
principles underlying our activity
Has a priority: the search for good
is important in our lives
About the “goodness” of human
life
Questions Ethics Considers
How/ when does human life
reflect what is good?
How do we aim at the good life?
What is the good life?
What is good & right human
living?
Starting to answer the ????
 Reflecting on the aim of human life
 Considering our obligations derived
from respect for law
 Meanings of words or “good/evil”,
“right/wrong”
 Other cultures answers?
 Our responsibility to the Other
 Obeying God’s will