Greek word ethos – stands for Ethics, ethos means custom or moral character. Morality originates from the Latin word moralis – manner or customs. Both these words deal with the manner or customs of the people in which they do things. The modern dictionary defines these words as the way people act – that can be either good or bad.
A set of agreed rules and the code of conduct within an environment that openly states what is acceptable and what is not acceptable within a society is referred to as Morality. The concept of morality changes with time and situation, this can explain as killing (murder) is an immoral act but in the state of war or in a battlefield killing, murder is allowed, so it be said that morality is synced with ethics. Morality addresses the queries related to ethics on the moral conclusion that can be derived from a situation or specific situations. By stating the code of conduct it conveys the acceptable and non acceptable action, behavior, system of belief, standards and social customs that is present in the society.
Difference Between Morality and Ethics
There is a very minute difference between the two terms Morality and Ethics. Both Morality and Ethics depict the behavior of the individual, many researchers has concluded that morality and values are parallel to each other. Morals can be classified as the values that the person is born with. In a border term moral can be defined as the structure of beliefs that are taught to an individual so that he can have the ability to differentiate between right and wrong, decent and wicked, allowed and forbidden. It is upon the moral values that the person is judged in the society, because they are visible and are considered as the social value of the person. Moral character is very important for a person because it becomes his identity. Similarly the moral or the social values are very important for the business, because it is because of their social responsibilities and image that the consumer decided their purchasing preferences. Everyone has heard a term immoral person or immoral business activities, but never heard of the term in imvalue person or invalid business because the person or business is judged by its moral activities not by the values.
The major difference between the both terms Morality and Ethics is motivation. Morality motivates the person to do good in life, encourage the person to lead a good life in all best possible manner, but values are within a person and completely depends on his own choice, values are instincts, perception or gut feeling within the person. The point of importance here is that morals are formed with the help of the values, so if the values do not exist than morals will also not exists. Values are earned, developed from the society, whereas morals are the system of beliefs.