Entrepreneur's Handbook
ETHICS AND MORALITY
Ethics and morality have been used interchangeably in recent years. It is known that these two concepts, which are often used in daily life with the idea that they meet the same meaning, actually have different content. In this section, the two concepts will be explained as simply as possible. In this way, the differences between the two concepts will also be revealed.
The term morality is used as a counterpart to the Latin moral and Greek ethical concepts. In terms of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge (etymology), the concepts of moral or ethics are similar to morality. While the Greek word ethics is derived from "ethos" which means character and habit, the Latin word moral is derived from "mos" meaning custom, habit, character. Despite their similarity in etymology and meaning, there are differences in terms of usage areas of both concepts.
While something that is experienced in fact and history is named as "morality", researching this phenomenon is evaluated as "ethical" (Poyraz, 1996:21). In this context, while morality is more intertwined with the reality, ethics can be defined as a branch of science that is based on the examination of how people should direct their individual and social relations and what the criteria that will determine good and bad actions can be. (Demir and Acar, 1997:14).
In other words, moral philosophy, as a branch of philosophy that investigates what is good and right, what is bad and wrong, what should be the purpose of human life, and what elements a virtuous life includes, explains the meaning of good and right and concentrates on the criteria that make an action good or bad (Cevizci, 1999:18). Therefore, moral philosophy is a discipline that is expected to reveal verifiable and falsifiable information in moral problems related to humanity, while morality serves the purpose of ensuring that human actions can be regulated without harming social life (Arslan, 2005). Morality evaluates the ongoing human behavior related to real life and tries to give direction and ethics as a branch of philosophy tries to get a general view on the quality of moral relations (Poyraz, 1996:22). In summary, morality can be defined as the unwritten set of rules that guide the relationship of people with people and things in the natural course of life. On the other hand, ethics can be expressed in the form of efforts to make the philosophical evaluations regarding this set of rules verbal and written in terms of different cultures, time periods and sectors.
Morality can be divided into two parts as theoretical and practical. Within the scope of this classification, the subjects of theoretical morality are actually quite similar to the subjects of moral philosophy, that is, ethics. These questions are listed as follows:
- What are "good" and "bad"? (value problem),
- Do we have the power to choose between good and bad? (freedom problem),
- How do we arrive at moral judgments about good and bad?
- What is the generality and validity of these provisions?
The aim of moral philosophy is to keep these issues on the ground of negotiation. For in moral philosophy there is no moral certainty whose reality is accepted from the outset in principle. Ethics seeks to reach these certainties through thought and discussion. (Çağrıcı, 1991:23-30). Another way to reveal the difference between ethics and moral concepts may be to consider both concepts from an ontological perspective. In general, morality, which consists of assumptions on right and wrong by individuals, has always been a system that has been shaped within the framework of religious teachings throughout history. The reason why individuals agree around these common truths is not only because of their rationality, but also their belief that they have a superior quality than their counterparts. Ethics, on the other hand, refers to an activity of reasoning about what the reflections of right and wrong are in certain subjects, such as in professional areas.
In this framework, morality corresponds to a reality that exists outside of us ontologically, while ethics includes the determinations related to the reflections of morality in certain fields of practice and generally differs according to time and ground. However, as a general rule, just as laws cannot be unconstitutional, moral principles are expected not to contradict moral principles. (Erdemir, 2013).
In summary, while ethics is a field of philosophy towards the interpretation of moral problems and judgments related to them, the totality of social behavior rules as values that are important in terms of reflections on the inner world of the person and social life and guide life can be called morality.