Jean-Michel Serres, Composer-pianist (Apfel Café Music): Website

What is Ethics

Ethics is a branch of philosophy. It is a principle, a norm or a theory of behaviour, value, and judgement about good or bad, are invented, made up or reformed by philosophical reflexions. To say quite simply, ethics is a form of knowledge treats human good and bad, or a principle of moral, but it’s not exact.

The founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium first divide philosophy into three parts of principle: physics, logic and ethics. Aristotle really invented ethics as a separated study which inspired by ethical thought of Socrates and Plato. Originally, Aristotle’s ethics treats all of humane matters such as living human itself, law and system of society. While Aristotle’s physics treats natural matters are not affected by human. Once ethics was total human study, but the time go on ethics was separated by many fields of humanities and social studies. Now a day, ethics exclusively covers moral, morality, matters about them and action by them.

Difference to Moral

Also, moral or morality is a manner or a way of behaviour and judgement of a man live in the world. But ethics and moral are formed by different roots. Moral is a type of norm and value set naturally inherits past and tradition, or typically from a religion. Also, moral is a judgement by intuition to judge good or bad, a natural and spontaneous thinking about behaviour, what we should do and how to act.

The word, ethics is used for exclusively for the field, the norm and the rule of behaviour are built, invent and formed by the method of general collective reflection. Face with a new situation or problem, it’s necessary to allow or forbid these acts, decide them good or bad in each of cases, persons and situations. Ethics is the rule is elaborated and shaped by accounts and realities of multiple points of view, and find a consensus or an accept among each individuals.

Significance of Ethics

Moral can’t deal with contemporary problems such as biotechnology, doping, environmental destruction, globalization, multiculturalism, information technology and AI. These problem must be considered by various view points, various facts, up-to-date knowledge and various principles of general ethics. And, by the ethical consideration, new principles of applied ethics (such as bioethics) in each fields should be formed. On ethics we reflect on to justify rules, to found choices of action, and point of beginning of our commitments. So ethics is a solution to new problems or peculiar situations.

Today is the age of globalization, so we need a universal mutual understanding beyond divides of countries, regions, religions, races, classes, traditions and common knowledge. Moral is formed by tradition, common knowledge and spontaneousness. So it is different in countries, religions and social positions. Moral might occur conflicts and problems. But ethics is formed by common sense and philosophical reflection, always begin from nothing, and present a mechanism of relations to others. Ethics is a key to live better together in the age of globalization.

Conclusion

Ethics is a principle treats behaviour, value, and judgement about good or bad, are invented, made up or reformed by philosophical reflexions and common sense.
Ethics is the rule is elaborated and shaped by accounts and realities of multiple points of view, and find a consensus or an accept among each individuals.
Moral is a type of norm and value set naturally inherits past and tradition.
Significance of ethics is which give us a solution to new problems or peculiar situations, a key to mutual understanding in the age of globalization.