Difference between Ethics,

Morals, and Values

The difference is slight but
it's there.
Values
• Values are the foundation of a person's ability
to judge between right and wrong.
• Values include a deep-rooted system of
beliefs. They have intrinsic worth, but are not
universally accepted. This system allows each
individual to determine what should and
shouldn't be.
 What Is Important or Valuable?
• For example, if someone'svalue system is
founded upon honesty, they would probably
make a proper judgment between cheating on
a college entrance exam (wrong) and studying
hard to ace a college entrance exam (right).
 What Is Important or Valuable?
• Conversely, if someone valued achievement
and success over honesty, that person may
opt to cheat on the exam in order to achieve
the desired result. This relates to which value
is "worth more" to the individual.
 What Is Important or Valuable?
•These fundamental beliefs are the barometer
that go on to guide a person's decisions. Values
don't necessarily need to be "system wide" in a
group of people. Rather, they tend to be a
personal, individual foundation that influences
a particular person's behavior.
Morals
Next, we have morals, which are
formed out of values.
 Morals
• They're the actual system of beliefs that emerge
out of a person's core values.
• Morals are specific and context-driven rules that
govern a person's behavior.
• Because this system of beliefs is individually
tailored to a person's life experience, it's subject
to opinion.
Amoral vs. Immoral
Sometimes, the words
"amoral" and "immoral"
are interchanged.
However, they're quite different.
 Amoral vs. Immoral
If someone is amoral, they have no sense of right
and wrong. They don't have the foundation that
comes with a sound set of values.
Meanwhile, if someone is immoral, you can be
sure they know right from wrong. They're just
choosing to do the wrong thing.
A Moral Dilemma

Given the personal nature of morals,

someone might deem an action to be
"good" even if it's breaking a law.
A Moral Dilemma
. For example, what if a daughter couldn't afford
the life-saving medicine her dying mother needed
but she, somehow, had access to the storeroom
where the medicine was housed? In this instance,
her core values might tell her stealing is wrong.
However, her morality would tell her she needs to
protect her mother.
A Moral Dilemma
. As such, the daughter might end up doing the
wrong thing (stealing, as judged by her values) for
the right reasons (saving her mother, as judged by
her morals).
 Ethics
Ethics are the vehicle to our morals.
•Ethics enact the system we've
developed in our moral code. As
such, someone will behave
ethically or unethically.
•For example, someone's ethics
will prevent them from taking
action and telling a bold-faced lie
or stealing their mother-in-law's
secret recipe for cornbread.
• Well, you're not alone. Encyclopedia
Britannica considers "morals" and
"ethics" to be interchangeable terms.
However, the context in which they're
used might provide further distinction.
Professional Ethics
We tend to link morals to matters of religion and
spirituality. Meanwhile, ethics are closely linked to
matters pertaining to medicine or law. We know
doctors are held to a strict code of ethics when
they swear the Hippocratic Oath. Similarly, an
organization like PETA literally stands for "People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals." Consider
morals as the rulebook and ethics as the
motivator that leads to proper or improper action.
Moral standards and Non-moral
standards
Morality may refer to the standards that a
person or a group has about what is right
and wrong, or good and evil. Accordingly,
moral standards are those concerned with
or relating to human behavior, especially the
distinction between good and bad (or right
and wrong) behavior.
Moral standards
Involve the rules people have about the
kinds of actions they believe are morally
right and wrong, as well as the values they
place on the kinds of objects they believe
are morally good and morally bad. Some
ethicists equate moral standards with moral
values and moral principles.
Moral standards
Moral standards are norms that
individuals or groups have about the
kinds of actions believed to be morally
right or wrong, as well as the values
placed on what we believed to be
morally good or morally bad.
Moral standards
Moral standards normally promote “the
good”, that is, the welfare and well-being
of humans as well as animals and the
environment. Moral standards,
therefore, prescribe what humans ought
to do in terms of rights and obligations.
Non-moral standards
refer to rules that are unrelated to moral or
ethical considerations. Either these standards
are not necessarily linked to morality or by
nature lack ethical sense. Basic examples of
non- moral standards include rules of
etiquette, fashion standards, rules in games,
and various house rules.
Technically, religious rules, some
traditions, and legal statutes (i.e. laws and
ordinances) are non-moral principles,
though they can be ethically relevant
depending on some factors and contexts.
Why the need to
distinguish moral standards
from non-moral ones?
• It is important to note that different
societies have different moral beliefs and
that our beliefs are deeply influenced by
our own culture and context. For this
reason, some values do have moral
implications, while others don’t.
•Again, this clearly shows that different
cultures have different moral standards.
What is a matter of moral indifference,
that is, a matter of taste (hence, non-
moral value) in one culture may be a
matter of moral significance in another.
Now, the danger here is that one
culture may impose its own cultural
standard on others, which may result
in a clash in cultural values and beliefs.
When this happens, as we may already
know, violence and crime may ensue,
such as religious violence and ethnic
cleansing.How can we address this
cultural conundrum?
• The point here is that if such standards are
non-moral (that is, a matter of taste), then we
don’t have the right to impose them on
others. But if such standards are moral ones,
such as not killing or harming people, then
we may have the right to force others to act
accordingly. In this way, we may be able to
find a common moral ground, such as
agreeing not to steal, lie, cheat, kill, harm,
and deceive our fellow human beings.