Ethics: Definition and Importance

Ethics encompass the various aspects of right and wrong, allowing humans to act in ways that are beneficial to themselves and others. This is often based on what’s commonly considered virtuous and supportive to the community. Ethics might also entail obligations and notions of fairness that come into play when one tries to apply ethics in real-life situations. Despite the subjective underpinnings of ethics, it involves scrutinizing these moral tenets for a rational examination. Not only does this allow us to understand why humans act in terms of right vs. wrong, but also helps us identify and address morally complex aspects of human existence. 
The study of ethics has been among mankind’s oldest abstract explorations into the nature of being, unpacking what really motivates people to abide by a set of tenets in the interests of the greater good or to forgo the same. Ethics has important implications in quintessential facets of society such as business, healthcare, politics, economics, academics, conflict, and even religion. Ethics function by asking questions pertinent to the nature of decision-making in everyday life. Defining ethics and what is ethical requires a logical and rational approach to moral problems instead of going by what one feels.

What Does Ethics Mean?

The etymology of ethics encompasses several words from different European languages. However, primarily, the term ethics comes from the Greek word ēthos meaning “the spirit of a culture” or “the way of living.” The modern usage of the word took form in late middle English, signifying the word’s current meaning that relates to moral philosophy. Due to the ubiquitous nature of how ethics pervade our everyday lives, the understanding often takes up a subjective form, making it hard to define objectively. The question “What does ethics mean to you?” posed by the famous sociologist Raymond Baumhart received a variety of different answers. While some hinted at what the respondents felt was right or wrong, others linked ethics to their religious beliefs. Furthermore, other respondents went on to conflate the application of ethics and its meaning with law and what would be deemed socially acceptable. Despite these fairly pointed answers, the meaning of ethics is beyond one’s emotions, religious beliefs, and even governing law. 
Ethics concerns itself with the notion of human independence as well as its implications on people’s interactions with both nature and fellow human beings. Independence is integral to the nature of ethics and interpreting what is ethical, as humans often become independent of their conditioning when making decisions that are objective and in line with ethics. The study of ethics also relies on an objective and unbiased analysis of facts to solve complex and real-life moral problems. Ethics is not merely limited to the philosophical study of what is right or wrong but extends to include human actions across all disciplines.

The History of Ethics

If one begins to wonder about how ethics originated and came into being, rationality dictates that humans would have begun their exploration of ethics only after making clear distinctions on the ideal ways of life. After the rise of civilization in post-agricultural societies, humans began exploring abstractions. While this included thoughts on what the ideal manner of living was, it also had far-reaching practical implications on individual and social life. Early civilizations developed customs and rituals they thought were suited for the establishment of peaceful and righteous living—a development that led to the origins of tradition. This led to the blossoming of humanity’s first moral codes and with them came ethics. 

Most ancient civilizations viewed ethics as something bestowed upon them by divine providence. This is often exemplified by scriptural stories and myths that clearly delineate the moral from the immoral. Myths and tales extolling virtues are found in nearly all ancient civilizations, denoting how people from the past relied on them to maintain both societal and personal ethics. 

Mesopotamia

The Code of Hammurabi is one of the ancient world’s best-preserved sets of tenets and laws that throws light on ancient society’s views about right and wrong, as well as what warranted penalties and punishment. Believed to be composed by Hammurabi, the sixth king of the Amorite dynasty in ancient Babylon, he is said to have maintained a keen focus on justice. A pillar preserved in the Louvre Museum in Paris carries a relief depicting the Babylonian solar deity of justice—Shamash—bestowing the code to Hammurabi. The potentially older Epic of Gilgamesh also exemplifies notions of good behavior and values through epic poetry describing the King of Uruk’s exploits. 

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt too had its share of contributions to early forms of applied ethics, with The Maxims of Ptahhotep covering a range of topics such as friendship, leadership, communication, being truthful, and an emphasis on manners. The Egyptians also revered the concepts of cosmic balance, truth, and order and deified these elements in the form of Ma’at—a Goddess that oversees order and balance in creation. Ancient Egyptians sought to achieve harmony as the ancient religion of the civilization based its creation myth around the establishment of order out of chaos at the moment of creation. 

Classical Greece & Rome

The thinkers of both Greece and Rome indulged in extensive studies of morality and practically approached applied ethics. Ancient Greek thinkers explored the idea of objective morality and attempted to codify them. Famed thinkers like Socrates and Plato analyzed real-life situations extensively and used reason to arrive at what they thought was ethical. Socrates, famous for his debates with the sophists, posited a concept of objective virtue. However, he also believed that all wrong comes merely from the ignorance of not knowing what is good. This might seem strange to the modern mind as there exist several predicaments where one might act in an objectively wrong manner despite knowing what is virtuous. His student and successor, Plato, further developed Socrates’ position using the well-known Socratic Method and constructed a concept called the “Form of the Good.” This is seen extensively in his works Ethics, The Republic, and The Dialogues of Socrates.

Aristotle, on the other hand, criticized this approach. He stressed real-life issues surrounding the meaning of ethics in situations where men act in opposition to virtue despite being conscious of their actions. Aristotle tried to describe virtues and separated them from those that aren’t, despite contrarian popular beliefs. In his famed work Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle posits a middle path between having an excess and deficiency of virtues, later called the “Golden Mean.” 

Ethical concepts and questions were also posited by successors of Aristotle. The most famous of these were the Epicureans and Stoics. While the former path is known for its emphasis on pleasure, the latter relied on reason to define virtue. Epicureans often claimed to be on a quest for higher pleasures—the pleasures of the mind. Epicurus approached justice as a means to avoid mutual harm. Crime was avoided merely because the anxiety of getting caught would be a detriment to pleasure. Friendship and community, on the other hand, were approached as means for satisfying humans’ innate need for pleasure. Conversely, stoics like Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Aurelius believed humans are unique due to their innate sense of reason. Reasoning unites all humans and also provides the basis for human equality. Stoics stressed that reason forms the basis of applying ethics and that it supersedes desire as it is reason that allows humans to separate good desires from the bad. Stoics identified the driving force of ethics as the capacity to reason rather than the pangs of desire. This understanding allowed them to build a position for personal ethics that would remain unfettered irrespective of failure or fulfillment. 

Ancient India

Explorations of ethics in ancient India go back to the Vedic period where the hymns contained within the four types of Vedas extol several virtues and elevate them as characteristics of spiritual upliftment. All ethical examinations, whether about personal or societal ethics, were seen as undertakings of philosophy. The Upanishads from the late Vedic age further examined these tenets and distributed human life into four distinct facets. This included abiding by universal virtues, achieving material wealth and well-being, satisfying worldly desires, and finally going beyond finite existence through spiritual means. In the eyes of ancient Indians, human existence served to live by what is objectively virtuous and realize the foundation of all beings. Virtue and reality are not treated differently but are approached as the same concept. 

Eventually, the doctrines of Jain and Buddhist philosophy also broached ethics and took a similar philosophical approach. With an emphasis on nonviolence, both Buddhist and Jain thinkers had an objective understanding of compassion and saw violence as a corruption in human behavior. Gautama Buddha conceptualized the “Middle Path” to strike a balance between indulgence and renunciation to help common people set out on worldly pursuits while achieving spiritual elevation. Egotism, violence, greed, falsehood, and stealing were all looked down upon as vices and tendencies to be shunned. The goal for humans was to be free of sorrow and pain and achieve what was termed “Nirvana,” or breaking free of physical existence. 

Ancient China

In China, the approach to ethics and its importance did not rely too heavily on distinctions as seen in the other ancient cultures of the world. Instead, Chinese thinkers like Laozi and Confucius took a more pragmatic path and defined ethics as living honestly and peacefully. Laozi deviated from instituting goodness and virtue upon people as he saw this as an imposition and not an act of free will. In his work Daodejing, Laozi defines a concept called the “Dao” or “The Way,” in which he extols the nature of being composed and nonviolent through various aphorisms. Confucius, too, discusses the elements of simple yet honest living by extolling the qualities of what he referred to as a “gentleman.” According to Confucius, gentlemen act in the interest of the collective good, as opposed to selfish motivations. He does not seem to place much importance on wealth, grandeur, or glory and instead draws attention to simplicity. The teachings of Confucius are often in the form of a dialogue between him and his disciples. Confucius’ famed disciples Mengzi and Xunzi further exposited the complex aspects of ethics’ meaning by exploring what is humane and the human emotion of envy.

Ethics and Religion

The conflation of religion and ethics is by no means a new phenomenon. From Plato’s metaphysical understanding of an objective Form of the Good to Immanuel Kant’s attribution to God as the foundation of both reason and ethics, religiosity is closely tied to an ethical framework. Nearly all world religions have placed great emphasis on ethics and its importance. Religious denominations often extol what they deem as virtues and shun what does not fall within the definition of these prescribed virtues. However, limiting ethics to religion would mean all ethical people are religious or that it is only religious individuals that are ethical. Clearly, that does not seem to be the case. Despite a variety of compulsions and motivations to act ethically within a religious framework, ethics apply equally to both the devout and the atheist. While great amounts of ethical analyses have been undertaken by religious scholars in the past, ethics are only a part of religious beliefs.

Many common codes of ethics prevalent in human society find their place even in religious doctrines. While it can be understood that stealing, lying, killing, and cheating are all contradictory to virtue, the same is echoed in religion. The basis of ethical reasoning in religion is based upon a divine entity that oversees the actions of mankind. In comparison, pure ethics bases its foundation on a rational understanding of good and bad. Despite irreligious individuals not subscribing to any theological school of ethics, ethics make an individual a responsible citizen by inculcating objective notions of virtue. The dichotomy between ethics based on reason and that stemming from religious notions have to be reconciled to harmonize all sections of society. While drawing from both religious and secular ethics, one can attempt to reconcile the schisms allowing individuals to take a more balanced approach to applied ethics and implementing ethical tenets in civil codes.

The Branches of Ethics

Ethics and its study are divided into four main branches. Each of these branches delves into a specific domain of ethics and helps us undertake a critical study of the tenets and postulations contained within them. 

The four branches of ethics are: 

Meta-Ethics

Meta-ethics is the most abstract branch of the four. In a deviation from traditional doctrines of ethics, this branch does not deal with the juxtaposition of good and bad values or of morality and immorality. Instead, meta-ethics analyzes what is moral and why it is considered so. It is the ethics of ethics in itself, analyzing why humans ascribe certain actions to be ethical over others. Its conceptualizations delve deep into the facets of human behavior and tendency, trying to unravel why ethics must be the way it is. Meta-ethics also studies the nature of morality to understand why humans often look to a code of ethics or a set of moral constructs for making choices. The discipline also encompasses analytical philosophy that seeks to address the scope of these moral values that many of us hold dear. The goal of meta-ethics is to understand the nature of morality in standalone terms, without the influence of what one might understand to be right or wrong. 

Normative Ethics

Also called prescriptive ethics, normative ethics encompasses the ethical tenets that allow humans to formulate norms and dictate how one ought to behave. It goes about discussing the nature of good and bad to distinguish between right and wrong behavior. Normative ethics is one of the most important branches and finds application in nearly every spectrum of human activity. Normative ethics prescribe various forms of behavior to conform to morality and virtuousness. It is also known for prescribing punishments for behaviors that deviate from what is deemed acceptable. The most prominent example of normative ethics is found in The Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Normative ethics espouses principles that set aside right from wrong, something commonly observed in ethical handbooks of various institutions. It is further categorized into three distinct branches. These are: 

• Virtue Ethics: This is the oldest branch of normative ethics and is based on virtues such as honesty, compassion, nonviolence, silence, courage, and generosity. Virtue ethics rely on the belief that virtues are embodiments of moral excellence. This branch is based on a clear distinction between vices and virtues. It places more weight on virtue itself rather than the outcomes of actions. 
• Deontological Ethics: Deontological ethics bases its study on what individuals consider to be morals and duties. It often regards actions solely over the merit of the action in itself, without considering the consequences of those actions. An example would be to emphasize speaking the truth, even if it is bound to hurt someone. The popular saying “Virtue is its own reward” is a classical example of deontological ethics at play. 
• Teleological Ethics: This branch of normative ethics is in contrast to deontological ethics and instead places primacy over the results of an action. Teleological ethics determine the intrinsic moral behind an action only upon ascertaining the nature of the results of the action. Modern ethics are often divided between the schools of thought that subscribe to teleological and deontological ethics. 

Descriptive Ethics

Descriptive ethics, also called comparative ethics, is concerned with studying what different sections of people consider to be right or wrong and their notions of punishment for different actions that are deemed unethical. Descriptive ethics also studies the traditions and customs of different groups of people to understand their approach to morality. It aims to understand the evolution of ethics over time, by gleaning upon what people defined as morality in different eras of history. The same also applies to people of different communities across the world, where descriptive ethics relies on a comparison to point out differences or parallels. Due to this, descriptive ethicists also use elements from anthropology, philosophy, logic, history, and sociology to study the ethics of different cultures. This branch is instrumental in understanding different cultural, sociopolitical, and religious approaches to ethics. 

Applied Ethics

Possibly the most practical and concerned with real-life conundrums, applied ethics tries to address conflicting moral opinions associated with controversial facets of human life. This often includes euthanasia, abortion, cloning, and animal testing, to cite a few examples. Apart from these issues, applied ethics also concerns itself with essential human activities. The application of ethical doctrines is integral to professionals such as businessmen, doctors, scientists, politicians, economists, military leaders, lawyers, and academicians. Without applied ethics, these professional disciplines would lack codes of conduct that describe the duties of these roles and how one must abide by them. Codes of ethics also apply to organizations and firms, where employees across the board are expected to adhere to the standards put forth by them. Applied ethics has far-reaching implications in public society and the policies put forth by local, state, federal, and global organizations.

Morality vs. Ethics

Both morality and ethics deal with the notions of good and bad in their attempts to outline the best ways humans can live as a society. Morals and ethics are often used synonymously and are conflated with each other’s connotations. While most modern philosophers and ethicists do not delineate the differences between both terms, their subjective meanings might sometimes take precedence over their universally accepted interpretations. Often, social norms might not accept what an individual thinks is moral. A popular example of this is euthanasia. Despite its growing acceptance, euthanasia remains a sensitive topic in most societies across the world. However, you as an individual might not think of euthanasia as a morally decrepit act. This is where the ethics of society are in opposition to your subjective moral understanding. The opposite is also true for several cases, where individuals might be opposed to animal testing; however, society and governments at large might not penalize the process.

Morals have also become more closely linked to personal ethics and religious tenets of virtue, whereas ethics in itself has become limited to professions and transactional situations. Though these might not be the objective meanings of the terms, people at large have come to approach them through the lenses of this understanding. Regardless, ethicists make the effort to describe and delineate the features of both ethics and morality. As seen in the definition of meta-ethics, the study of ethics and morality in itself becomes important when approaching these abstractions.

The Importance of Ethics

Ethics have defined the way societies function since time immemorial. Civilized societies have exhibited their tendencies to set up codes of conduct and function based on local strands of ethics to bring order and promote harmony among the limbs of public life. Ethics goes beyond the pages of complex philosophical books and logical treatises that delve into the depths of understanding human behavior. The real significance of ethics lies in living life in an ideal way for both oneself and the collective. Ethics provides a legitimate and empirical basis for why acting on the principles of morality leads to a better society. Aspects of ethics such as applied ethics have a far-reaching impact on the lives of professionals responsible for societal decisions. It helps people understand the essence of balancing both self-interest and community welfare. 

Ethics promotes healthy business practices and allows us to set up sustainable economies with equal growth opportunities for all. Beyond its monetary implications, the notions of ethics have also established quintessential practices in the applications of science. By limiting morally questionable practices and the exploitation of nonhuman living beings, ethics in science propel scientific advancement in line with a collective conscience. In public life, ethics impact the laws used to govern the land, imposing consequences on those acting unethically. With the meaning of justice itself being scrutinized using ethics, the study of it promotes accountability—even of those that try to hold others accountable, ensuring systems are kept transparent and independent. In a world where liberty, equality, and integrity have taken center stage, retaining these values is only possible if ethics and its study is continued to be held in high regard.

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