notes-philosophy-ethics-onMoralityAndEthics

Under construction!!

Morality and ethics

What this essay is about

Ideally I would present here the axioms of a formal system which could be used to satisfactorally (in the opinion of any reasonable person) answer many of the most important moral and ethical questions. However, I have not yet found such a system. Instead, I will present a partially systemitized collection of semi-formal principles which can be used to satisfactorally (in my own opinion) answer some of these questions (at least, it seems to so far; surely it contains lots of errors and will have to be revised). By "semi-formal" I mean that it will be too pedantic and plodding and heavyhanded for the taste of people who don't like attempting to define everything and apply logic and reductionism to social affairs, but it will not be rigorous or complete enough for the taste of people who do. Also, there are plenty of unanswered questions.

The way I will use the terms morality and ethics is different from their usual usage. Usually, they are synonyms; but I will divide the things they usually refer to into two groups, and call one group "morality" and the other group "ethics".

By "morality" I mean the consideration of what is good, and what an individual should do, from their own point of view. Questions that morality is concerned with (although "concerned with" does not mean that it necessarily can answer them) include "Out of such-and-such a set of alternative situations, which one is best?", "How much better is this situation than that one?", and "If a person is faced with such-and-such a choice, what should they choose?", "How can I be a good person?". Despite the generality of those questions as I wrote them just now, morality abstracts away from intellectual questions, so morality does not tell you the answer to: "What should I do when faced with the situation: I am taking a quiz and the question is '2+2='"

By "ethics" I mean a semi-formal system of rules for people to follow, such that the question of whether an individual or action is in compliance with the system can be answered. Whereas morality talks about what you should do, from your own point of view, ethics provides a system for the purpose of people, together as a group, to regulate themselves. The hope is that having a well-thought-out ethical system in place will lead to better outcomes than if there were no such system, or than if there were a poorly-thought-out one. Questions that ethics is concerned with include, "If a person is faced with such-and-such a choice, what are they obliged to do? What are they permitted to do?," "Between such-and-such choices which are all permitted, which are better, and by how much?," "Which people are bad, and which are good? How bad and how good?", and "Should such-and-such a person be punished for such-and-such behavior?"

So, in my system, "morality" is really all you need in order to know what you should do. "Ethics" is just a technology for social interaction which is useful.

A less systematic, but more useful essay of mine on this topic is at [1]