Introduction to Ethical Discussions:

The difference between moral behavior, morals, and ethics:

Ethics, morals, and moral behavior are all important topics in this model, and they are often either confused with one another or misunderstood, so I will disambiguate the terms.

Morality, or moral behavior, measures the social consequences of one’s actions -- how one affects others.  Juggling the priorities of different people when making decisions is a complex emotional, moral, puzzle attempted without full knowledge of potential consequences, involving multiple complex relationships.  Morality itself, however, is quite simple:  One should respect the autonomy of everyone who respects others’ autonomy.  Helping others is encouraged but not necessary to be moral.

This odd dichotomy -- the fundamental complexity of moral decision-making and the simplicity of morality -- gives people a foggy understanding of what morality is.  To most, I expect the topic seems at once both incredibly complex and incredibly simple.  The complexity, the simplicity, and the confusion caused by their simultaneity all make the study of morality seem highly unappealing.  Fortunately, this model focuses on ethics and morals instead of moral behavior.

Morals are nonconscious reactions to stimuli based on moral associations; stimuli nonconsciously associated with morality / immorality evoke positive / negative feelings.  I have already mentioned The Five Moral Foundations.  One might feel the moral reaction of subversion when oppressed by a tyrant, or a moral reaction of sanctity when one views a lovely meadow.  Moral scales are highly complex, as they form judgments based on complex relationships.

Ethics are meta-behaviors; ethics are habits people have in the way they think.  Behaviors are specific physical actions; meta-behaviors are fundamental motivational patterns.  Poking bears and biking helmetless are different behaviors with the same meta-behavior of recklessness.

Ethics and morality are often confused with one another because each tries to define right and wrong behavior.  Ethics relate to all decisions, while morality relates to decisions involving others.  Ethics define ‘right behavior’ internally and morality defines ‘right behavior’ socially.

Morals and Ethics are considered more complex than they actually are because applying them to actual decisions is complex.  While the core elements of each can be defined simply, making moral and ethical decisions is still difficult because each decision involves considering multiple potential consequences, likelihoods of consequences, and desirability of consequences.