Morality: society’s agreement on what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’
Ethics: rules or principles guiding behavior, doesn’t refer to society as a whole, often a code adopted by professional groups, possessed by individuals and entities within societies.
Ethics are not necessarily compatible with morality and do not necessarily address societal concepts of virtue and vice.
FWIW, here are some quick and dirty definitions, specifying how people use ‘Ethics’ and ‘Morality’:
Ethics = Morality
Morality: right/wrong; Ethics: the study of morality
Morality: rules about social behavior; Ethics: rules about behavior in general
Morality: what society thinks is right/wrong; Ethics: what’s actually right/wrong (this definition is sometimes used by fans of Nietzsche, who called himself an ‘amoralist’)
(contra 4) Morality: actual right/wrong; Ethics: mere opinion about how one should behave
Morality: ‘good’ vs ‘evil’; Ethics: ‘good’ vs ‘bad’
Oh, and the one you specified is employed as well.
There are some in here that seem outright contradictory, if not merely inconsistent. As such, I will continue to recommend explicitly defining ‘morality’ and ‘ethics’ when you don’t mean something like “What one has most reason to do or want” for both of them, or when it’s clear from context (for example, talking about the Professional Code of Ethics for some profession)
ETA: And according to the OED, the words both have their origins in something like “society’s expectations”
What’s authoritative in this question? Wikipedia, for example, lists multiple notions of morality, one of them “a synonym for ‘ethics’”, and ethics is said to be a philosophical discipline addressing questions about morality...
Morality: society’s agreement on what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’
Ethics: rules or principles guiding behavior, doesn’t refer to society as a whole, often a code adopted by professional groups, possessed by individuals and entities within societies.
Ethics are not necessarily compatible with morality and do not necessarily address societal concepts of virtue and vice.
FWIW, here are some quick and dirty definitions, specifying how people use ‘Ethics’ and ‘Morality’:
Ethics = Morality
Morality: right/wrong; Ethics: the study of morality
Morality: rules about social behavior; Ethics: rules about behavior in general
Morality: what society thinks is right/wrong; Ethics: what’s actually right/wrong (this definition is sometimes used by fans of Nietzsche, who called himself an ‘amoralist’)
(contra 4) Morality: actual right/wrong; Ethics: mere opinion about how one should behave
Morality: ‘good’ vs ‘evil’; Ethics: ‘good’ vs ‘bad’
Oh, and the one you specified is employed as well.
There are some in here that seem outright contradictory, if not merely inconsistent. As such, I will continue to recommend explicitly defining ‘morality’ and ‘ethics’ when you don’t mean something like “What one has most reason to do or want” for both of them, or when it’s clear from context (for example, talking about the Professional Code of Ethics for some profession)
ETA: And according to the OED, the words both have their origins in something like “society’s expectations”
Interesting. On which Holy Tablet of True Definitions are these written?
The movie Election
The one entitled “The Dictionary”.
Another nice definition, which I prefer, has
Morality: rules a person wants to follow.
Ethics: rules a person wants others to follow.
Law: rules a person is willing to force others to follow.
...but no one but me uses those, either. Ah, well.
What’s authoritative in this question? Wikipedia, for example, lists multiple notions of morality, one of them “a synonym for ‘ethics’”, and ethics is said to be a philosophical discipline addressing questions about morality...
When there are multiple usage patterns which are mutually inconsistent and incompatible, usefulness becomes the most likely distinguishing factor.
It is useful to be able to distinguish between “societal standards of right and wrong” and “rules defining the proper way to do specific things”.