What is an Ethic?

Question

just wondering how you would define it...

Answer 1

Ethic or Ethics are really seen as moral principles or a philosophy of acting in a way that values other people and avoids harming other peoples opinions.

So an ethical action shouldn't be to the detriment of other people's views, beliefs, living standards, values etc.

Answer 2

Ethics concerns questions whether things are right or wrong. Of course, people disagree about what that might be in a given situation- you might think it is right to do 'X', and I might think it is right to do 'Y'. The inescapable underlying assumption, however, is that there is at least such a thing as 'right', i.e. something is right, even if we can't agree about what it is, or how we determine it.

There are some disagreements- whether we should get coke or Pepsi, whether we prefer one television programme to another- which are not really ethical questions, but are matters of personal taste. Ethical questions are different in that we consider there are right answers, which are distinct from any matter of personal preference.

There is a different position called 'moral relativism'. This is the idea that there is no 'right' answer- that we can just say 'you think X, I think Y', but cannot meaningfully say 'X is right' or 'Y is right'. The problem with that position is that it does not fit with the way we think and speak, because it contains a contradiction- it cannot be 'right' that nothing is right!

I hope that is of some assistance, my apologies for the length of this answer.

Answer 3

Hello,

(ANS) The term ethic as I understand it, means "a standard" or "a principal" to which you personally hold true. Or work too.

**Example would be the protestant work ethic, which was the idea of salvation through hard work and adherance to strict moral principals etc.

**Another example might be the Hipocratic Oath that doctors agree to when they qualify as practitioners. To do your best to always save life & try to heal patients.

**A QC or Judge might for example always seek to find the trueth in a case and to adminster justice for the victim of a crime.

So its a moral or ethical standard or ethical principal by which you live or work in the professional sense.

Answer 4

Very good question which is not easy to explain in such a forum.
In Greek it stems from the word; 'ethikos', which translates as; usage, character, custom, disposition, manners.

In philosophy, it is the analysis of concepts such as ought, should, duty, moral rules, right, wrong, obligation, responsibility, etc. Ethics refers to that which motivates behaviour or conduct.

There is also the inquiry into the nature of morality or moral acts.

Answer 5

A set of moral guidelines and responsibility to the general public.

Answer 6

an anthelope i guess.