If you make the claim that you're a moral/ethical person who always acts ethically, what exactly do you mean?

Question

I want to know what you personally mean when you say to someone that you are a moral or ethical person. TWH 06082007-4

To The economist: I offer this definition of ethics :
Branch of philosophy concerned with the evaluation of human conduct. Philosophers commonly distinguish:

descriptive ethics, the factual study of the ethical standards or principles of a group or tradition;
normative ethics, the development of theories that systematically denominate right and wrong actions;
applied ethics, the use of these theories to form judgments regarding practical cases; and
meta-ethics, careful analysis of the meaning and justification of ethical claims.

My Q falls in the area of metaphysics.
The distinction between morality and ethics that you have pointed to is fuzzier than you think. Try to answer my Q in reference to yourself instead of jumping into theory removed from practice. Usually the adjectives "moral and ethical" are used as synonyms. Try going with that.

correction and note: I meant to say "metaethics" not "metaphysics"( metaethics and metaphysics are two of several branches of metaphilosophy.

another note. The Q box has a character # limit which makes asking finely tuned Q's difficult . Had I had more room in the If you make the claim that you're a moral/ethical person who always *tries to act* ethically, what exactly do you mean?Q-box, I would have asked my Q this way: "
Obviously we all fall short of perfection and we fail to always meet our standards, so please do not interpret the Q in absolutist and hence unrealistic terms.

correction again: Had I had more room in the Q-box, I would have asked my Q this way: " If you make the claim that you're a moral/ethical person who always *tries to act* ethically, what exactly do you mean?
Obviously we all fall short of perfection and we all fail to always meet our standards, so please do not interpret the Q in absolutist and hence unrealistic terms.

Someone asked: "BTW what does TWH 06082007-4 mean? " It is my own filing system code. I designed it to track my YA posts chronologically. the 4 after the end hypen indicates it is the 4th topic addressed by me today

Answer 1

If I am living morally, then I am doing my utmost to do what I feel is right.

If I am living ethically, I am doing my utmost to live by the rules society (laws) or a particular organisation has given me.

There are my personal definitions.

Answer 2

All I can mean by it is that for the general standards of my local culture, I fit the criteria of what a "reasonable person" would call ethical.

Obviously there are many schools of ethics, some that would call for completely opposite acts than what my local culture calls for. But that's what I mean by it.

Almost no act that I do causes any harm, emotional, financial, or physical to any other person. I stretch the truth a bit when dealing with taxes, but considering my income, nobody would ever notice. I don't go out of my way at all to help the less fortunate, because that is my personal ethic as a nihilist. But in general, I think I would still be considered ethical.

Answer 3

In becoming a teacher, I have to abide by a set of ethical standards set out by the state of Texas for my certification and by school district for my career position. Morals are a more a spiritual thing for me. Morally it would be wrong to say I will do something and then not do it because it would be a lie. Unless there is some really good reason I did not do what I said I would, such as I found out that I would be cheating in doing so and did not know previous to making the promise to do it because the other person lied, I would feel very guilty about not following my spiritual side. I try to abide by the golden rule...do on to others as you would have them do on to you, but even then, I am human and make mistakes. That's when Karma hits my butt, and I know exactly why things happen wrong to me. I learned the hard way about morals. Karma hits my butt everytime I stray from the side of my spiritual side. I have a damn good spiritual guide who sets me straight each time.

Answer 4

My intent would be to convey to you the greatness of my character, in that I always do what's right, or what's conforming to accepted standards of social or professional conventions. One might cry: "But that's so vague! My definition of what's acceptable might differ from yours!" Well, admittedly, that's true. However, we're talking about a universal consensus here; there has to be some overlapping of thought, a certain set of boundaries within which we all generally agree something is acceptable to our moral palate. That set of boundaries is what I'm referring to when I say "accepted standards."

On the other hand, the implication of my making such a claim would be that I'm an arrogant hypocrite, since it's impossible to always do what's right unless I have the superhuman quality of infallibility. But, as we all know, it is only human to err. Thus, we have here an oxymoron.

But I digress. You asked what I, personally, meant to say if I were to claim that I'm a moral/ethical person who always acts ethically. I would mean that I'm not the sort to rob the elderly, snatch candy from babies, or stoop to other base activities of the ilk. In other words, I'm trying to shout: "I'm a good guy!"

There. Hope I wasn't too wordy, vague, or otherwise unsatisfactory in my response.

BTW, this was a fun question. Thought-provoking!

Answer 5

I don't say it because I know the moment I make a mistake, someone will throw that statement back in my face. I would especially not say I am "always" moral or ethical.

BUT what I would say is that usually I try to do right by others and not let them get hurt. This means I will not steal, I will not kill or physically harm anyone, I will not tolerate excessive lawless behaviors in other people and will not encourage it or hang around with anyone behaving that way (drug dealers, gamblers, sex addicts, violent, etc.)

Answer 6

The understanding could be like, " We all make mistakes 'cos we are not perfection, but on the other hand I do believe I could be morally and ethically strong...having life principles and all that crap because I am interacting with fellow humans and humans do have standards..." A sort of a drama...

Answer 7

I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this one, it really makes you think. I had to give you a star because this one's a bit challenging. Keep in mind that morals tend to be externally imposed on other people. It's how you are judged by what people see from the surface. Ethics, on the other hand are internally defined and adopted, like a vow, for example. A doctor has medical ethics to keep him from discussing certain things because he has made a vow.

Answer 8

You are confusing Ethics and Morals; they are actually very different things.

Morals are a personal code of correct behavior
Ethics are a code of behavior established by an organization, institution, or group.

For example, lawyers must follow a code of Ethics laid down by the Bar Association, even if they conflict with thier personal morals.

Answer 9

By moral, you mean you act within the code acceptable by man and society. I do try to be a moral person.

By ethical, you mean principles or ideals in a group or village acceptable by its peer or society. I live ethically by the rules set by my neighbors.

Answer 10

It simply mean that this person follows the ways of Prophet Mohammad SAW. Sunnah of Prophet means, how Prophet lived, and did things including religious practices. Prophet recommended to eat full meal at the time you call Breakfast, lesser than that in afternoon, and even lesser than lunch in the evening. He also said when you eat, leave 1/3rd of your stomach empty, meaning never fill your stomach so you never get sick. Ask any doctor whether it is healthy eating practice or not. So eating the way Prophet did is following the sunnah of Prophet SAW. Prophet SAW never made sarcastic remarks, nor lied or cheated to any one. This was never sunnah of Prophet SAW. This is the sunnah of Satans or Kafirs and hypocrites.