Understanding ethics and related concepts

Human beings live in a moral community where the actions and behaviours of the members is governed by socially acceptable norms and values. It is important to remember that the terms like-ethics, morality, and values, through sound similar, are distinct.  Ethics are essentially rooted in cultural context of the society and set the guidelines for the desirable and undesirable behaviour.

It is important to understand the basic concepts of beliefs, values, ethics and morality and relation between them. These terms are different, but are highly inter-related to each other. E.g., All ethics are values but all values are not ethics. One most also consider that all these concepts are highly abstract in nature and they must be defined according to the context and relations in which they are discussed. While discussion ethics, one must take account the time, person as well as the society of the which the concerned ethics are part of.

“That human behaviour is more influenced by things outside of us than inside. The situation is the external environment. The inner environment is genes, moral history, religious training.”

— Philip Zimbardo

Human behaviour is characterised by several traits, including appearance, education, and—most importantly—behaviour. Human Behaviour refers to the responses that people have to stimuli and is impacted by factors such as culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, rapport, authority, hypnosis, persuasion, and heredity. Values and beliefs serve as the foundation for human behaviour.

Before we go to subject, we want to know some of the definitions to understand this subject. Let us see some of them.

1.Belief
It is an internal feeling that something is true. (Even if it is logical or irrational)
It is what we think about things.
For example:  I believe no 7 is my lucky number, for me it is true for others is may be illogical.

2.Values
Values are things which are valuable to him. They are most important of all beliefs. Beliefs of a person can be changed easily but values are very difficult to change.
For example: Patriotism: I believe in the patriotism and the love for country.

3.Ethics
Ethics is a set of standards that society places on itself. They help us decide what is right and what is wrong. So, basically, they focus on conduct or actions of individuals. Ethics are defined by society and not individually.

4.Morals
Morals also relate to right or wrong conduct. While ethics are provided by an external source, like societies, institutions etc., morals are individual’s own principles regarding right and wrong. Morals emerge from religion. Thus, ethics are dependent on others for definition while morals stem from inside.

5.Tolerance
Tolerance refers to a permissive attitude towards those whose opinions, practices, religion and nationality, etc., differing from one’s own.

6. Efficiency
Efficiency implies doing one is best in one’s job, with limited available resources and time to achieve desired objectives.

7. Diligence
Diligence is the quality of showing perseverance in carrying out the work while showing careful attention to each detail.

8. Prudence
Prudence is basically practical common sense. It is saying or doing the proper thing, at the proper time, and in the appropriate manner. It is also the ability to know and judge whether to say something or do nothing at all.

9. Temperance
It is defined as moderation or voluntary self-restraint. This includes restraint from retaliation in the form of non-violence and forgiveness, restraint from arrogance in the form of humility and modesty and restraint from excessive anger or craving for something in the form of calmness and self-control.

10. Integrity
It is a concept of consistency of thoughts, words, deeds, and duties. Choosing the right, regardless of the consequence, is the Halmark of integrity. Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain.

There is still lot of terms to know to use in answer writing e.g., Fidelity, Rapprochement, Equanimity, Rationality, Apathy, Compassion, Red tapism, Gratitude etc.

It is a long series, it is just introduction, in following days we will see the concepts detailly, and see some previous year questions related to it. Stay tune with me and support me.