Definition and Concepts of Ethics

1.1 Why does a simple question like the shopkeeper's matter?

Because the law is silent, and only ethics is left to answer. A customer overpays and nobody will ever know. Must the shopkeeper return the money? That is our own example. It shows what ethics is for.

1.2 What does ethics mean in simple words?

Ethics is the study of right and wrong conduct. It does not just describe what people do. It asks what people ought to do.

It is also called moral philosophy. Describing the shopkeeper’s choice is easy. Judging it is the work of ethics.

1.3 Is ethics the same as obeying rules?

No. Rules tell you what is allowed. Ethics asks whether it is right. A common slip is to treat a legal act as an ethical one. The next cards show why that fails.

2.1 How is ethics organised?

Ethics has three branches, because three different questions can be asked about right and wrong. What do the words mean? Which standards should we follow? How do we use them on real problems?

2.2 What does meta-ethics ask?

Meta-ethics asks what moral thought and talk themselves rest on. The Stanford Encyclopedia lists its puzzles. Is morality more a matter of taste than truth? Are moral standards culturally relative? Are there moral facts?

Think of it as stepping back from a single choice to ask what ‘right’ means at all.

2.3 What does normative ethics ask?

Normative ethics asks which standards should guide our choices. ‘Normative’ just means about what ought to be. Utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics all belong here. Card 6 explains each in plain words.

2.4 What does applied ethics do?

Applied ethics takes those standards to real problems. Business ethics studies the ethical side of buying and selling. Environmental ethics studies how humans should treat nature. Informed consent is treated as the core of bioethics, the ethics of health care.

A doctor deciding whether to tell a dying patient the full truth is facing an applied question. This is our own example.

3.1 Why can something be legal but still wrong?

Because law is made by social facts, not by moral merit. Legal positivism holds that the existence and content of law depend on social facts, not on its merits. In Austin’s version, laws are orders backed by the threat of a sanction, a punishment.

So a rule can be valid law without being good. Ethics is the test of the merits.

3.2 What does the shopkeeper show?

He may break no law by keeping the extra money. Most people would still call it wrong. That gap is a favourite exam theme. It is our own example.

3.3 Can a law make people honest?

No, not on its own. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission said that the absence of rules is not the problem and that one cannot mandate honesty.

Law can punish the dishonest. It cannot create the wish to be honest. That wish is ethics.

3.4 How did UPSC put the idea?

UPSC used Potter Stewart’s line in 2022. It says: ethics is knowing the difference between what you have the right to do and what is right to do.

4.1 Are ethics and morality the same?

In daily talk, the two words often swap places. Many writers keep them apart. Our own working split: morality is the beliefs and codes people hold, and ethics is the study of them. Say this in one line in an exam.

4.2 What do the Stanford philosophers say about 'morality'?

They say the word has two uses, because it can describe or it can prescribe. Descriptively, it means the codes of conduct a society or a group such as a religion endorses. A person can also accept a code for her own behaviour.

Normatively, it means a code that all rational people would endorse under specified conditions.

4.3 Is every social code morality?

No. The same entry notes that societies often distinguish between morality, law and religion. So morality is not simply every rule a society has.

5.1 Where do our moral codes come from?

From groups and from individuals. The Stanford entry names a society, a group such as a religion, and an individual who accepts a code for her own behaviour.

Our own list adds family upbringing, culture, tradition, philosophy and conscience. No single source covers everything.

5.2 Why does that matter in an answer?

Because sources can disagree. A family value may clash with a law, and conscience may clash with an order. A strong answer names more than one source and shows how you weigh them. This is our own exam tip.

6.1 How do thinkers decide what is right?

They look at different things, because each family of theories asks a different question. Some look at results. Some look at duties. Some look at character.

Definitions from the Stanford Encyclopedia entries. Examples are our own.

6.2 What is consequentialism?

It says that whether an act is right depends only on the consequences of that act, or of something related to it. Utilitarianism is its paradigm case. The classic names are Bentham, Mill and Sidgwick.

6.3 What is deontology?

The word comes from the Greek for duty, deon, and study, logos. It is about which choices are required, forbidden or permitted. Immanuel Kant is regarded as central to it.

6.4 What is virtue ethics?

It is one of the three major approaches in normative ethics. It stresses virtues, or moral character, not duties or consequences.

6.5 Is there a simpler checklist?

Yes. The Markkula Center’s framework offers five lenses. Use two or three on a case.

Paraphrased from the Markkula Center page.

6.6 Which approach wins?

None wins every time. A strong answer tests the dilemma against two or three lenses. Then it says which fits best and why.

7.1 Why is public ethics held to a higher standard?

Because public office gives power over other people’s lives and money. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission put it sharply. Public office and control over the public purse offer enormous temptation and opportunity to promote private gain at public cost.

7.2 What is the cost of failure?

A private failure may hurt a few people. A public official’s failure also damages trust in institutions. The same report says trust and confidence need an environment that prizes transparency, openness, boldness, fairness and justice.

The UK’s Seven Principles of Public Life, also called the Nolan Principles, start with selflessness. Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.

7.3 What are the levels of ethics?

Our own working split has three levels. Personal ethics is your own conduct. Professional ethics is the standards of a workplace. Social ethics is the wider norms of society. A civil servant is judged at all three levels at once.

8.1 Where does the word 'ethics' come from?

From Greek. Wiktionary traces it through Late Latin ēthica and Ancient Greek ēthikē to êthos, meaning character or moral nature. Aristotle’s own writings on character are called ta êthika.

8.2 Where does 'moral' come from?

From Latin. The word comes from mōrālis, meaning relating to manners or morals, and from mos, meaning manner or custom. Cicero first used it to translate the Greek ēthikós.

So the two words are translation twins. That is why they overlap.

8.3 What is the good, according to the old schools?

They disagreed. Ethical hedonism claims that only pleasure has worth and only pain has disvalue. Aristotle turned to eudaimonia, often translated happiness or flourishing, and to virtue.

Kant is central to the duty-based school. The Related Articles cover each school.

9.1 Which questions came from this topic?

10.1 Which mistakes cost marks?

• Ethics has three branches: meta, normative and applied.
• Utilitarianism sits under normative ethics, not meta-ethics.
• Something legal can still be unethical.
• Ethics traces to Greek. Moral traces to Latin.
• Deontology is about duty. Consequentialism is about results.
• Medical, business and environmental ethics are applied ethics.