ETHICS AND MORALITY Category:

Basic Ethical Concepts



E specially in everyday language, the dis-

tinction between the terms ‘ethics’ and
‘morality’ is not always clear. Even in some
questions of ‘good life’ are tied to an evaluati-
on of what is good and are answered in the
form of recommendations how to achieve
philosophical texts both are used synony- that goal, norms or principles of moral right-
mously, while others seem to draw a clear ness generate imperatives.
distinction between them. Historically, the 
term ‘ethics’ comes from Greek ethos which Today it is common to separate ethics into
means the customs, habits and mores of peo- three sub-branches: 1. descriptive ethics, 2.
ple. ‘Morality’ is derived from Latin mos, mo- metaethics and 3. normative ethics:
ris which denotes basically the same; it was 1. Descriptive ethics aims at empirically
introduced by Cicero as an equivalent to the and precisely mapping existing morality or
Greek ethos. moralities within communities and is there-
For the sake of clarity we assume as a stan- fore linked to the social sciences. Another
dard definition that morality means the cu- aim is to explain the development of existing
stoms, the special do-s and don't-s that are moralities from a historical perspective. No
shared and widely accepted as standard in a normative prescriptions are intended.
society or community of people — accepted 2. Metaethics is a relatively new discipline
as a basis of life that doesn't have to be ratio- in the ethical arena and its definition is the
nally questioned. Ethics on the other hand is most blurred of all. The Greek meta means
the philosophical reflection upon these rules after or beyond and indicates that the object
and ways of living together, the customs and of metaethical studies is morality and ethics
habits of individuals, groups or mankind as itself. The aim is to better understand the lo-
such. This comes close to the conception of gical, semantic and pragmatic structures of
Aristotle. moral and ethical argumentation as such,
In ancient Greek philosophy the question their origin and meaning. Other fields of in-
was to find how to act well and rightly and quiry are e.g. whether morality exists inde-
what personal/individual qualities are ne- pendently of humans, and the underlying
cessary to be able to do this. Ethics therefore mental basis of human judgements and con-
encompasses the whole range of human acti- duct.
on including personal preconditions. This is 3. Normative ethics means the methodolo-
still true today, but for e.g. Aristotle ethics fo- gical reflection upon morality tackling its cri-
cused mainly on the pursuit of the ‘good (li- tique and its rationale. Norms and standards
fe)’, the eudaimonia. The aim was to identify for acting and conduct are being set up or to-
and to practically realise ‘the (highest) good’ re down, and argued for or against. When
in life — which means that you have to eva- “ethics” is talked about in a common sense
luate what is ‘good’ as regards content: what then we are talking about this eneral norma-
life is a good life and what is not? tive ethics. When enquiry is directed towards
As opinions concerning the question what the principles of moral judgement or the cri-
makes a good life differed more and more in teria for the ethical analysis of morality, then
modern times, ethics had and has to face the we talk about fundamental ethics.
question how the resulting conflicts of inte- Finally in the realm of normative ethics,
rests and values could be solved peacefully there is applied ethics. Here normative theo-
and justly without taking the part of one side ries are applied to specific, controversial mo-
or the other. And this leads to the question of ral issues like animal rights, abortion,
what is morally right; moral rightness and euthanasia etc. − generating the classic so-
‘good life’ become separate issues. Whereas called hyphen-ethics, e.g. bio-ethics, medical 

The Ethics Portfolio - Technical University Darmstadt for NanoCap

ETHICS AND MORALITY Category:
Basic Ethical Concepts

 ethics, business-ethics, nano-ethics etc. 2. Consequentialist theories on the other

Inversely, these special issues constantly hand determine the value of an action on the
challenge theory and demand improve- grounds of a cost-benefit analysis of its con-
ments, changes and specifications. sequences. If the positive consequences out-
Alongside hyphen-ethics it is also possible weigh the negative ones then the action is
to distinguish between ethics that focuses on morally proper.
societal and institutional dimensions (social 3. Virtue theories focus on a given set of
ethics) or on the individuum (individual rules like “do not steal” etc. But instead of
ethics). defining them merely as obligatory duties,
While we consider applied ethics to be a the emphasis lies on the individual to deve-
sub-branch of normative ethics, other moral lop good habits of character based on these
philosophers treat it as a discipline on the sa- rules (and avoid vices). Thus virtue theory
me level as normative ethics, arguing that it emphasises moral education.

Q: What are “codes of ethics/conduct”
or what is “ethical research”? Shouldn‘t that
be called moral? A: By calling research or a
code “ethical”, the authors want to point out
that the moral rules they set up are based on
Fig 1: Basic sketch of
ethical disciplines rational deliberation and can be subject to
critique.
Q: Looking at the definitions of ethics and
morality − what is moral philosophy? A: It is
uses normative elements but is independent mostly used as a synonym for ethics. Some,
otherwise. like the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Du-
 puy use it differently. For him ‘ethics’ stands
In normative ethics there are different for the effort to force everything into univer-
theories as to how criteria of moral conduct sal harmonized principles while ‘moral philo-
should be defined. The three main theories sophy’ endures colliding or incompatible
can be sketched as follows: values or concepts in the discourse.
1. Deontological, i.e. duty theories locate 
the basis of morality on specific, foundatio- STEFAN GAMMEL
nal principles of duty and obligation. These
principles are binding regardless of the con-
sequences that acting on their basis might
bring.

 Links to other Portfolio sheets:

 Nano-Ethics  Code of Conduct  Soft Regulation

 Literature: Print & WWW

Frankena, W.: Ethics. Prentice Hall, 2/1973; http://www.ditext.com/frankena/ethics.html
Dupuy, J.-P.: Complexity and Uncertainty. A Prudential Approach to Nanotechnology. UNESCO, 2005;
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/20003/11272944951Dupuy2.pdf/Dupuy2.pdf
MacIntyre, A.: A Short History of Ethics - A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the
Twentieth Century. Routledge, 2006.

The Ethics Portfolio - Technical University Darmstadt for NanoCap