Same but Different
Ethics and Morality
The genesis of this post is due to my own System 1 thinking. I read a post recently about a presentation at a symposium. A comment was made that immediately sat poorly with me (reaction). I reached out to a friend to discuss said reaction and upon recounting the comment (reflection) a switch in my mind flipped. I realized I had fallen into an ontology trap. The comment at the symposium was using a formal language, not common in everyday practice. I fell into the trap of ‘thinking’ fast. The commentary about personal and professional ethics — their origins and locus. In truth, there are few clear cut rules and these two topics overlap substantially. Enough so that, for many, they are interchangeably used. In formal practice however, they can be quite distinct.
Personally, I believe this subjectivity regarding the use and understanding of Ethics and Morality creates an issue, especially for everyday understanding. I suspect use of Morality has been avoided in many casual and popular use due to a secular distancing from terminology common within religious contexts. Ethics, whether professional or personal, seems to have been more colloquially adopted by secular society. In doing so unfortunately, their subtle differences have been lost. My search for the headline image for this post supports this distinction. When I searched for morality I was provided many stock images of pages from the bible. When I search for ethics I was presented many secular images of business, leaders, and popular causes.
Morals
Broadly these are our personal beliefs. They inform what we ascribe to be right or wrong. Good and bad. We inherit these from our surroundings and personal experiences in the world. We personally refine these throughout our life and they provide our internal compass to navigate our lives. These are individualistic.
Ethics
On the other hand ethics are external and structured rules of behavior. These tend to be defined in codes of conduct - whether in professional societies or social norms. They work to guide an formalize a specific set of behaviors. This is why trade groups, business schools, professional societies, and other organizations publish their guidelines and conformance to an agreed upon set of ethical behaviors. These are organizational.
Situations arise, sometimes quite frequently, where Morals and Ethics are in opposition. Ethical behaviors, as these are externally defined and agreed upon change according to and along with, society itself. A behavior or act can be both ethical and immoral - depending on the individuals and situations involved. The reverse is also true, where something can be moral and un-ethical at the same time. So what? How does all of this relate to media, technology, or systems? Simple. We nearly all live in at least two worlds. Very few people are their work nor is their work them. Which means, nearly all of us potentially will encounter situations where we are morally and ethically conflicted. This produces a complexity which imbues our work and our personal lives.Okay, great you say. You knew that… but did you really?
When you watch something, listen to something, or read - do you actively differentiate that something can be both Ethical and Immoral? Moral and Un-Ethical? The media is full of statements and claims about ethics and morality. In reality it is arguable that in recorded human history there has never been a time of more mis-alignment between these two critical concepts. Perhaps, just maybe, this is because they are so routinely smooshed (a highly technical term!) into the same thing.