Ethics and Values

Ethics and Values play a vital role in shaping an individual’s personal and professional life. Ethics and Values effectively contribute to developing one’s personality and attitude towards society. It helps us to lead a systematic way of living by eliminating actions that pertain to a fragmented course of living. However, both the terms are used synonymously which creates perplexity in differentiating and applying the terms in several aspects. Thus, there are differences between the two related terms.

The word “Ethics” has been typically derived from the Greek word “Ethikos” which means “character”. Basically, it can be defined as a system that reinforces an individual’s morality. The principles of ethics are generally based on “Truth, Honesty, Integrity, and Justice”. Ethics can be defined as a set of rules controlled by an individual’s behaviour, which are strengthened by a society or a group of people.

Values are personal in character. They are related to one’s personal beliefs and choices. They generally descend from one generation to the other through family or societal beliefs and practices.

Ethics:

Ethics pertain to a branch of philosophy that assists an individual to decide what is wrong and what is right.

Characteristics:

1. Ethics persist in universality. It is applicable not only in one’s personal life but also in profession or business and politics.
2. Ethical principles guide human behaviour as well as to conduct which ensures disciplinary actions.
3. Ethics may be normative or prescriptive in nature.
4. Ethics aim at maintaining fair and equal treatment for everyone without prejudice.
5. Ethics may differ from time to time and place to place.

Principles guiding Ethics:

1. Ethics must be directed towards the benefit of others excluding self-centred characteristics.
2. Ethics must ensure that it causes the least harm to others even if we are doing something good.
3. Ethics must ensure individual freedom as one can differentiate between right and wrong.
4. It must extricate violence from society and oppose people who support it.
5. It must ensure equitable justice for everyone.

Factors:

1. The development of ethical standards in children is strongly due to family influences.
2. Experiences in life help in building different levels of ethical principles which in turn determines our behaviour towards the environment and society.
3. One’s personal beliefs also affect the application of ethics in various situations.

Values:

Values are perspectives that develop one’s conscience and stimulate the determination of correct or incorrect action. They are brought to effect through cultural, traditional, and religious influences.

Characteristics:

1. Permanent in existence.
2. Influenced mostly by tradition, culture, religion, etc.
3. Varies from person to person and culture to culture.
4. Helps in infusing socialism within the society thus maintaining a cordial relationship between people.
5. It helps in differentiating and justifying what is correct and incorrect.

Although they are synonymously used, they have a distinguished meaning and are different from each other in several aspects.

Difference between Ethics and Values:

Conclusion:

Thus, we see that although both the terms, I.e., Ethics and Values serve as a substitute to one another, there exist certain differences that are to be noted for a clear usage of the concerned words. Ethics and Values help in remodelling one’s life through proper guidance and discipline which leads us to a valuable standard of living. However, due to its dynamic nature, one has to keep himself/herself updated to keep pace with the changing morals and principles.