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What are Ethics?

  • Dictionaries and encyclopedias do a good job of defining ethics for us. From M-W:
    Ethics. 1: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation 2: a set of moral principles or values. 3: a theory or system of moral values. 4: the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. 4: a guiding philosophy.


  • Ethics are:
    1. Learned
    2. Culturally relative and mutable
    3. Personal
    4. Not necessarily consistent
    5. Guides for behavior
  • We all have ethics. When we are thoughtful and reflective, we tend to behave in ways consistent with our ethics.
  • Ethics, like any human principles, can be violated. When we are thoughtless and reckless, we may behave in ways inconsistent with our ethics.

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