Morals and Ethics
Morals refer to the principles and habits an individual holds when it comes to deciding on what is wrong or right. Individuals can also inherit a set of morals from family, culture, community, and role models. Ethics are rules of conduct in a society that helps govern the behaviour and conduct of individuals. Ethics serve to unify a group of people into a common set of values and principles. People use ethics as a point of reference when it comes to correct behaviour and actions. Morals and ethics are similar in that they help define right and wrong behaviour. The law tries to be democratic and caters to many peoples needs by creating and enforcing a common standard for society to follow. The law also allows individuals to live according to their own ethical beliefs within their private space.
Generally, laws consist of a set of values that people should follow, while ethics serve to give suggestions of what people ought to do. As a result, unlike ethics, the consequences of breaking the law leads to punishments. There are many situations that individuals can consider unethical, yet the law does not seem to apply. For example, killing an individual is not ethical, yet the law can condemn a felon to death. People use morals to identify unjust and immoral acts that require regulations by the law (Osiel, 2019). However, unlike morality, the law does not pass judgment according to an individual’s intentions and character. Other laws, such as those that used to allow slavery in the past, show that morality may not have a connection to morality. Many laws use morality to govern the public. Laws such as those that make acts like theft, murder, rape, fraud, and corruption, among others. The law connects to morality in that the government creates laws to promote morality in society.
References
Osiel, M. (2019). Convergences of law and morals:. The Right to Do Wrong, 176-194. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvckq5vg.10
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