Reflexion about ethics

We often hear the word “ethics” in very diverse contexts and we apparently understand what

it means, but perhaps it is not as clear a term as it might seem. In addition, it is very common

to find it always refered to or compared with morality. Let’s try to clarify the definitions. It is

understood that morality is a set of rules that we apply personally in our daily lives and that it

has to do with individual decisions. They are the norms and rules that we follow, those that

guide us to interpret what is right and what is wrong, those that help us decide between

different alternatives for action. Instead, when we talk about ethics, we are talking about

something that goes beyond a personal decision.

Ethics is one of the branches of philosophy, specifically, one that focuses on moral issues. In

general, ethics is the search for a justified theoretical foundation to follow certain norms or

acquire certain values, but not on a personal level, but referred to a community; it is

something like a foundation to seek a correct way of life, it is the search for reasons to support

some moral foundations and not others. It is something like a scientific study of morals.

Ethics is, in short, a philosophical reflection on morality. If we ask someone their opinion

about whether a particular performance of a person is good or bad, their opinion has to do

with their morals. On the other hand, if we ask him to explain to us the reasons on which he

has based his opinion, then we are already in the field of ethics.

In the end, the treatment of ethics is not only complicated by having to look for the bases to

justify a behavior, but also, ethics already enters a practical dimension, we are considering the

bases of our action.