Morals Versus Ethics

In a recent conversation with a friend, we discussed the role of morals. Afterwards, I found myself reflecting on the difference between morals and ethics - especially since I am working through Spinoza's Ethics. To distinguish two closely related words, I decided to look at their linguistic origins and then their contemporary usages.

Morals comes from a Latin word, mos which means "manner (of behaving)" or "custom." In contrast, ethics comes from a Greek word, ethos which means "character." In the Greek world, ethics was related to character as an area of virtue and its impact on human happiness. It was also as a category of rhetoric and indicated what kind of character the speaker projected. It seems to me that both words are rooted in patterns of behavior, but morals have to do with internal drivers while ethics have to do with externals.

This linguistic alignment seems to work well with contemporary usages. When we speak of morals, we are often talking about an inner sense of right and wrong. Ethics, on the on the hand, are often a strict code of conduct as in an ethical standard. As a result, there can be conflicts between morals and ethics. For example, in my world, it may be considered morally wrong to invest in oil & gas or tobacco, but it is (at least so far) ethically proper. In contrast, it may be considered morally right to avoid investing in oil & gas or tobacco, but it may be ethically improper if it provides inferior investment results.

One of my favorite conflict resolvers between morals and ethics, in favor of ethics, was a non-drinking client's response to owning an alcohol stock, "well, if its going to make money, let's buy it. The devil's had that money long enough." Displaying my preference here, I'm generally inclined to go with the ethical consideration, but I do believe that moral consideration is important.

Warren Buffett has always avoided tobacco investments, even though it has cost him. The decision was a moral one - in my definition here. He stated that it was highly profitable and legal to own, but addictive and injurious. I find his stand honorable, but difficult to see clearly. There is a much brighter line between ethical and unethical than between moral and immoral. Linguistically this vagueness is confirmed. Ethics, like legal and illegal is only opposed by unethical. Moral, on the other hand is opposed by immoral, but moderated by the word amoral.