Submitted by: Dominic D.

Cadorna ETH- N1

Submitted to: Mr. Johnny Bolongaita

“What is ethical to you may not be ethical to me”

According to the dictionary, ethics is based on well-founded standards of right

and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights,
obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. So, what is ethical
behavior? There are two aspects to ethical behavior. To begin, ethics refers to well-
founded moral norms that dictate what humans should do, generally in terms of rights,
duties, societal advantages, justice, or special qualities. For example, ethical standards
relate to the norms that impose reasonable responsibilities to refrain from rape, theft,
murder, assault, defamation, and fraud. Honesty, compassion, and loyalty are all
ethical characteristics. Furthermore, ethical norms cover rights such as the right to life,
the right to be free of harm, and the right to privacy. Because they are backed by
consistent and well-founded reasoning, such criteria constitute appropriate ethical
standards.

We do have our own definition of ethics, “what is ethical to you may be

ethical me”. Many individuals, like Baumhart's initial response, confuse ethics with
sentiments. However, following one's feelings is certainly not an ethical decision.
Following one's sentiments might lead to a reluctance to do the right thing. In reality,
emotions regularly contradict ethical standards. Ethics and religion should not be
lumped together. Of fact, strong ethical standards are advocated by most religions.
Ethics, on the other hand, would only apply to religious individuals if it were limited
to religion. Ethical principles apply equally to atheists and religious believers.
Religion has the ability to establish high ethical standards and give powerful reasons
for ethical action. However, ethics is not the same as religion and cannot be restricted
to it. Following the law isn't the same as being ethical. The law frequently includes
ethical norms that most persons agree with. Legislation are like sentiments, can depart
from ethical standards. Someone lies to their spouse about how much money they
spent. A teenager lies to their parents about where they were for the evening. An
employee steals money from the petty cash drawer at work. You lie on your resume in
order to get a job.

Being ethical does not imply doing "whatever society allows," because most
individuals in any community support ethical principles. However, societal standards
of behaviour might diverge from what is ethical. A society's ethics can be tainted.
Nazi Germany is an excellent illustration of a morally depraved civilization.
Furthermore, if being ethical means doing "whatever society accepts," then one must
first determine what society accepts in order to determine what is ethical to figure out
what I should believe. I'd have to analyze American culture and then adjust my ideas
to what society accept. However, no one ever conducts a survey to resolve an ethical
dilemma. Furthermore, because many subjects lack societal consensus, it is hard to
correlate ethics with what society accepts. Many individuals accept abortion, but not
all. If being ethical meant doing whatever society approves, one would have to come
to terms with concerns that do not exist. Some people may have ethnocentric mindset
which can be source of ethical warfare between society. There may be contradictions
between the ways we assess which ethical principles apply or take precedence in a
given human circumstance when numerous interests and possible outcomes intersect,
but I would argue that different persons would embrace contradictory ethical
principles. And if you gave me an example of this by rejecting one of my ethical
principles, I'd have a hard time believing you did so on the basis of your own ethical
principles. Ethics is about establishing an atmosphere that encourages ethical ideals to
be expressed while keeping non-ethical values in control. This isn't to say that
pursuing non-ethical values isn't acceptable. It simply implies that we should not let
them govern our life since this might lead to selfish, self-centered conduct that is
uncaring of others.
We have our own interpretation to what is ethical actions or words. Most of us,
misinterprets what we are trying to imply to a certain person because of how we
define ethical and non ethical values as individuals. I can say that having our own
definition of ethics makes us unique. Our definition will show how we use the ethics
in our holistic lives. However, sometimes this conflict in defining and understanding
each other through ethics may be a bit of confusing since we are like reading text, we
are the ones to interpret the thought and actions. Ethics refers to the study and
development of one's ethical standards. As mentioned above, feelings, laws, and
social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly examine
one's standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means,
then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct,
and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to
standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.