What’s the Difference Between

Morality and Ethics?

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WRITTEN BY 

Cydney Grannan 

Cydney Grannan was an Editorial Intern at Encyclopædia Britannica. She received

her B.A. in English from the University of Chicago in 2016.
 © Anatoli Styf/Shutterstock.com

Generally, the terms ​ethics​ and ​morality​ are used

interchangeably, although a few different communities

(academic, legal, or religious, for example) will

occasionally make a distinction.​ In fact, Britannica’s ​article on

ethics​ considers the terms to be the same as moral philosophy.

While understanding that most ethicists (that is, philosophers who

study ethics) consider the terms interchangeable, let’s go ahead and

dive into these distinctions.

Both morality and ethics loosely have to do with distinguishing the

difference between “good and bad” or “right and wrong.” ​Many

people think of morality as something that’s personal and

normative, whereas ethics is the standards of “good and

bad” distinguished by a certain community or social

setting.​ For example, your local community may think adultery is

immoral, and you personally may agree with that. However, the

distinction can be useful if your local community has no strong

feelings about adultery, but you consider adultery immoral on a

personal level. By these definitions of the terms, your ​morality

would contradict the ​ethics​ of your community. In popular

discourse, however, we’ll often use the terms ​moral​ and ​immoral

when talking about issues like adultery regardless of whether it’s

being discussed in a personal or in a community-based situation. As

you can see, the distinction can get a bit tricky.

It’s important to consider how the two terms have been used in

discourse in different fields so that we can consider the

connotations of both terms. For example, ​morality​ has a Christian

connotation to many Westerners, since ​moral theology​ is prominent

in the church. Similarly, ​ethics​ is the term used in conjunction with

business​, medicine, or ​law​. In these cases, ethics serves as a

personal code of conduct for people working in those fields, and the

ethics themselves are often highly debated and contentious. These

connotations have helped guide the distinctions between morality

and ethics.

Ethicists today, however, use the terms interchangeably. If they do

want to differentiate ​morality​ from ​ethics,​ the onus is on the

ethicist to state the definitions of both terms. Ultimately, the

distinction between the two is as substantial as a line drawn in the

sand.

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What Do Eggs Have to Do with Easter?

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WRITTEN BY 

Michael Ray 

Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for
Britannica. He earned a B.A. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. He
was a teacher in the Chicago suburbs and Seoul,...
 ©Han Cheng Tan/Dreamstime.com

Easter is the principal festival of the Christian church, a celebration

of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his

Crucifixion. So where do the colored eggs fit in?

The egg was a widely used premodern and pre-Christian symbol of

fertility and restoration. ​European “Pagans” (a term used to

refer to people who practiced a variety of non-Christian

traditions) viewed eggs as a symbol of the regeneration

that comes with springtime. Early Christians borrowed

this image and applied it not to the regeneration of the

earth but rather to Jesus Christ.​ This was also extended to the

new life of the faithful followers of Christ.

The tradition of dyeing and decorating Easter eggs is ancient, and

its origin is obscure, but it has been practiced in both the Eastern

Orthodox and the Western churches since the Middle Ages. The

church prohibited the eating of eggs during Holy Week, but

chickens continued to lay eggs during that week, and the notion of

specially identifying those as Holy Week eggs brought about their

decoration. The egg itself became a symbol of the Resurrection. Just

as Jesus rose from the tomb, the egg symbolized new life emerging

from the eggshell. In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are painted red to

symbolize the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. The egg-coloring

tradition has continued even in modern secular nations. In the

United States, for example, the White House Easter Egg Roll has

been held, with some interruptions, on the Monday following Easter

since 1878.
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● PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION 

● What is the Difference Between Daoism and Confucianism? 

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● PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION 
● Who Wrote the King James Bible? 
●  
● PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION 
● Why Is Christmas in December? 

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