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Ethics is a term that confuses many in term of its meaning. Different people give meaning to the term in the wrong manner leading to the adoption of bad acts in society. This assignment will discuss the issue regarding what constitutes ethics and what does not constitute ethics. Besides, examples of ethical and unethical behavior will be discussed. Ethics can be defined as the basic fundamental principles and concepts of upright human conduct.
It entails the study of universal values like the vital equality of women and men, obedience to the rules of the land, natural sights, concern for safety, and concern for the natural environment (Preston 36). Rather than following this meaning, many individuals link ethics to their feelings. Nevertheless, being ethical is not a subject of following a person’s feelings. An individual following his feelings is likely to recoil from doing the right thing. As a matter of fact, feelings often deviate from ethical actions.
Other people associate ethics with religion. Although most religions advocate for high standard ethical behavior, ethics cannot be identified with religion because it will only apply to the religious individuals. Ethics should be followed by everyone, whether religious or not; therefore, ethics cannot be identified with religion. Religion helps in setting up high standard ethical behavior, but ethics cannot be the same as religion or confined to religion. Besides, ethics should not be equated to following the law.
Some people tend to think that following the laws is the same as acting ethically; however, this is not the case because the law usually incorporates ethical actions, but laws just like feelings, sometimes diverge from what can be termed as ethical. For example, slavery laws constitute actions that deviate from ethical behavior. Thus, ethics cannot be the same as following set laws. On the other hand, ethics cannot be equated with doing what is acceptable in society.
Although in society most people accept actions that are of high ethical standards, ethics should not be equated to what is accepted by a society. This is because some behavior that are accepted by a given society deviate from ethical actions. Some societies are morally corrupt, which implies following what is acceptable to them one will be following unethical behavior (Angle 42). In case, being ethical concerns doing what a certain society accepts, then finding out what constitutes ethical would entail finding out what the society accepts, which may turn out to be unethical.
Take, for example, in the American society, abortion is acceptable which imply that if a person would equate being ethical to following what is acceptable in society, he would consider abortion ethical, but it is not. The lack Of societal consensus on different issues makes it difficult and impossible to link ethics with acceptable behavior in society. In understanding what is ethics, it is fundamental to know that ethics entails well-founded standards of wrong or right, which prescribe what humans should do, in terms of obligations, rights, fairness, benefits to society, or specific virtues (Spinal 39).
For instance, ethics refer to actions that enforce reasonable obligations in refraining from rape, murder, assault, fraud, and slander. Ethical standards also entail those that enjoin the virtues of honesty, loyalty and compassion. Besides, ethical standards entail standards associated with rights like the right to privacy and the right to life. These standards are sufficient standards of ethics since they are usually supported by well-founded and consistent reasons.
Alternatively, ethics refer to the study and improvement of a person’s ethical standards. As indicated above, laws, feelings, and social norms have the likelihood of deviating from ethical standards; so it is essential to constantly scrutinize one’s standards to make certain that they are well-founded and reasonable (Mackinac 84). Therefore, ethics also mean continuous efforts Of studying one’s own moral conduct and moral beliefs, and striving to make retain that he lives up to the standards that are solid-based and reasonable.
An example of an ethical behavior entails conserving the environment. The environment is one of the most crucial elements in production; therefore, it determines what is produced that in turn eliminates poverty. Hence, conservation of the environment is considered ethical because it leads to the improvement of the environment, which leads to productivity and poverty reduction. This is a good action, which makes it an ethical behavior (Singer 56). On the other hand, an example of an unethical behavior entails reforming an abortion.
Performing an abortion entails killing a harmless unborn human; killing is a bad behavior because it does not reflect reasonable obligation. This makes performing abortion an unethical behavior. Conclusion Being ethical cannot be equated with personal feelings, laws or acceptable behavior in a society. This is because actions that result from feelings, laws or acceptable behavior in society may deviate from what is right. However, being ethical constitutes following standards that are right that are under the guidance of virtues.