Write a minimum 5 double spaces pages case study critical analysis' essay. Refer to required readings!

REQUIRED READING UNIT 2A:

ON THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ETHICS AND MORALITY

http://rvcc2.raritanval.edu/~scieng/eandm.html

Any close survey of the history of formal ethics shows clearly two opposing trends: there

are first class thinkers that work to distinguish sharply between ethics and morality and

other first class thinkers who systematically blur the distinction between the two.

Further, the survey also shows that throughout its long twenty five hundred year history

ethics and morality have been closely intertwined in both theory and practice. The

thinkers that blur the distinction tend to be mainly interested in theory, i.e. the

development of various theories of ethics and/or morals, whereas those that make the

distinction tend to have an interest in so-called practical ethics or morality.

Ordinary people, as a whole, tend to confuse ethics and morality. There is seldom an

occasion where ordinary people find it either necessary or important to distinguish

between the two in their daily lives. A doctor or lawyer can face charges of unethical

conduct and the newspapers might go either way in describing the situation as immoral

or unethical. Our application of praise or condemnation seems to slide over any

difference between ethics and morality as a matter of routine inattention. Even though

this is the way it is for ordinary people it does not follow that the failure to insist on a

distinction between ethics and morality exists at no cost to society. On the contrary, I

would argue that the failure to make the distinction and hold to it is one of the chief

reasons that ethics and morality strike us as an impotent force in modern society.

What is needed is a simple, efficient and effective way of distinguishing between the

two. This can be done if we are willing to allow that there will be a small but important

number of cases/situations that are massively borderline in their configuration and these

will require analysis that far exceeds the range of our proposed distinction. These are

the kinds of cases/situations that professional ethicist or moralist find interesting.

Furthermore, these are the kinds of cases that are presented in standard textbooks on

ethics and morality. These complex cases are used to train students in sophisticated

moral reasoning. By the same token, these are not the typical cases and situations that

most people involved in the technical disciplines run up against in their daily work and it

is just these latter kinds that we are interested in.

I believe that we can forge a workable distinction between ethics and morality if we

employ the term "ethics" only in a work-bounded context and the term "morality" in the

context of the activity of living one's life. Of course 'work' is an essential part of the living

of a life and by some accounts the most important aspect of life. This is not at issue. But

the mere fact that we commonly mark out and have no difficulty in doing so the

difference between 'work' and all other aspects of life provides the foundation for the

distinction I wish to argue . In general, 'work' is a rule-governed, disciplined activity

punctuated by stretches of routine behavior designed to accomplish some specific

task(s).

The over-riding value which colors the entire activity of work is called 'competence'.

Competence is present in the work of an individual when necessary and sufficient

knowledge and practice are married to an acceptable standard of performance.

Historically, the role of ethics has been in the promotion and maintenance of

competence in a particular discipline or activity. In general, ethics fosters the well-being

of some kind of line of work, e.g. medicine, law, teaching, business, etc. Both

competence and ethics require a context of some organized, productive social activity

and in our case, that organized activity is called work.

For the purposes of the distinction that we are interested in, we shall consider 'life' to be

what remains of our lives once work is set aside. Of course, it is obvious that with effort

on our part we can convert almost anything we do into work . For example, we could

assess the art of making love using the standards and techniques that we use to assess

an ordinary job. But we normally do not and that we do not is an important feature of the

distinction. How we handle our own 'life', how we 'walk the walk ' day-to-day presents a

picture of our own morality. Here the values that are present are more likely to be ones

that turn on faith, belief, moral training, etc and not ones from specialized knowledge or

competence.

We have at hand several excellent models of work activity that demonstrate the

fundamental connections that hold between work and ethics. For example, we have law,

medicine and engineering to name only a few. What these three (as well as others)

have in common is that they contain the three basic elements necessary in order for

ethics to have a role: They require the acquisition of specialized knowledge, they have

standards of competence and they have well-defined sets of practices that allow the

knowledge and standards of competence to be utilized. When the arrangements

between these three elements are codified (to greater or lessor degree) and subject to

self-regulation then you have the conditions for a profession.

One aspect of the codification process produces a body of rules designed to promote

the long-term welfare of the work. These rules are called 'ethics.' To form a clear view of

the importance of this process simply consider the following proposition: suppose that

neither the law nor medicine nor engineering had any ethical content at all. Ethics

simply would not apply to these forms of work. Isn't it plain that law, medicine and

engineering would have a completely different roles in life than they do today? One

short example will show this. Suppose that the engineering profession had no obligation

to consider public safety in design work as they do today. The simple act of getting to

work would become a very dangerous task. Of course, these are old and well-

established professions now. But new technical disciplines are beginning to push in the

direction of professionalism. They will have to evolve over time and a new ethic and

value system will come into play. This note on the distinction between ethics and

morality is designed to aid us in moving in that direction.

Professor Jere Jones, Ph. D.

Department of Philosophy

Raritan Valley Community College