in reply to Re^4: Musing on Monastery Content
in thread Musing on Monastery Content

This node falls below the community's minimum standard of quality and will not be displayed.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^6: Musing on Monastery Content
by Corion (Patriarch) on Oct 21, 2004 at 17:53 UTC

    Normally, I stay away from people holding philosophical discourse, because I know that philosophers tend to live in their own world of speech where they define the terms they speak about in words of the very language they speak about, which not only makes things confusing for the outsider but also makes it impossible for two philosophers of sufficient level to genuinely understand each other, as their islands of language have incompatible meanings attached to the same words.

    So, in the spirit of language as a tool for communication, and as a non-native speaker of the English language, I went to dictionary.com for morals and ethics, and I got the following definitions for the two:

    morals Rules or habits of conduct, especially of sexual conduct, with reference to standards of right and wrong.
    ethics The rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession

    So, leaving jokes about programmers and whores aside, where is the actual difference between the two?

    A reply falls below the community's threshold of quality. You may see it by logging in.
Re^6: Musing on Monastery Content
by tilly (Archbishop) on Oct 21, 2004 at 17:52 UTC
    While I occasionally misuse words, I generally try not to.

    In this case ethics is The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person; moral philosophy. The connection between that and morality is both clear and significant.

    A reply falls below the community's threshold of quality. You may see it by logging in.