This world is hard to figure out! You want to be and do the best for everyone you know. But you lack guidance on what the acceptable standards are. Ethics and the morality of pursuing your interests over someone else is a dilemma.
Ethics involves an overview of right and wrong in certain communities. Morality looks at people’s personal outlook through social norms and religious convictions. Pursuing your interests at other’s well-being is perfectly ethical in most situations. Interests vary with personal goals.
Self-interest originates in your individual choices. Often related to individualism, you want to put personal convictions before others.
You want the liberty to pursue what you want without feeling guilty. We will explore different factors and help you make your decision.
Ethics vs Morality: Distinguishing Them Apart
I will break down the basics of ethics and morals. Then I will help give you some thoughtful scenarios.
Definitions: Prelude to Deciding Our Interests
Ethics
Ethics is a branch of philosophy providing a structured approach to answering complex world questions.
By establishing certain accepted community principles, ethics helps you to make decisions.
It involves guidance of the “good and bad” in different scenarios. The common question ethics answers is: “What should we or I do?”
For instance, universities have classes titled:
- Business Ethics
- Medical Ethics
- Environmental Ethics
- Leadership Ethics
- Bioethics
Looking at all these designations, it involves the thoughts of different communities. I found many of these book types in the philosophy sections of bookstores I visit.
They’ve helped me with my ethical dilemmas writing posts for this blog. Liberty is a complicated subject.
For instance, business ethics will differ slightly from environmental ethics. Each community has different interests.
Environmentalists don’t want the business to build that parking lot in the beautiful open field. Yet, the business needs expanded parking for its new employees.
Do you see the dilemma?
The parking lot is bad for environmental activists’ interests but good for the business’s self-interest.
In the end, ethics provide a set of guiding principles to allow for easier decision-making.
Morality
What’s your moral compass? This is a common question you’ll hear in society.
Morality deals with more personal and social norms. It is a standard of thoughts and behaviors accepted within a cultural setting.
Also, your moral compass provides a set of values to live your life by. Values are critical to your life road map. They help answer the questions of why, when, and how of decision-making.
You want to show respect for other people. And morality is the rulebook of your self-interest decision-making.
Social norms dictated over time guide this rulebook.
To further expand, many find morality arbitrary.
In an ever-growing secular world, you question the totality of your decisions against social norms.
Should you cut line at Wal-Mart? It’s okay, right?
This is a common question you ponder when you want to make a quick stop at the store. Standing in a long line isn’t what you anticipated.
You attach your decisions to some part of your life experience. For example, you determine your decisions through a power, sexual, or money lens.
In a historical setting, morality is traditionally linked back to Judeo-Christian values. Yet, today’s modern secular world doesn’t see this as a valid intellectual argument for self-interest choices.
Expressive individualism -or what preachers call radical individualism- threatens the foundation of traditional morality.
These groups don’t measure the world in absolutes. Their self-interest is different from what morality states.
Their decisions relate to reason and not some arbitrary morality they don’t find justified. Religion deals with absolute truth and not moral relativity.
If you want to know moral relativity and the “expressives”, LEARN MORE with my post Expressive Individualism in Society. It will guide you to seeing decisions from an expressive individualism lens.
Remember this, your decisions have consequences. Your self-interest determines how your choices affect others.
To sum up, social norms define morality. They’re linked to religious practices many find outdated.
Scenarios for Thought
Let’s start out with scenarios you find yourself in. All of these situations involve the question: “What do you do?”
These examples will help you analyze the above information between ethics and morality.
- Personal Situation:
Your friend is going to a different college than you. They’re smarter, but you’ve been friends for years. You dreamed of them staying close to home like you. What now?
- Professional Situation:
Time delivery is crucial in business. Your top customer orders a big volume of your product. You don’t have enough stock to keep all your smaller customers satisfied. Do you forgo deliveries from the smaller buyers and go with the bigger clients?
- Political Situation:
Voting for a particular candidate we like involves our self-interests and ethics. We like or dislike candidates based on what they promise.
However, when we vote for someone, it sometimes goes against personal friends’ or colleagues’ interests. What now?
Self-Responsibility to Ethical Decision Making
By taking self-responsibility, your decisions will be ethical and moral. Because you will examine the outcomes of your potential results.
You will weigh the pros and cons logically.
In good decision-making, compromise is a valuable asset. All the situations I presented above won’t work if you don’t meet in the middle.
Compromise also gives you a reprieve from all the stress. Because it gives self-responsibility to both parties.
It allows a little freedom and grace, which helps with your morality question.
For instance, let’s look at the personal situation above. What’s a great compromise?
You could meet your friend halfway every other month to see how they’re liking college. That’s an acceptable compromise.
You don’t overburden them with too much of their time. But the compromise gives both parties self-responsibility since they’re meeting in a neutral location. They both have to travel to meet up and maintain the friendship.
Furthermore, while your background influences your choices, don’t let it consume you. Many blame their past failures on their outcomes today. Self-responsibility allows for a more worldly view.
Here are some other benefits of self-responsibility:
- Gives compassion
- Allows you to cope with decisions beyond your immediate control
- Allows for respect of others
Did you grow up with strong family ties? Or did you grow up in a rural or urban setting?
Everyone’s background is different. Our decisions must consider people’s history, culture, and temptations if you want to be ethical and moral.
For instance, would you take an alcoholic to a bar?
Ultimately, people are responsible for themselves. But you want your decisions to be ethical, right?
Taking one of your alcoholic friends to a bar doesn’t encourage self-responsibility. You wouldn’t be a good friend by enabling them.
Therefore, self-responsibility is an aspect of individualism promoting good decision-making skills. It helps push compromise and provides a foundation to achieve self-interested decisions on both sides.
Self-Interest Related Articles:
• I know you have dreams. LEARN MORE by find out about what it’s like pursuing your own interests. I provide you with a little inspiration. We all need a good pep talk.
• Do you have a natural inclination for self-interest? Is human nature real? LEARN MORE by reading my article on human nature and survival instincts of self-interest.
Conclusion
Ethics and morality make my brain hurt. I’m sure you feel the same way.
There’s no clear-cut path to navigating these important aspects of life.
Your neighbor has different acceptable morals than you. They might be an atheist while you’re a devout religious follower. Different backgrounds allow more or less grace in certain situations.
For instance, their acceptable tolerances for alcohol or sex are slightly varied.
Self-responsibility is a key component of accountable decisions. It gives you a wider lens to view the world.
Overall, ethics and morality ground people in humane decisions. We have entire college courses teaching people ethics.
Next time you’re faced with a dilemma, think back to this post and take responsibility for your decisions.
Your words are your honor and good decisions follow your words!
What are some of your personal decisions you’ve liked or disliked in the past? If you have a pressing decision right now, close your eyes to picture the long-term effects of your choice.
J. Liberty
Self-interest is vital to the economic engine of America. LEARN MORE by reading my premiere article in this mini-series with Self-Interest Benefitting Society.
References:
Grannan, C. (2016, September 1). What’s the Difference Between Morality and Ethics?. Encyclopedia Britannica
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