Monday, November 29, 2021

two senses of "ethical"

1. That is an ethical question best dealt with in a philosophy class.
2. He is the most ethical person I know.

In the first sentence, the term ethical means "about the topic of ethics." Ethical here refers to the type or category of question. In the second sentence, ethical means something closer to "right, moral, principled." Some philosophers contend there is a distinction between ethics and morals; others use the two terms interchangeably. I side with the latter school and find ethical/moral hairsplitting pedantic.



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1 comment:

  1. John MacNovember 30, 2021 at 6:09:00 AM GMT+9

    Yes, I agree with you. I don't see how you can be both ethical and immoral. Well, now that I think about it, maybe it depends on how you define morality.

    ReplyDelete

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