Ethics is a word that is often heard and spoken by people when discussing a moral conflict or something associated to manners. Unethical is often equated with uncouth or no rules. What is actually ethics? What is the relation with manners, customs or rules? Do they have same meaning?
Often people get caught up in terms of ethics and etiquette. Although both of them appear to be same but epistemologically they have different meanings. Because of that, it is needed to learn more about what exactly meant by ethics?
Etymologically, ethics is derived from Greek; Ethos that means custom or habit. In this sense, ethics and etiquette have approximately same meaning. But in the development, ethics is associated to things that are closely related to value, so it becomes part of the realm of axiology that is often called philosophy of human behavior. At this time, ethics has very different meaning from the previous. Magnis gave the sense of ethics as a science that examines value. Meanwhile, Sudikno gave the sense of ethics as a human effort to find good and bad norms.
This definition make ethics as something that is very different from the previous term (customs), but it has a rationale or a framework which eventually leads to more valuable attitude.
In the book of Bartens, he also distinguished ethics in three meanings:
1. Ethics is value or moral that becomes guidance for a person or group to regulate behavior. In this case, it can be equated with customs or habits.
2. Ethics is defined as a set of principles or moral values which are also known by code of ethics.
3. Ethics has the meaning as a science of good and bad. In the case, ethics just becomes into science when ethical possibilities simply accepted in a society become the reflection of a systematic and methodical research.
To learn more about ethics as a science or human effort in the search for more noble norms or values, there are some fundamental differences between ethics and etiquette:
1. Ethics
- Regarding the issue of whether an action should be done or not.
- Not depending on the presence of other people.
- Characteristically absolute, meaning non-negotiable ethical principles enactment.
- Not only in terms of looking at outward but also inward.
2. Etiquette
- Concerning the way of human action that must be done.
- Only applicable in social life.
- Relative, because customs in one place can be different in other places.
- Just look at human in terms of outward.
Thus, ethics as science is not in the level of the concept, but further it is an application that has been experiencing in several considerations. If value is only within the framework as the consideration, ethics spawns attitude as a result of consideration.
