Final answer:
Ethics are moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior, guiding how individuals should act towards one another. It is a philosophical field that seeks to understand, systematize, and recommend the concepts of right and wrong conduct.
Step-by-step explanation:
Moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior are known as ethics. Ethics refers to a set of moral principles that act as a guide for behavior and decision-making, representing how individuals should act towards each other within a society. Ethics exists as a field of philosophy that looks into questions of morality, systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of what is right and wrong.
Individuals are considered ethical when they are aware of these moral principles and behave in a way that is consistent with them. Conversely, those who either do not follow or do not care about these moral guidelines are seen as unethical. The question of how to behave leads to the development of moral theories that provide logical foundations for determining what is morally right, strongly influencing the ethical frameworks that people or governments might adopt.
Morality vs. Ethics
While often used interchangeably, morality and ethics are not identical. Morality embodies the values and mores of a society—what is seen as right or wrong by a community—and is influenced by cultural, religious, or personal beliefs. Ethics, on the other hand, is the discipline that rigorously examines these moral principles, creating a philosophical framework for understanding and justifying what constitutes proper conduct.