Mutual Interpretation and Orientation between Ethic and Morality

Abstract

Ethic and morality are key concepts for understanding ethics and moral philosophy. In previous research, the two notions are often indistinguishable and even interchangeable, because they share the same origin in terms of meaning, both referring to social customs, habits, protocols, and so forth. However, the development of academic history reveals important distinctions between ethics and morality, even regarding which of them holds the authority to interpret the other. For example, Hegel elevated morality to ethic, while Li Zehou advocated the study of morality from the perspective of ethic. Their studies indicate that ethics and morality have synchronic interpretations, meaning that they can be explained mutually. An obvious trend in the development of contemporary ethics is the gradual departure from the “stereotype” that “ethics is moral philosophy,” moving instead towards engaging with and serving the real and new “human relations” world with a broader horizon in a unique manner, thus achieving the “free development” characterized by distinction yet not separation from moral philosophy. This will propel moral philosophy to be oriented towards the shaping of individual virtues, and ethics to the regulation of interest relationships over ethical entities. In this context, it may become feasible to conceptualize morality without ethical norms and ethics without moral imperatives, and resolve the dispute between so-called virtue ethics and normative ethics.

Keywords

ethic / morality / moral philosophy / ethics / mutual interpretation

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