Lecture No 1 law VS ethics (for the students of the Dept of Media studies of SBBU)
“And march forth
toward forgiveness from your Lord, and for Paradise as wide as are the heavens
and the earth, prepared for the pious. Those who spend (in the way of
God) in prosperity and in adversity, who repress anger, and who pardon people;
verily, God loves the doers of the good deeds.” (Quran 3:133)
Difference
between law and ethics
The law has sanctions (punishments) that discourage people from doing harm to
others.
Ethics are based on the moral code of the society in which we operate. That "society" may be your family, your ethnic group, your country, your
company or your group of friends.
The law is generally fixed within a country, but ethics may vary from society to
society.
Activity
Decide whether the
following are legal or ethical situations.
Make your decision by
clicking the radio button.
Your score is: 0/6
1. We see our colleague stealing disposable
materials from the lab. We choose not to report it because we want to maintain
the friendship with our colleague.
Legal Ethical
2.
Computer scientists
should not use a computer to harm other people.
Legal Ethical
3.
You should not use a
computer to steal.
Legal Ethical
4.
Ignorance is no
excuse.
Legal Ethical
5.
Computer scientists
should think about the social consequences of the computer program they are
writing or the network system they are designing.
Legal Ethical
6.
I know it's wrong, but
I'll continue doing it because the chances of getting caught are low.
Legal Ethical
Your score is 0/6.
What is
difference law and ethics?
In general, ethics are moral philosophy where a
person makes a specific moral choice and sticks to it, whereas law is a system that comprises of rules and principles to govern a
society. Though, ethics are based on the goodwill of law, ethics completely differ in their foundation, basis and purpose.
(The good reputation or
brand identification enjoyed by a commercial entity. In bankruptcy and other
areas of law, goodwill is considered an intangible
asset. Good will is generally calculated as the difference between the purchase
price of a company and the sum of its fair market value).
Difference
Between Law and Ethics
In simple terms, the law may be understood as
the systematic set of universally accepted rules and regulation
created by an appropriate authority such as
government, which may be regional, national, international, etc. It is used to
govern the action and behavior of the members and can be enforced, by imposing penalties.
Many times the term law is juxtaposed with the term ethics, but there is a difference, as ethics are
the principles that guide a person or society, created to decide
what is good or bad, right or wrong, in a given
situation. It regulates a person’s behavior or conduct and helps an individual
in living a good life, by applying the moral rules and guidelines.
For
a layman, these two terms are same, but the fact is that there is a
difference between law and ethics. Read the article carefully, to
overcome your ambiguities.
Content: Law Vs Ethics
Difference Between Law and Ethics
Many times the term law is juxtaposed with the term ethics, but there is a difference, as ethics are the principles that guide a person or society, created to decide what is good or bad, right or wrong, in a given situation. It regulates a person’s behavior or conduct and helps an individual in living a good life, by applying the moral rules and guidelines.
For a layman, these two terms are same, but the fact is that there is a difference between law and ethics. Read the article carefully, to overcome your ambiguities.
Content: Law Vs
Ethics
2.
Definition
4.
Conclusion
Comparison Chart
|
BASIS
FOR COMPARISON
|
LAW
|
ETHICS
|
|
Meaning
|
The law refers to a systematic body of rules
that governs the whole society and the actions of its individual members.
|
Ethics is a branch of moral philosophy that
guides people about the basic human conduct.
|
|
What is it?
|
Set of rules and regulations
|
Set of guidelines
|
|
Governed By
|
Government
|
Individual, Legal and Professional norms
|
|
Expression
|
Expressed and published in writing.
|
They are abstract.
|
|
Violation
|
Violation of law is not permissible which may
result in punishment like imprisonment or fine or both.
|
There is no punishment for violation of
ethics.
|
|
Objective
|
Law is created with an intent to maintain
social order and peace in the society and provide protection to all the
citizens.
|
Ethics are made to help people to decide what
is right or wrong and how to act.
|
|
Binding
|
Law has a legal binding.
|
Ethics do not have a binding nature.
|
Definition of Law
The
law is described as the set of rules and regulation, created by the
government to govern the whole society. The law is universally accepted,
recognized and enforced. It is created with the purpose of maintaining social order, peace, justice
in the society and to provide protection to the general public and
safeguard their interest. It is made
after considering ethical principles and moral values.The law is made by the judicial system of the country. Every person in the country is bound to follow the law. It clearly defines what a person must or must not do. So, in the case of the breach of law may result in the punishment or penalty or sometimes both.
Definition of Ethics
By
ethics, we mean that branch of moral philosophy that guides people about what
is good or bad. It is a collection of fundamental concepts and principles of an ideal
human character. The principles help us in making decisions regarding, what is
right or wrong. It informs us about how to act in a particular situation
and make a judgment to make better choices for ourselves.Ethics are the code of conduct agreed and adopted by the people. It sets a standard of how a person should live and interact with other people.
Key
Differences Between Law and Ethics
The major differences between law and ethics are mentioned
below:
1. The law is
defined as the systematic body of rules that governs the whole society and the
actions of its individual members. Ethics means the science of a standard human
conduct.
2. The law
consists of a set of rules and regulations, whereas Ethics comprises of
guidelines and principles that inform people about how to live or how to behave
in a particular situation.
3. The law is
created by the Government, which may be local, regional, national or
international. On the other hand, ethics are governed by an
individual, legal or professional norms, i.e. workplace ethics, environmental
ethics and so on.
4. The law is
expressed in the constitution in a written form. As opposed to ethics, it
cannot be found in writing form.
5. The breach
of law may result in punishment or penalty, or both which is not in the case of
breach of ethics.
6. The
objective of the law is to maintain social order and peace within the nation
and protection to all the citizens. Unlike, ethics that are
the code of conduct that helps a person to decide what is right or wrong and
how to act.
7. The law
creates a legal binding, but ethics has no such binding on the people.
Conclusion
Law
and ethics are different in a manner that what a person must do and what a person
should do. The former is universally accepted while the
latter
is ideal human conduct, agreed upon by most of the people. Although, both the
law and ethics are made in alignment so that they do not contradict
each other. Both go side by side, as they provide how to act in a particular
manner. Every person is equal in the eyes of law and ethics, i.e. nobody is
superior or inferior. Further, these two allow a person to think freely and
choose.
Law - it refers to set of guidelines which governs the society,
government bodies, institutions..
Ethics - ethics refers to set of moral values which guides
persons behaviour…
In conflict between law and ethics, former is prevail over the other
because law may be punishable offence whereas no punishment for violating
ethics….
Law is common for masses but ethics is a moral obligation on any
individual which he /she learns from family, society, school etc
Law is binding on the society whereas ethics is not binding
Law are written rules whereas ethics are abstract
Law is made to bring peace and social order in society
whereas ethics is made to how particular individuals behave with
other individuals and it help to differentiate between what is right and wrong…
First of all, we need to know the
meaning of Laws and Ethics, which lead us to recognize the differences between
them.
Laws: Laws are set of rules which
are legislated by an authentic and legitimate authority
which can force and obligate others to do something or leave.
Ethics: Ethics is the set of rules and norms that is
efficient and effective to get in the way of perfection.
According to these definitions,
there are 5 important differences
between Laws and Ethics:
1. The difference in target and goal:
The most basic and most important
difference between ethics and moral issues is the difference in goals. The
purpose of legal cases is providing
worldly interests of a community, while the first
purpose of ethics is to adorn the humankind
to virtues and cleaning them of vices. This
goal is the introduction of ethics` ultimate goal which is providing the
material and spiritual prosperity of mankind.
2. Intention
Human intention has no value to carry out a legal action while the intention in ethical issues has a direct impact on the value of that work.
For instance: Trustworthiness
(taking care of trust)) is such a thing which can be considered as a legal and
ethical issue. It means that both legal and ethical rules, adjudicate on the
necessity of integrity.
But the difference between them
is that if someone does it without any intention, or because of fear of
punishment, he has just done something which only has the legal value, while trustworthiness with the
divine or any ethical intentions, cause to be considered as an ethical value.
3. Exterior sanction
In the legal rules, legislator
has considered special sanctions for the laws and their practice, which
everyone who does not perform and carry them out, those sanctions will punish
him/her.
But there is not any sanction for
ethical issues, so there would be no punishment for everyone who violates these
issues and rules.
4. Limitation of legal rules to
human social behavior
Legal rules and rights are only
about the human social behaviors, while ethical rules are about both social and individual behaviors.
5. Generality, stability and
immortality basic moral principles
The basic moral and ethical principles are always general, stable and
eternal, principles such as beauty of
justice and evil of injustice are.
But the legal rules can be changed due to worldly interests and evils, time, location
etc.
Law is kind of a rule imposed on
any act,
whereas Ethics are the moral values confined to every individual or society.
whereas Ethics are the moral values confined to every individual or society.
For eg: Take the temple scenario
in India, it is a law that everyone
irrespective of caste and creed shall have the rights
to get the divine blessings of God if he/she is willing to seek it.
But, looking at the ethical values, everyone should stand in a queue to have a
glance at God and seek his blessings
since everyone is same before the eyes of God.
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Then why do we need Special dharisanam/ poojas and short route to see God for those pay excess money.
If God is for all, then everyone should be treated equal irrespective of their financial status. It is really unethical.
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Then why do we need Special dharisanam/ poojas and short route to see God for those pay excess money.
If God is for all, then everyone should be treated equal irrespective of their financial status. It is really unethical.
Laws are rules which you must follow.
Ethics is the study of morality.
Laws are often rules based on
morals. For example, it is illegal to kill because people generally find
murder immoral.
However, laws do not prevent all immoral actions or allow all
moral actions. I cannot speed at 100 mph in heavy traffic to take a dying child
to the hospital without getting a ticket, but it is legal to share answers on
homework despite the fact that (imo) it is very immoral.
Everyone has different morals so ethics is more about asking what
should I do rather than what I think is right or wrong.
Note: Much of this was paraphrased from Bonnie Fremgen’s Medical
Law and Ethics and Marci A. Lewis, et al Medical Law, Ethics, and Bioethics.
Ethics is related to
Heart and feelings.
Law is related to
Brain and logics.
In hostel if you take ball pen of
your friend without saying him ethically it is right but it unlawful.
Euthanasia (the painless killing
of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease)Killing is unlawful, but putting someone out of their
misery and ending their suffering is
ethically right.
Of course, there are also these
quotes:
“The ethical man knows what is
right; the moral man does what is right.” – Anonymous
Laws are rules that are enacted by human beings with political agendas and
cultural views of acceptable behavior. They
are a statement of how a society wants people to behave. Depending on the
country, those laws may reflect the will of
the people who they govern (in republics
and democracies) or they may just be the will of a dictator or
monarch who had the power to enact them.
However derived, laws may or may not confirm to your or my view of what is ethically
acceptable. This is subjective. If
you like the law, then you will find it ethical. If you disagree with the law's policy, then you may
view it as unethical. Or you may disagree with it but find it simply
unwise rather than unethical, I suppose.
Law and ethics are two frameworks that sometimes reach the same result.
The former reflects the views of those who have political power to make and
enforce rules: the latter is a subjective view of how one should treat other people.
A short
version. Laws are rules and acted
according to specific express quite here yet by competent authorities and
enforced by the state which give you specific
rights and obligations ultimately that by the courts and in the last instance
the police.
Ethics are what are you ought to
do, a matter on which there is no general agreement in many cases, no authoritative body to make a final determination, and no mechanism of enforcement. Laws and ethics can
be divergent, and often do.
Many laws are bad, although given
the nature of ethics, people disagree about which ones.
Law and ethics are to some extent
the same but not completely. This is because
some rules of law stem up from ethics
such as Respect for human rights, gender equality etc.. The main difference of
law and ethics is that, ethics is something human. What i mean by this is that
ethics are basic fundamental human principles of conduct that if one possess
them makes that particular person someone with good morals i can say, it makes
that person accepted in society somehow. Being
an unethical somebody doesnt really mean youre breaking the law but it does if
the act of that person goes against a law that promotes
good ethics such as laws against discrimination based on gender, race,
nationality etc….
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