Ethics and Morality

Abstract

I think its very thin line between ethics and morality, there are differences in opinion when it comes to ethics and morality but often times I think they collide. In Milgram’s experiment we see how ethics and morality ties in with obedience to authority figures. Was Milgrams experiment act of morality, the way experiment was done was not moral, but the reasoning why he was doing experiment is moral. How something is done and why something is done raises the question of morality. Milgram had right reason to do the experiment but the way it was done raises the question of morality and how far are people ready to go in presence of authority. In this experiment we see teacher raising a question if experiment will hurt learner, but once he is told by authority to continue teacher proceed to question learner.

“Ethics is the reasoned study of what is morally right and wrong, good and bad. Moral originated from the Latin word morè, which meant something like “the way people are. Ethics, on the other hand, came from the Greek word ethos, meaning, “the way things should be.” According to these definition Milgrams’ experiment shows that Holocaust happened because Eichmann and millions of his accomplices were just following orders. Milgrams’ experiment involved male participants who were paired with another person, learners group knew what all about experiment and what is expected from them while teachers group was not aware of expectations. Learners purposely answered questions wrong and every time they gave a wrong answer they were shocked. Teachers knew that shocking some one because they gave a wrong answer was morally wrong and they have tried to stop it but every time teacher insisted on stopping researcher made sure that experiment continues. In this case researcher is authority. According to meaning of word morality “the way people are” teacher was doing the right thing, even though in appears immoral but he was only following...