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Definition: Ethics |
EthicsNoun1. Motivation based on ideas of right and wrong. 2. The philosophical study of moral values and rules. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "ethics" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Ethics computer ethics. Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Business ethics is the field of ethics that examines moral controversies relating to the social responsibilities of business practices, in any economic system. It looks at various business activities and asks "Is this ethically right or wrong".Topics within this field include deception in advertising, covert monitoring of employee computers and telephones, insider trading, disinformation planting, ponzi scheme, employee rights, confidenciality, job discrimination, affirmative action, drug testing, bribery, political contributions, price discrimination, product churning, unethical labour practices, retail price maintenence, environmental issues, collusion, grey marketing, patent and copyright enfringement, tort law, negligence, product liability, sexual harasment, accounting accountability, tax avoidance, numerous sales techniques, covert marketing research, product placement, planned obsolescence, business intelligence gathering, industrial espionage, undercover marketing, kick-backs, sex in advertising, spam, telemarketing, payola, pyramid schemes, black market, competitive raiding, corporate crime, union busting, preditory pricing, hostile take-overs, creative accounting, child labour, and whistle blowing.
Business ethics is closely related to the philosophy of business which deals with the philosophical, political, and ethical underpinnings of business and economics. The philosophy of business asks questions like what the social role of business should be, if indeed it should have one at all, questions of individualism vs collectivism, freewill, enlightened self interest, “invisible hand theories”, and natural rights.
It is also closely related to political economy which is economic analysis from a political, normative (rather than positive), and historical perspective. Political economy deals with the distributive consequences of economic actions. It asks who gains and who loses.
Normative business ethics
Business ethics is primarily an applied ethics. It takes ethical concepts and applies them in specific business situations. Like political economy, but unlike the philosophy of business, business ethics is a normative discipline. It makes specific judgements about right and wrong. It makes claims about what should be done and what aught not to be done. It is less concerned with explaining or describing ethical events (called descriptive ethics) or analysing ethical concepts to achieve a deeper understanding of their meaning and justification (called analytical ethics).
Three levels of application
Business ethics can be applied at three levels; the individual employee , the organization, and the society. Very othen situations arise in which the three levels are not in line. A behaviour many be good for the employee, bad for the company, and good for society (or some other combination). Some ethicists (in particular Henry Sidgwick) see the role of business ethics as the harmonization and reconciliation of these three conflicting levels.
An example of an ethical question in business
Disagreements exist within the field regarding whether ethical imperatives imply only compliance with legal standards or going beyond such standards. This relates to the broader philosophical question of the appropriate role for business. If the role of business is to maximize the return of shareholders, then only activities that increase profitability should be encouraged. This would enclude obeying all laws because the consequences of failing to do so could be very costly both in fines and company reputation. If you see the company as having a social responsibility, then going beyond minimum legal requirements makes sense. It is sometimes claimed that a Gresham's law of ethics applies in which bad ethical practices drive out good ethical practices. In a competitive business environment, those companies that survive are the ones that recognize that their only role is to maximize profits.
A related problem is where a company faces multiple legal standards. Problems arise for multinational companies when various jurisdictions have different legal requirements: Do they obey the laws of their home country, or the less stringent laws of the developing country that they are operating in? For example American law forbids American companies from giving bribes domestically or overseas. But in some parts of the world, hidden bribes are the way business is conducted. What is the US company to do? Similar situations occur in regards to employee safety and environmental protection laws.
Ethics statements and ethics codes
Many companies are drafting policies in regards to ethics. When these policies are summarised into a few sentences that give general guidelines they are called ethics statements. When they are itemized in a multi-page list that covers many specific situations, they are called ethics codes.
Their purpose is to give employees guidance in ethically ambiguous situations. This should create consistency. It may or may not raise the level of behaviour, depending on the ethical standands of individual employees relative to the new codified standards.
Not everybody is happy with their use. Some claim that many ethical situations are better dealt with by giving individuals discresion and leting them use their best judgement. Many are also skeptical, claiming the main purpose of ethics codes is really to limit the companies legal liability. In case of a law suit the company can claim that the problem would not have arisen if the employee had followed the code properly.
There is often a dissonance between code and practice. Frequently the code will say one thing, but the established practice in the organization is something quite different. This puts the employee in an untenable situation.
To be sucessful a code of ethics should:
- have the support of top management
- be followed by top management
- be clearly explained to all employees
- be practical and realistic
- include penalties for disobeyance
- be continuously implimented by a "watchdog comittee" that has authority to take disciplinary actions
Religious views on business ethics
Jewish business ethics
Judaism has an extensive literature and legal code on the accumulation and use of wealth. The basis of these laws is the Torah, where there are more rules about the kashrut (fitness) of one's money than about the kashrut of one's food. These laws are developed and expanded upon in the Mishnah and the Talmud.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (19th century), founder of the Mussar movement in Eastern European, taught that just as one checks carefully to make sure their food is kosher, so too should one check to see if their money is earned in a kosher fashion. (Chofetz Chaim, Sfat Tamim, chapter 5).
Christian business ethics
Christianity has an extensive literature and legal code on the accumulation and use of wealth. The basis of these laws is the Torah, and they are amplified in the New Testament.
Muslim business ethics
Islam has an extensive literature and legal code on the accumulation and use of wealth. The basis of these laws is the Quran, and they are amplified in the Hadith.
Political views of business ethics
Libertarian socialist view
Libertarian socialists, sometimes known as left-anarchists, hold that, as Proudhon said, "Property is theft" -- that is, in reference to the ownership of productive resources, property is not the right to use, but the right to keep others from using. Advocates of this philosophy therefore hold the "institution of property", as they sometimes call it, to be immoral in itself, so the accumulation of wealth that includes productive resources, especially land, is also immoral. This means that no business can really be ethical, since the very foundation of business as we know it is private property.
See also:
- Ethics
- List of business ethics, political economy, and philosophy of business topics
- Ethical code
References
General references
- Moral Issues in Business, Vincent E. Barry, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1986
- Essays on Ethics in Business and the Professions, Jack N. Behrman, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988
- Ethical Dilemmas in the Modern Corporation Gerald F. Cavanagh, Prentice-Hall, 1988
- Ethics and the Management of Computer Technology: Proceedings of the Fourth National Conference on Business Ethics National Conference on Business Ethics (4th: 1981: Bentley College) Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain, 1981
- Above the Bottom Line: An Introduction to Business Ethics Rbert C. Solomon, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
Jewish references
- You Shall Strengthen Them: A Rabbinic Letter on the Poor Elliot N. Dorff with Lee Paskind, The Rabbinical Assembly, NY
- Free Enterprise and Jewish Law: Aspects of Jewish Business Ethics Aaron Levine, Ktav Publishing House, 1980
- The Challenge of Wealth, Meir Tamari, Jason Aronson Inc., 1995
- With All Your Possessions: Jewish Ethics and Economic Life, Meir Tamari, Free Press, 1987, AISN: 0029321506
- Al Chet: Sins in the marketplace, Meir Tamari, Jason Aronson, 1986, ISBN: 1568219067
Christian references
- Biblical Business Ethics: Exploring Secular Ethical Values & Alternative Christian Approaches, David Bertch, Terry Martin, Dyna Martin, Works Press, 1994. ISBN: 0963447238
- Business By The Book: The Complete Guide Of Biblical Principles For The Workplace, Larry Burkett, Nelson Reference; Updated edition 1998, ISBN: 0785271414
- God is my CEO: Following God's Principles in a Bottom-Line World, Larry S. Julian, Adams Media Corporation, 2001, ISBN: 1580624774
- Full value: Cases in Christian business ethics O.F. Williams and J. W. Houck, San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1978
Muslim references
- Islamic Business Ethics Rafik Issa Beekun, The International Institute of Islamic Thought
- Islam and the Economic Challenge M.Umer Chapra
- The Problem With Interest Tarek El Diwany
- Distributive Justice And Need Fulfilment in an Islamic Economy Munawar Iqbal, The Islamic Foundation, Leicester, U.K.
- Islamic Commercial Law: An Analysis of Futures and Options Mohammad Hashim Kamali
- Banking Without Interest Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Business ethics."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
simple:EthicsEthics is the general term for attempts to state or determine what is good, both for the individual and for the society as a whole. It is often termed the science of morality.
In philosophy, ethics is one of the three major traditional areas of investigation, alongside metaphysics and logic. See particularly meta-ethics.
'The goal of a theory of ethics is to determine what is good, both for the individual and for the society as a whole. Philosophers have taken different positions in defining what is good, on how to deal with conflicting priorities of individuals versus the whole, over the universality of ethical principles versus "situation ethics" in which what is right depends upon the circumstances rather than on some general law, and over whether goodness is determined by the results of the action or the means by which results are achieved.' (Jennifer P. Tanabe, Contemplating Unification Thought)
The history of ethics
The formal study of ethics in a serious and analytical sense began with the early Greeks, and later Romans. Imporant Greek and Roman ethicists include The Sophists and Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, who developed ethical naturalism. The study of ethics was developed further by Epicurus and the epicureanism movement, and by Zeno and the stoics.
Although not developed in a formal and analystical sense, the subject of ethics was of great concerns to the writers of the Hebrew Bible, and centuries later, the New Testament and the Apocrypha. A suvey of ethics in these subjects can be found in article in Ethics in the Bible; a related article, Ethics in religion covers the more extended topic of how the subject of ethics has developed in major world religions.
The formal study of philosophy stagnated until the medieval era, where it gained a new stregth through the writings of Maimonides, Saint Thomas Aquinas and others. It was at this time that the debate bewteen ethics based on natural law and divine law gained a new importance.
Modern Western philosophy began with the work of greats such as Thomas Hobbes, David Hume and Immanuel Kant. Their work was followed up by the utilitarians, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Friedrich Nietzsche has little patience for previous views of ethics, and launched an assault on such theories. The study of analytic ethics took off with G. E. Moore and W. D. Ross, followed by the emotivists, C. L. Stevenson and A. J. Ayer. Existentialism was developed by writers such as Jean Paul Sartre. Some modern philosophers who have done serious philosophical writing on ethics include John Rawls, Elliot N. Dorff and Charles Hartshorne.
Divisions of Ethics
In analytic philosophy, ethics is traditionally divided into three fields: Metaethics, Normative ethics and applied ethics.
Metaethics
Metaethics is the investigation of where ethical principles come from. It asks: Where do ethical principles come from? What do they mean? How do we know that any exist? Are ethics merely social conventions, or are they universal truths? Metaethics is one of the most imporant fields in philosophy.
Metaethics studies the nature of ethical sentences and attitudes. This includes such questions as what "good" and "right" mean, whether and how we know what is right and good, whether moral values are objective, and how ethical attitudes motivate us. Often this is derived from some list of moral absolutes, e.g. a religious moral code, whether explicit or not. Some would view aesthetics as itself a form of meta-ethics.
Normative Ethics
Normative ethics bridges the gap between metaethics and applied ethics. It is the attempt to arrive at practical moral standards that tell us right from wrong, and how to live moral lives.
Theory of value asks questions like: What sorts of situations are good? Is pleasure always good? Is it good for people to be equally well-off? Is it intrinsically good for beautiful objects to exist?
- One branch of normative ethics is theory of conduct; this is the study of right and wrong, of obligation and permissions, of duty, of what is above and beyond the call of duty, and of what is so wrong as to be evil. Theories of conduct propose standards of morality, or moral codes or rules. For example, the following would be the sort of rules that a theory of conduct would discuss (though different theories will differ on the merit of each of these particular rules): "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"; "The right action is the action that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number"; "Stealing is wrong."
- Another branch of normative ethics is theory of value; this looks at what things are deemed to be valuable. Suppose we have decided that certain things are intrinsically good, or are more valuable than other things that are also intrinsically good. Given this, the next big question is what would this imply about how we should live our lives? The theory of value also asks: What sorts of things are good? Or: What does "good" mean? It may literally define "good" and "bad" for a community or society.
Applied Ethics
Applied ethics applies normative ethics to specific controversial issues. Many of these ethical problems bear directly on public policy. For example, the following would be questions of applied ethics: "Is getting an abortion ever moral?"; "Is euthanasia ever moral?"; "What are the ethical underpinnings of affirmative action policies?"; "Do animals have rights?"
The ability to formulate the questions are prior to rights balancing.
Not all questions studied in applied ethics concern public policy. For example: Is lying always wrong? If not, when is it permissible? The ability to make these ethical judgements is prior to any etiquette.
Examples of applied ethics include:
Ethics has been applied to economics, politics and political science, leading to several distinct and unrelated fields of applied ethics, including: Business ethics and Marxism
- Abortion, legal and moral issues
- Animal rights
- Bioethics
- Business ethics
- Criminal justice
- Environmental ethics
- Feminism
- Gay rights
- Just war theory
- Medical ethics
- Utilitarian ethics
- Utilitarian Bioethics
Ethics has been applied to family structure, sexuality, and how society views the roles of individuals; leading to several distinct and unrelated fields of applied ethics, including feminism.
Ethics has been applied to war, leading to the fields of pacifism and nonviolence.
Ethics has been applied to analyze human use of Earth's limited resources. This has led to the study of environmental ethics and social ecology. A growing trend has been to combine the study of both ecology and economics to help provide a basis for sustainable decisions on environmental use. This has led to the theories of ecological footprint and bioregional autonomy. Political and social movements based on such ideas include eco-feminism, eco-anarchism, deep ecology, the green movement, and ideas about their possible integration into Gaia philosophy.
Ethics has been applied to criminology leading to the field of criminal justice.
There are several sub-branches of applied ethics examining the ethical problems of different professions, such as business ethics, medical ethics, engineering ethics and legal ethics, while technology assessment and environmental assessment study the effects and implications of new technologies or projects on nature and society. Each branch characterizes common issues and problems that may arise, and define their common responsibility to the public, or to obey some social expectations of honest dealings and disclosure.
Major doctrines of ethics
Philosophers have developed a number of competing systems to explain how to choose what is best for both the individual and for society. No one system has gained universal assent. The major philosophical doctrines of ethics include:
- Divine command ethics
- Consequentialism
- Virtue ethics
- Social contract theory
- Ethical skepticism
- Ethical relativism
- Ethical subjectivism
- Ethical nihilism
- Ethical egoism
- Ethical hedonism
- Non-hedonistic ethical egoism
- Utilitarianism
- Immanuel Kant's Deontological ethics
- The Utilitarian Kantian Principle (Cornman, Lehrer)
Descriptive ethics
Some philosophers rely on descriptive ethics and choices made and unchallenged by a society or culture to derive categories, which typically vary by context. This leads to situational ethics and situated ethics. These philosophers often view aesthetics and etiquette and arbitration as more fundamental, percolating 'bottom up' to imply, rather than explicitly state, theories of value or of conduct. In these views ethics is not derived from a top-down a priori "philosophy" (many would reject that word) but rather is strictly derived from observations of actual choices made in practice:
Those who embrace such descriptive approaches tend to reject overtly normative ones. There are exceptions, such as the movement to more moral purchasing.
- Ethical codes applied by various groups. Some consider aesthetics itself the basis of ethics - and a personal moral core developed through art and storytelling as very influential in one's later ethical choices.
- Informal theories of etiquette which tend to be less rigorous and more situational. Some consider etiquette a simple negative ethics, i.e. where can one evade an uncomfortable truth without doing wrong? One notable advocate of this view is Judith Martin ("Miss Manners"). In this view, ethics is more a summary of common sense social decisions.
- Practices in arbitration and law, e.g. the claim by Rushworth Kidder that ethics itself is a matter of balancing "right versus right", i.e. putting priorities on two things that are both right, but which must be traded off carefully in each situation. This view many consider to have potential to reform ethics as a practice, but it is not as widely held as the 'aesthetic' or 'common sense' views listed above.
- Observed choices made by ordinary people, without expert aid or advice, who vote, buy and decide what is worth fighting about. This is a major concern of sociology, political science and economics.
The analytic view
The descriptive view of ethics is modern and in many ways more empirical. But because the above are dealt with more deeply in their own articles, the rest of this article will focus on the formal academic categories, which are derived from classical Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle.
First, we need to define an ethical sentence, also called a normative statement. An ethical sentence is one that is used to make either a positive or a negative (moral) evaluation of something. Ethical sentences use words such as "good," "bad," "right," "wrong," "moral," "immoral," and so on. Here are some examples:
In contrast, a non-ethical sentence would be a sentence that does not serve to (morally) evaluate something. Examples would include:
- "Sally is a good person."
- "People should not steal."
- "The Simpson verdict was unjust."
- "Honesty is a virtue."
- "Sally is a tall person."
- "Someone took the stereo out of my car."
- "Simpson was acquitted at his trial."
Ethics by cases
By far the most common way to approach applied ethics is by resolving individual cases. This is, not coincidentally, also the way business and law tend to be taught. Casuistry is one such application of case-based reasoning to applied ethics.
Bernard Crick in 1982 offered a more socially-centered view, that politics was the only applied ethics, that it was how cases were really resolved, and that "political virtues" were in fact necessary in all matters where human morality and interests were destined to clash. This and other views of modern universals is dealt with below under Global Ethics.
Is ethics futile?
The whole assumption of the field of ethics is that consistent description, consistent deliberation, and consistent and fair application of authority is possible. However, the more case-based views seem to suggest that a great deal of judgement is required, and that for instance one could never train a robot to do ethics, as it requires empathy and wisdom. However, one might be able to teach an artificial intelligence with empathy and wisdom to do ethics.
Is each case unique? Possibly. The view that ethics is innate and tied to a personal moral core or aesthetics is harder to relate to the formal categories above other than as a meta-ethics in itself.
It is considered by some ethicists to be just a variant of mysticism or narcissism, permitting those who avow aesthetic choices as being 'above ethics' to justify anything.
However, the term ethics is actually derived from the ancient Greek ethos, meaning moral character. Mores, from which morality is derived, meant social rules or etiquette or inhibitions from the society. In modern times, these meanings are often somewhat reversed, with ethics being the external "science" and morals referring to one's inmost character or choices. But it is significant that the origins of the words reflect the tension between an inner-driven and an outer-driven view of what makes moral choices consistent.
Ethics in religion
There are articles on Ethics in religion and Ethics in the Bible.
Ethics in psychology
By the 1960s there was increased interest in moral reasoning. Psychologists Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan and others began to try to codify rational ethics, and try to express universal levels of moral awareness and capacity. Many viewed rational principles as 'higher' than relationships, but others did not.
Politics
Often, such efforts take legal or political form before they are understood as works of normative ethics. The UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights of 1948 and the Global Green Charter of 2001 are two such examples. However, as war and the development of weapon technology continues, it seems clear that no non-violent means of dispute resolution is accepted by all.
The need to redefine and align politics away from ideology and towards dispute resolution was a motive for Bernard Crick's list of political virtues.
Related Topics (in philosophy)
See the list of ethics topics for more specialized and applied topics.
- Deontology
- Epistemology
- Etiquette
- Goodness
- Morality
- Ontology
- Trust
- Truth
- Value theory
- Virtue ethics
See the list of ethicists for theorists who have contributed to the above ideas.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Ethics."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Situated ethics, often confused with situational ethics, is a view of applied ethics in which abstract standards from a culture or theory are considered to be far less important than the ongoing processes in which one is personally and physically involved, e.g. climate, ecosystem, etc. It is one of several theories of ethics within the philosophy of action associated with anarchism. It is sometimes thought to be a more abstract name for Gaia philosophy, as the planet one lives on is quite important in situated ethics.There are also situated theories of economics, e.g. most green economics, and of knowledge, usually based on some situated ethics. All emphasize the actual physical, geographical, ecological and infrastructural state the actor is in, which determines that actor's actions or range of actions - all deny that there is any one point of view from which to apply standards of or by authority. This makes such theories unpopular wih authority, and popular with those who advocate political decentralisation.
See also list of ethics topics
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Situated ethics."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
ETHICS | English | Effective Technical and Human Implementation of Computer Systems | Computing |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: EthicsSynonyms: ethical motive (n), moral philosophy (n), morality (n), morals (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Duty | Ethics, ethology.; deontology, aretology; moral philosophy, ethical philosophy; casuistry, polity. |
Virtue | Morals; ethics; (duty); cardinal virtues. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Ethics |
| English words defined with "ethics": bad, badness, Brocard ♦ ethical, ethically, ethician, ethicist, Eudaemonism ♦ Hippocratic oath ♦ moral ♦ nonmoral ♦ philosophy ♦ scrupulousness, Superethical ♦ unexceptionable, unimpeachable. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "ethics": Acoustics, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL ♦ computer crime, computer ethics ♦ Federation Against Software Theft ♦ Gourmand's Prayer ♦ MANAGER, REAL-ESTATE FIRM ♦ Physician Self-Referral, POLICE-ACADEMY INSTRUCTOR, Privileged Matters ♦ Single-Speech Hamilton. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Jim, I don't need a lecture on ethics. (Election; writing credit: Alexander Payne) Now, this honeymoon is complicated enough without your dragging medical ethics into it. (Spellbound; writing credit: Ben Hecht) Now, if you bleed these people, I'll have you up on ethics. (Shannon's Deal; writing credit: David Greenwalt) I'm not much on rear window ethics. (Rear Window; writing credit: John Michael Hayes; Cornell Woolrich) A man with no ethics is a free man. (U Turn; writing credit: John Ridley) | |
Lyrics | The medical association's board of ethics stripped him of all his creditials, and his reputation was ruined (Mephisto and Kevin; performing artist: Primus) | |
Clever | Business ethics (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | A Question of Ethics (1992) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | [Code of medical ethics, 1949] : The Oath of Hippocrates. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | McLendon poking "Senate" wasp nest with "code of ethics" twig. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | All the religion we have is the ethics of one or another holy person. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | What I have observed of the pond is no less true in ethics. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Shamoo AE, O'Sullivan JL. The ethics of research on the mentally disabled. (references) | |
When the physician has determined that clinical indications justify the administration of ECT, the law requires, and medical ethics demand, that the patient's freedom to accept or refuse the treatment be fully honored. (references) | ||
The Belmont report of 1978, which guides human medical research ethics in the United States, reaffirmed that the rights of individuals participating in clinical trials must take precedence over the potential benefit to society as a whole. (references) | ||
Business | Business practices are regulated by a code of ethics (Code de Déontologie). (references) | |
Moreover, companies that use the Robinson List can rightfully claim that they respect the ethics code for advertising. (references) | ||
It has developed a 16 point Code of Ethics and Businesses Practices by drawing heavily on input from sister associations around the world. (references) | ||
Children | Malaysia | In November 2000, the Human Resources Ministry announced plans to draft a code of ethics for employers to address the needs of persons with disabilities including additional employment opportunities, job discrimination, and disabled-friendly work environments. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Kazakhstan | On November 27, the President urged private domestic media to create a code of ethics. (references) |
Togo | During the year, it met regularly to discuss journalistic ethics and professional standards. (references) | |
Economic History | Israel | There are several NGOs that focus on public sector ethics. (references) |
Norway | Norwegian business ethics are very similar to American business ethics. (references) | |
India | It has released a code of ethics that member-companies have to adhere to. (references) | |
Human Rights | Bosnia and Herzegovina | In June 1999, judicial associations in both entities adopted identical codes of ethics for judges and prosecutors. (references) |
Kazakhstan | In July the Government established a judicial ethics commission to review complaints and appeals by citizens on violations of judicial ethics. (references) | |
Armenia | Reportedly individuals choose to defend themselves in court because they have little respect for a defense attorney's professional skills and ethics. (references) | |
Minorities | Slovak Republic | In February 2000, the Ministry of Education and the Institute of Judaism undertook a joint educational project on Jewish history and culture that is targeted to elementary and high school teachers of history, civic education, and ethics. (references) |
Political Economy | Ecuador | For example, recently approximately 20 Congressman left their political parties to become independent, and the political parties to whom they formerly belonged, in an attempt to recover their congressional seats, are applying ethics proceedings against them, to disqualify them from serving in Congress. (references) |
Political Rights | Indonesia | Legislative reforms passed in October established a legislative code of ethics and streamlined the legislative process. (references) |
Trade | Kenya | It also mandates an ethics code. (references) |
El Salvador | C. Movies contrary to ethics and good behavior. (references) | |
Mexico | While documentary collection entails more risk than a Letter of Credit, it is also true that Mexican companies often possess business ethics equivalent to those of American companies. (references) | |
Travel | Ghana | In return, these friends may ask for favors, some of which may conflict with U.S. business ethics or laws. (references) |
Colombia | They are serious, hardworking, and share many of the same work habits and ethics as business people in the United States. (references) | |
Japan | Japanese religious practice tends to be socially oriented and selective rather than a matter of deep personal commitment; ethics tend to be situational. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Lithuania | Problems of trafficking are discussed during ethics and religion classes in the schools. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Robert Wagner | Dr. Evil, while you were in space, I created a way for us to make huge sums of legitimate money and still maintain the ethics and the business practices of an evil organization. I have turned us into a talent agency, the Hollywood Talent Agency. |
Rush Limbaugh | Seventy-three percent responded that the view of ethics most often transmitted was the politically correct view that what is right and wrong depends on differences in individual values and cultural diversity. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Ethics" is generally used as a noun (common) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Ethics" is used about 856 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (common) | 100% | 856 | 8,251 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "ethics": business ethics ♦ computer ethics ♦ ethics committee ♦ Ethics Committees ♦ ethics of work ♦ ethics panel ♦ professional ethics ♦ statement of ethics. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "ethics": business-ethics, meta-ethics. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "ethics"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | etikë (moralities), moral (ethic, ethical, moral). (various references) | |
Arabic | علم الأخلاق (deontology, ethic, morals), أخلاق (decency, manners, moral, morals), آداب المهنة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | морални принципи, етика (morality, morals). (various references) | |
Chinese | 德 (character, favor, Germany, goodness, kind, kindness, morality, virtue), 伦理, 倫理 . (various references) | |
Czech | etika (deontology), mravouka. (various references) | |
Danish | etik (moral code), observationstrin. (various references) | |
Dutch | ethiek (ethic), zedenleer (ethic, morals), zedenkunde (ethic, morals). (various references) | |
Esperanto | etiko (ethic). (various references) | |
Finnish | etiikka, siveysoppi. (various references) | |
French | éthique (ethic, ethical). (various references) | |
German | ethik (ethic, morality), sittenlehre (ethic). (various references) | |
Greek | ηθική (continence, morality), δεοντολογία (deontology, etiquette). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מוסר (chastisement, correction, instruction, moral, morale, punishment, reproof), תורת "מי"ות, תורת "מוסר, אתיק". (various references) | |
Hungarian | etika (ethic, moral philosophy), erkölcstan (moral philosophy, morality). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tata susila (good conduct, good manners). (various references) | |
Italian | etica (ethic). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 倫理 (morals). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | しゅうし" (attachment, devotion, final trial, going to bed, infatuation, moral training, morals, retiring, the whole life), どうがく (moral philosophy, the same amount, the same school), り"りがく (moral philosophy), り"り (dripping, morals). (various references) | |
Korean | 윤리 (Ethical). (various references) | |
Manx | moraltaght (morality, morals). (various references) | |
Norwegian | etikk. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ethicsay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | ética (moral code). (various references) | |
Romanian | eticã (deontology, moral philosophy, morality), moralã (lecture, lesson, moral, moral philosophy, morality, spirits). (various references) | |
Russian | этика (deontology, moral philosophy, morality, morals). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | etika, moral (moral, morale, morals). (various references) | |
Spanish | ética (ethic, moral). (various references) | |
Swedish | etik (ethic). (various references) | |
Thai | จริยศาสตร์. (various references) | |
Turkish | törebilim, ahlâk kuralları, ahlâk (character, ethic, morality, morals). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | норми поведінки (ethic), мораль (ethic, moral, morality, pi), етика (deontology, ethic, moralities, morals). (various references) | |
Welsh | moeseg. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | ethike philosophia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "ethics": bioethics, metaethics. (additional references) | |
| |
"Ethics" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: athic, Dethick, dethis, Echecs, ehics, ehthics, ehtics, ethcis, ethica, ethice, ethicise, ethicks, ethicus, ethis, ethische, ethjics, ethnicos, Ethnicz, ethoxy, etic, Etica, etics, etih, etis. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "ethics" (pronounced e"thiks) |
| 5 | e" th i k s | bioethics. |
| 3 | -i k s | academics, acoustics, acrobatics, acrylics, aerobatics, aerobics, aerodynamics, aeronautics, aesthetics, affix, alcoholics, analgesics, analytics, anesthetics, anorexics, antibiotics, antics, apparatchiks, appendix, asthmatics, astronautics, astrophysics, athletics, atmospherics, attics, automatics, avionics, ballistics, basics, batiks, beatniks, biologics, biophysics, bishoprics, calisthenics, Calix, calyx, catholics, ceramics, cervix, characteristics, charismatics, civics, classics, clerics, clinics, comics, conics, cosmetics, Criminalistics, critics, cynics, demographics, diabetics, diagnostics, diuretics, domestics, dynamics, eccentrics, econometrics, economics, electrics, electrodynamics, electronics, epics, epidemics, ergonomics, ethnics, eugenics, exotics, fabrics, fanatics, forensics, generics, genetics, geometrics, geopolitics, geriatrics, gimmicks, graphics, gymnastics, harmonics, helix, hemodynamics, heroics, hieroglyphics, histrionics, hydraulics, hypnotics, hysterics, informatics, ionics, italics, kibbutzniks, kinetics, limericks, linguistics, logistics, lyrics, macroeconomics, Magnetics, mathematics, matrix, mavericks, mechanics, medics, metaphysics, metrics, microeconomics, microelectronics, micrographics, mimics, mnemonics, mosaics, mystics, narcotics, Nucleonics, numismatics, obstetrics, onomastics, onyx, optics, orthodontics, oryx, panics, paramedics, Pediatrics, Phenix, Phoenix, phonetics, phonics, photovoltaics, physics, plastics, polemics, prefix, prosthetics, psychics, publics, pyrotechnics, refuseniks, relics, reprographics, republics, robotics, romantics, semantics, semiotics, skeptics, sonics, specifics, sputniks, statistics, stoics, suffix, synthetics, systematics, tactics, Technics, tectonics, theatrics, therapeutics, thermoplastics, tonics, topics, toxics, tropics, workaholics. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: itches. | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-h-i-s-t" | |
-1 letter: cesti, chest, chits, cites, ethic, heist, stich. | |
-2 letters: chis, chit, cist, cite, etch, eths, etic, hest, hets, hies, hist, hits, ices, ichs, itch, sect, sice, site, sith, this, tics, ties. | |
-3 letters: chi, cis, eth, hes, het, hic, hie, his, hit, ice, ich, its, sec, sei, set, she, sic, sit, the, tic, tie, tis. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-h-i-s-t" | |
+1 letter: achiest, aitches, bitches, chemist, chicest, cithers, ditches, ethnics, fitches, hitches, pitches, richest, sthenic, techies, witches. | |
+2 letters: achiotes, asthenic, biotechs, britches, cathexis, chanties, chariest, chastise, chedites, chemists, chestier, cheviots, chewiest, chiefest, chillest, chintses, chintzes, chirkest, chitters, chitties, choicest, chokiest, christen, christie, citherns, cithrens, cushiest, ditchers, esthetic, etchings, ethicals, ethicist, fetiches, fitchets, fitchews, flitches, glitches, hematics, hepatics, heretics, hitchers, hysteric, ichnites, itchiest, kitchens, kitsches, lecythis, mastiche, misteach, nitchies, pastiche, pistache, pitchers, postiche, potiches, quitches, restitch, sithence, snitched, snitcher, snitches, stitched, stitcher, stitches, switched, switcher, switches, tachisme, tachiste, techiest, technics, theistic, theriacs, thickens, thickest, thickets, thickset, twitches. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Quotations: Spoken 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Abbreviations | 17. Acronyms 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
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