Institute of Business Ethics. Society for Business Ethics | An international organization of scholars and others interested in business ethics. Business Ethics | The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility. Ethics Resource Center | Ethics Resource Center. What is Ethics? What is Ethics? Developed by Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer Some years ago, sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, "What does ethics mean to you?
" Among their replies were the following: "Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong. " These replies might be typical of our own. Like Baumhart's first respondent, many people tend to equate ethics with their feelings. Nor should one identify ethics with religion. Being ethical is also not the same as following the law.
Finally, being ethical is not the same as doing "whatever society accepts. " Moreover, if being ethical were doing "whatever society accepts," then to find out what is ethical, one would have to find out what society accepts. What, then, is ethics? Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. This article appeared originally in Issues in Ethics IIE V1 N1 (Fall 1987) Revised 2010 Go back to Decision Making.