What is meant by the term ethics?

Ethics are moral principles that determine a person's behaviour or activity. Whether it is right or wrong, honesty, dishonesty totally depends upon persons ethics.

At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy. Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures. They infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct.

From a philosopher’s point of view, ethics is the field of knowledge that deals with moral principles. The tasks for moral philosophy are commonly thought to be four-fold: (i) Prescribing moral oughts, (ii) Describing what morality is, (iii) Vindicating morality and explaining why one should be moral, and (iv) Critique - proposing areas for change in contemporary social practice. In business, this usually manifests itself as a code of conduct which applies ethical and moral principles to situations that may arise in the context of doing business.