When you hear the words Morality or Ethics, it feels like it is one of those words where you actually understand the basic meaning of it, but couldn't really explain it in greater detail, the deeper functionalities of it. I mean everyone can say they are good and they've done good things, "I fed the dog today", "I helped an old lady cross the street", so on and so forth.
You could say that these examples I gave are objectively ethical things. Being "good" or ethical seems to come automatically for most of us because of how we were raised. But what happens when there are more variables added to the mix?, when things get more complicated? We must have a deeper understanding of Ethics and Morality to help us make the right choices in these scenarios if we ever find ourselves in them. So what are the actual mechanics of Ethics and Morality? What does it mean to be ethical and moral?
To start, Ethics has a set of fundamentals as it's framework. These could help guide one facing ethical dilemmas and help them make choices that would fit the scenario. Autonomy, Non-maleficence, Beneficence, Justice and Fidelity.
Respect of autonomy means that everybody has a right to live their life the way they want. Every individual has a right to be an individual. The next one is non-maleficence simply meaning, do no harm, whether it be directly or indirectly. Beneficence is taking action that is intended to benefit others. Justice means equality and fairness where every individual has equal rights, resources, opportunities and consequences. And lastly fidelity, this concerns trust, loyalty and respect.
All these principles have mechanics that go hand in hand. For example, Autonomy means, I should let somebody live the lifestyle that they want, but what if their lifestyle harms others? What if an individual does actions for the benefit of his family? But breaks somebody's trust and loyalty for this?. Anything that breaches these five principles would indicate a sense of immorality within the situation. To apply this in a professional and social sense, decisions in the workplace must still uphold these five principles to a degree.
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