Flirting With Relevance

The words “ethical” and “moral” are often used interchangeably and this is probably correct. Indeed, each word appears in the definition of the other. The thesaurus feature in my word processor treats then as synonyms. Thus, they are just two names for the same thing, right?

That would be true, if only the two words were always used interchangeably. Think about the context in which you hear people typically use the two words. The word “ethical” is usually applied to businesses and government and how people and institutions conduct themselves in those environments. College students take courses in “business ethics” and the House of Representatives has an ethics committee. In short, the word is used to describe forthright and honest conduct in an impersonal or official capacity. Lying and embezzling and similar conduct appear to be the jurisdiction of ethics.

“Moral” is often used to describe conduct on the personal level, relating to sex, booze, drugs and other vices. When actors and athletes have “morals clauses” in their contracts, they rarely seem to be invoked when the party of the first part gets nabbed for cheating of their taxes, but rather when they are caught in a crack den with a high school cheerleader.

While this analysis is clearly anecdotal on my part and people are free to use the two words any way they like, it makes me wonder: If it’s immoral to have sex with a hooker, is it only unethical if you try to deduct it on your taxes?