contrast morality, a neighborhood concept, with ethics, a concept…

contrast morality, a neighborhood concept, with ethics, a concept appropriate to complex societies. Such societies, being highly differ-entiated, have over time created sets of principles and practices that mark and regulate a particular profession. Ethics involves an abstract capacity, an abstract attitude.

— from True North (Ethics, Integrity, Truth, Values) · Truth, Beauty and Goodness Reframed: Educating for the Virtues in the Age of Truthiness an

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The real test of ethics is responsibility taken independent of your own stake in the outcome — being not just a good neighbor but a good worker and a good citizen. There's a real distinction worth keeping: morality is the neighborhood virtue, how you treat the people right in front of you by virtue of your shared humanity; ethics is the wider, more abstract demand of a complex society, where you must be able to step outside your own skin and think of yourself in a role — as a Worker, as a Citizen — and act well in it. The practical core stays simple, though: cultivate a steady awareness of your relationships and then act on the obligations they carry. — True North (Ethics, Integrity, Truth, Values)

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