ETHICS AND DEONTOLOGY

According to the Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française (Le Robert), ethics and deontology refer in fact to rather different realities: While ethics is defined as the “science de la morale [the science of morality]” or the “art de diriger la conduite [the art of governing conduct]”, deontology is defined as the “théorie des devoirs, en morale [the theory of duty, in morality]”. This distinction is largely the same in the Funk and Wagnalls Standard Comprehensive International Dictionary, in which ethics is defined as: “The study and philosophy of human conduct, with emphasis on the determination of right and wrong: one of the normative sciences.” It defines deontology more simply as follows: “The science of moral obligation or duty.” Thus deontology tends to encourage more than deter, and  it is focused more on expectations (implicit limitations) than on prohibitions (explicit restrictions).

Ethics is a part of philosophy focused on what is fundamentally just. Ethics is concerned with what is appropriate in order to do the right thing. This is the focus of ethical thought. Having good intentions is all well and good but it in no way guarantees results of high morality.

Ethics is a process of thinking about making a just decision consistent with the values or purpose of the state.

In referring to ethics, we are referring to a sense of purpose rather than the "how". It is easy to mark out a path when we know our destination. The values of the state have a diret link with the concept of the common welfare, in other words what the state must do to manage its relations with its citizens. In a responsible ethical decision, the decision-maker has the choice of means to employ to achieve this end. We must ensure that this choice and this is very important of the means employed to achieve the end occur before the decision is made rather than afterwards. Ethical thinking must therefore occur before a decision is made, before it can be qualified as ethical or non-ethical, whereas concept of "imputabilité", "reddition de comptes" or "accountability" are concepts which refer to a time after a decision is made. Ethics or "responsabilité" would be before, whereas "accountability", "reddition de comptes" and "imputabilité" would be after.

From an etymological standpoint, when we look at the term responsibility, and its Latin roots, we realize that the word "res" in responsibility refers to "the thing", and "sponsability", "spondere" meaning "to promise". The person who is responsible is one who can make a promise. In simple terms, the promise comes first. The person who is responsible will be judged afterwards on his or her actions, and is the one who will receive praise or blame.

Accountability is deontological in nature, in other words related to rules and to what is allowed, rather than ethical, or related to thinking about to do the right thing.

Ethicists believe that what is legal is not necessarily just. Acting ethically cannot be reduced to a mass of prohibitions. It is more than that. Ethics is more than simply not doing what is prohibited.

It is worthwhile taking a look at the distinction between ethics and morality. Ethics is about what is the right thing to do in a certain set of circumstances. Morality is the personal line that an individual draws between good and evil. Ethics are based on societal values whereas morality may be more a matter of revealed truth, heritage, choice and personal values. Ethics must be based on clear, practicable and shared values.

Rules, laws and standards deal with what we would call regular cases. These are cases that are repetitive, that have already occured, that have already got parameters. Ethics pertains to those irregular cases where there are no rules: the rule is inadequate under the circumstances where there is a difference between the spirit and the letter of the law. In such cases, the individual will have to do some ethical thinking. Some will say that they do the best that they can, but they should be basing themselves on guidelines, values and principles. In all these cases there will be some uncertainty and the individual may get it wrong.

A code of ethics and a code of conduct are not incompatible. A code of conduct is intended to make for the shortcomings of a code of ethics.

Finally, the term "ethics" in the English language could be best translated by the word "déontologie" in French.