having more chicken salad, but decided I needed soup too. So I got some corn chowder at Au Bon Pain.

Allyson, I don't think there's a big difference between morals and ethics definitionally, unless you define one. The best use I've seen of the two was a post on extending marriage rights to same sex couples, and the writer chose to use "morals" for personal decisions and choices, and "ethics" for public ones.

Chee-ee-eseburger.

Damn, I want a cheeseburger. Hmmm, tomorrow's payday . . .

I had pumpkin gnocchi

Sweet Lord. WHERE did you find such a tempting thing?

Chee-ee-eseburger.

No Coke; Pepsi!

Allyson says,

I'm trying to write something about fairness, and keep confusing morals and ethics, which is embarassing, and something I often do. I have no idea why the concepts keep scrambling in my head.

I know this looks like bon bon, but it's really Bob Bob. Let me get to your question about the morals/ethics distinction.

I should say, this is a distinction that we (professional philosophers) don't really talk about much--at least, I don't remember it from any of my classes; I might have missed it in an introductory class--, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

Morality has to do with obligations, permissions, and forbiddings. So, you can be morally obligated to do something (say, save your drowning child); morally permitted to do something (say, take a swim); and morally forbidden from doing something (say, drown your child, or simply not help your drowning child even though you easily could).

Ethics is often taken to be broader than morality. That is, ethics includes morality as one of its branches. Other topics of ethics include: virtue (e.g., what are the various virtues out there (like courage, temperance, modesty, prudence, etc.), and what does it take to be a virtuous person); moral psychology (what goes on, psychologically, with a person when she is trying to do what she ought or ought not do; what does an obligation, as opposed to something completely non-moral, 'feel like'); political philosophy (how should we set up our government, etc.); meta-ethics (in virtue of what facts is it the case that moral obligations, virtues, justice, etc., exist at all?); and so on.

I hope that's not too convoluted.

I see a lot of conflation of morals and ethics in definitions, Allyson, so you'll have to state your playground clearly if you borrow axioms, or just define them yourself.

That's helpful, bob bob, thank you.

You're welcome, Allyson.

I got Thai mild yellow curry chicken with potato and green pea. And it is delicious.