[jleyank]

This gets into old, old discussions we had at school in the 70's. There are ethics, which are fundamental properties of humans, and morals, which are constructs built on top of ethics. Ethics are shared amongst humans - don't kill, try to help, raise the next generation, preserve the last generation. These are the default conditions picked by the evolutionary pressure that got us here.

Morals, on the other hand, are constructs. Given by $GOD, constructed to understand why ethics exist, why there are certain trends that are shared - these were cited forming govts, etc.

Not saying these are grounded in the definitions of language or sociology, merely that these kinds of discussions were everpresent when people get together with time to think. In this case, it was uni. In Ancient Greece, it was the marketplace. To try again, consider ethics things which are done and morality is an attempt to explain WHY they are done. Fear of consequence, desire to gain, justification, ...