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Ethics and Legality: An Interesting Juxtposition

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Is it possible for communication to convey a message that is legal, but ethically wrong? Is it possible for a message to be ethical, but not legal? Explain your answers and provide examples.

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Ethics and Legality - An Interesting Juxtaposition

Consider first the ideas involved with the concept of ETHICS - having to do with appropriate or inappropriate conduct and behavior, how to determine a 'moral' course of action, a pathway to a 'moral' outcome, good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime. Ethics may be studied in abstract, applied in everyday life, or compared across societies or geographies.

Now consider the ideas involved with the concept of LEGALITY - a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior and mediate people's interests, usually backed by the threat of sanction.

A person may choose an ethical course of action/behavior even if the motivation for taking that particular course of action is not compelled by the letter of the law that person finds themselves subject to in that locality. A person may be witness to an accident on the road, and although not bound legally to stop and inquire of the persons involved in the accident if they require ...

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