Ethics: The Shape of Our Shadows

Ethics lives in the spaces between us — where power, intent, and consequence quietly intersect. It is not a rulebook but a rhythm, shaped by the culture that gives it breath. What one society calls virtue, another might call error. In this sense, ethics is relational, never solitary; it exists only through encounter.

Were it a private affair, it would not move nations nor stir institutions. Ethics belongs to the realm of the between — to moments where responsibility and freedom meet.

Law speaks in certainties. Ethics murmurs in contexts. Law declares what is forbidden. Ethics asks what is fitting. It is the fluid zone where morality becomes practice and law begins to take form.

Consider the subtle power of roles. A company executive who courts a junior colleague is not judged for affection, but for the imbalance of power that frames it. Remove the costume — the title, the authority — and the moral field shifts. Ethics, then, is not about desire but about context, influence, and responsibility.

An intriguing question arises: why do some organisations impose a blanket prohibition on workplace relationships, even between equals? What ethical anxieties lie beneath such restrictions? Are they attempts to safeguard fairness, or do they reveal a deeper mistrust of human discretion? Ethics, at its core, is concerned with such tensions — the fragile balance between autonomy and protection.

There is no single, overarching field of ethics. It evolves through its expressions: professional, research, business, environmental. Each marks the moral horizon of its time. Ethics does not repeat itself; it advances with history.

Its nature defies precision. It belongs to the realm of ambiguity — the space of discernment rather than decree.

To live ethically is not to obey, but to attend. To sense the weight of one’s shadow. To move through the world with awareness of how presence alters the balance around it.