Ethics and Principles

Ethics started as the logical means to a good life. Treating people in a fair and honest way was the best way to gain true happiness, back in the days of Socrates. Though there are many people who make it through the filter, clawing and biting the whole way, the "American Dream" ideals like to award the honest hard working person over those who use un-ethical means to reach their goals. The ethical scale is one of the most important tools a Public Relations representative will ever use. It would be unethical to convince people, using your promotional training, to invest in a company that you know to be failing, or know to be dishonest would always be completely un ethical.
The principles we personally place forth are how we rank our Ethics scale. We organize principles, and it is by these principles, we dictate every move we make from that point forward. Therefore to understand ethics you must understand principles, but they are not one and the same entity.