Well Tom B. , I think Michael Eldred is right, you should buy a Greek
dictionary (actually I have to use very often an English one!) and you
should read Aristotle' s Nichomachean Ethics, there you will find a very
famous explanation of the word "ethics": in Greek you have two kinds of "e"
a short one (that is called epsilon) and a long one that is called "etha".
Ethics is being written with the long one, and Aristotle explains that the
origin of the word "Eethos" (wich Etha) is from "ethos" (wich Epsilon) that
means Character, whereas "eethos" means the habits or (latin) "mores"
(German: Sitten). Since German Idealism there is the distinction between
"Moralitaet" (as individual morality) and Sittlichkeit (the Morality
belonging to a society). The discussion between Heidegger and Levinas refers
to the question whether (roughly speaking) the personal ethics (ethos with
epsilon) is founded on "eethos" (this is in some way Heideggers position) or
the other way around. I do not think it makes to much sense to think of
ethos as a static view and morality as temporal view (particularly not in Hs
terms). By the say, if you want to understand H. you will have to learn
Greek...
Cheers
Rafael
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