ABSTRACT
Ethics as a genus has only very seldom been studied in a scientific way, whereas law is the object of study in jurisprudence, morals in moral philosophy, custom in ethnology. Generally the different types of ethical coordination are thought to be in opposition to each other: law versus morals, law versus custom, et cetera, and "ethics" is very often identified with "morals." The several branches of ethics appeared on the scene by means of differentiation. Ethical conflicts have an unfavorable influence upon social life and must therefore be avoided. This is a task for which law, especially "abstractly created" law, is better suited than the other ethical branches, for law is the most adaptable of them. Individual moral convictions, which may play a certain role in personal life, do not play an essential part in the determination of social life, because of their multiformity, their divergent tendencies.
