Ethics can be defined as

A) laws and regulations governing business practices.
B) religious principles adopted by a society.
C) the moral standards expected by a society.
D) social ideologies universal to all societies.
E) cultural folkways present in all societies.

Ethics refers to the moral principles or values that govern the conduct of an individual or a group, especially regarding what is right and wrong. While laws and regulations (A) may reflect ethical standards, they are not synonymous with ethics. Religious principles (B) can influence ethics but do not define them universally. Social ideologies (D) and cultural folkways (E) can impact ethical views but are not equivalent to the moral standards expected by society, which is what ethics fundamentally represent.