I'd be honestly interested to know why you believe they are considered the same in the field of ethical philosophy. Throughout my education toward a degree in philosophy I was consistently taught they were very different. One cannot confuse the terms in the study therein because of cause and effect: ethics is the cause that leads to morals.
That's funny. I'm currently pursuing a degree in philosophy, and I was consistently taught that they were the same. Most of my professors used them interchangeably, with a slight preference for "ethics" when discussing theory.
I realize that my previous comment made it sound like I'm an authority on the subject (I'm most definitely not), so please forgive me for being so brusque in dismissing an alternative definition.
