preethical

adjective

pre·eth·i·cal | \ˌprē-ˈe-thi-kəl

variants: or pre-ethical

Definition of preethical

: existing or occurring before personal or social ethics have been developed or considered The analytical history starts by attempting to understand relevant psychological capacities of the preethical ancestors …— Philip Kitcher More remote ancestors, human beings without full language perhaps, were pre-ethical.— Philip Kitcher … what ethicians might call the pre-ethical stages of human development …— Robert J. Starratt Laws are a pre-ethical stage. While they orient a person to virtue, acting because the law obliges one to act is not truly virtuous.— Raymond J. Devettere It sounds like a story from journalism's pre-ethical days …— Jack Shafer