Ethics
What is Ethics? It deals with principles of ethical behavior in modern society of the level of the
person, society and interaction with the environment and other shared resources.
Morality pertains to the standard of right and wrong that an individual originally picks up from
the community.
Commonly people do not like rules for somehow it represents a kind of restriction, but in fact life
cannot be organized without rules. People always need rules and laws to be able to line and deal
together. Game without rules – messy, things maybe unfair. In life, everything must have
restrictions with rules or it becomes mess and unfair. Every one is free to do whatever they
want; most people will behave selfishly. Rules is to make people together and respect each
other.
Rules and its Purpose
It is a sort of guidelines putting in place in different countries and communities accepted by all. It
isa conduct of action. It helps toward one desired result. Ethics is concerned with other people
interests, society and God.
Rules are specific sets of norms of behavior, regulations and laws to regulate the life in the
community. The availability of rules is a crucial criterion allowing to call nowadays society
civilized and well developed.
Why do we have Rules?
It helps us in many aspects of life. Organizing the processes correctly. A well-developed system
of rules from home and ending with complicated issues as the functioning of a whole country.
Norms enable people to interact, to work together and contribute to the global or development.
Importance of Rules
It is important because they tend to protect the weaker class in the society as it maybe in
disadvantageous position if rules are broken. They provide a stable peace and development.
Rules in school and other institutions promote trust, fairness and discipline in a bid to establish
desirable relationship among students and people. No rules must be broken. If one violates the
rule, a corresponding punishment is imposed.
The subject: Ethics
1. Scientific of moral judgments.
2. Discipline with what is morally good and bad or right and wrong.
3. Applies system of moral values or principles
4. Fundamental issues of practical decisions
5. Word ethics derived from Greek ETHOS – customes, habit, character or disposition.
6. Good for individuals and society described as moral philosophy.
7. Ethics is particularly concerned with the moral character of human beings.
Branches of Ethics
Normative – good or bad actions.
Example: The Golden Rule – (1) Do unto others as would have them do unto you. (2)
Helping someone who is lost.
Descriptive Ethics – defines ethics as cultural or personal significances
** These two branches of Ethics society as Moral.
Why Study Ethics?
Nevertheless, serious student of Ethics find profitable and interesting. Ethics enable a
person understand better what his conscience is. Ethics can at least prefer consideration
from standpoints of self-realization, self-sacrifice.
Questions:
Activity 1: Why are Rules important to social being? What would happen if there are no rules in
our society?
Activity 2: Based of your experience. What rules do your find restricting? List down five (5)
rules that restrict you? Why?
Activity 3: What are the reasons why we should study Ethics?
The Moral Agent
Morality – standards of an individual or a group has about what is right and wrong or good or
bad.
This is not imposed from outside. It is our quality that force us to live in harmony
with the unconscious.
Morality is an informed public system applying to all rational person, governing
behavior that affects others and has the lessening of evil or harm as its goal. A
“moral” may refer to a particular principle.
Key Feature of Morality
People experience a sense of moral obligation and accountability – one cannot doubt
successfully a phenomenon of his own existence.
Richard Dawkins declares that there are “moral instruction on how we ought to
behave” (Dawkins, 2006)
Moral values and moral absolute exist. --It is hard to deny the objective reality of moral
values – actions like rape, torture and child abuse are not just socially unacceptable
behavior but are moral absolutes –
Moral Laws does exist. When we accept existence of goodness, we must affirm a law on
the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil.
Moral Law is known to human. Moral Law is called Law of Nature. Different
civilization in different ages only have “slightly different moralities and not radically or
quite different moralities”
Morality is objective. Morality is absolute -- there are a real right and real wrong that is
universally and immutably free, independent of whether anyone believes it or not.
Moral judgments must be supported by reasons. Moral judgement are different from
mere expressions ir personal preferences
Man as a Moral Agent
1. Capable of acting with reference to right or wrong.
2. Anybody who is responsible for behavior or decisions.
3. Who have choices and powers
4. Moral agent is intelligent
5. They can be held responsible for their decisions and behaviors.
6. They must have “self-consciousness, memory, moral principles, other values”
Aristotle and Moral Responsibility
He is the first one to discuss moral responsibility… “stating that it is sometimes
appropriate to respond to an agent with praise or blame on the basis of his or her actions and / or
dispositional traits of characters. According to him, “ a decision is a particular kind of desire
resulting from deliberation, one that expresses the agent’s conception of what is good.
Activity 1:
Moral law is also called the Law of Nature because early philosopher knows it by nature
early philosopher thought that generally speaking, everybody knows it by nature. In this case, do
human beings know that there is such moral law? Defend your answer.
Activity 2:
From Aristotle perspective, “ a decision is a particular kind of desire resulting from
deliberation, one that expresses the agents conception of what is good”. In this connection what
kind of moral agent does Aristotle want. Describe the agent.
Standards and Dilemmas
Differences between Moral and non-moral Standards
A moral standards refers to the norms which have about the types of actions which have about
the types of actions which we believe to be morally acceptable and morally unacceptable. Moral
standards deals with matters which can either seriously harm or seriously benefit human beings.
Validity of moral standards comes from the line of reasoning.
Some ethicists equate moral standards with moral values and principles
Some people are more emotionally reactive than others.
So important that the moral development of young people depends on the ethical
capacities of the adults who interact with them on a daily basis.
Non-moral standards
Refer to rules, some traditions and legal statutes (i.e. laws, and ordinances) are non-
principles.
Etiquettes – refers to the norms of right conduct in polite society or more generally, to any
special code of social behavior or courtesy. Rules of etiquette are prescriptions for socially
acceptable behavior or courtesy.
Statutes – are laws enacted by legislative bodies. It makes up a large part of the law and are
what many of us mean when we speak of “laws”.
On the other hand, the legality of an action does not guarantee that is morally
rright.
Somewhere between etiquette and law lie professional codes of ethics. These are
the rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of members of a given
profession (e.g. as a nurse graduate you should take the licensed as registered
Nurse)
How are Moral Standard Formed?
Moral Standards concern behavior which is very closely linked to human being.
Most, if not all, people have certain moral principles or a moral code that they explicitly
or implicitly accept.
These moral standards are influenced by a variety of factors such as the moral principles
we accept as part of our upbringing.
Characteristics of Moral Standards
1. Moral Standards involves serious wrongs or significant benefits moral standards deal
with matters which can seriously impact, that is, injure or benefit human beings.
2. Moral Standards ought to be prepared to other values. There is a general moral duty to
obey the law, but there may come a time when the injustice of an evil law is unbearable
and thus call for illegal but moral non-cooperation.
Moral Dilemmas – is a conflict in which you have to choose between two or more actions and
have moral reason for choosing each actions
A Moral dilemma is situation where:
1. You are presented with two or more actions, all of which you have the ability to perform.
2. Those are moral lessons for you to choose each of the actions.
Activity 1:
What are the differences between moral and non-moral standards? Cite examples by
writing it down on the space provided for in each column
