GE8 – ETHICS (2BSA2)
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Prelims
PHILOSOPHY
 Ethos: Greek “philo” means love; “sophia”
means wisdom.
 Is the study of all things naturally knowable to
man’s unaided power insofar that is known and
studied in their ultimate causes and reason.
 It answers the question “Why”
 formulated during ancient times.
In studying philosophy we need to:
L – Listen
O – Open your hearts and minds
V – Venture
E – Execute
Two things that distinct human to others:
1. Intellect – capacity to know
 Morals, moral principles,
2. Will – capacity to decide.
What are the reason/s for ethical/ moral
behavior?
- It can be judgment, emotions, conscience,
social norms, moral principles, moral
virtues, love.
Ethics
Biological
such as
mannerism/s.
Psychological
(mental
capacity)
sinampal/binuggo
ka the reason is the
person has ADHD.
Sociocultural
these are
influences
Influences such as: religion, multicultural,
socioeconomic, political, ethical, and
media.
ETHICS
 From the Greek word “ethikos” means
character.
 It is a branch of philosophy that deals with
principles of conduct of an individual or group.
 It works as a guiding principle as to decide
what is good or bad. They are the standards
which govern the life of a person.
 It defines the character of an individual.
 It is related to right and wrong conduct of an
individual in particular situation.
Some Ethical principles are:
Truthfulness, honesty, loyalty, respect,
fairness, and integrity.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF ETHICS
1. Moral
 It is from a Greek word “mos” which means
custom.
 Morals are the social, cultural and religious
beliefs or values of an individual or group
which tells us what is right or wrong.
 It is not fixed because is not fixed because
it describes the particular values of a
specific group at a specific point in time.
o Our intellect is not perfect, whereas,
what is right today, might be wrong
tomorrow.
Some moral principles:
- Do not cheat.
- Be loyal.
- Be patient.
- Always tell the truth.
- Be generous.
2. Non-moral
 refer to standards by which we judge what
is good or bad and right or wrong in a nonmoral way.
 Rules are unrelated to moral or ethical
consideration. Either these standards are
not necessarily linked to morality or by
nature lack ethical sense
 There is no connection in morality.
Example:
(1) standards of etiquette, by which we
judge
manners as good or bad,
(2) standard that we call the law, by
which we judge something as legal or
illegal.
o J-walking, standard of aesthetic.
(3) standards of aesthetics by which we
judge art as good or rubbish
3. Amoral
 Amoral or “without morals” is defined as
"having or demonstrating no care about
whether an action is morally right or wrong
 It is being neither moral or immoral in
concept.
 A morally indifferent person doesn’t have a
conscience to act against it.
 It has connection with morality
o
Example: abortion – moral/immoral in
context.
o
Examples:
(1) Infants could be said to be amoral since
they have not yet developed the brain
capacity to understand right and wrong.
(2) Some extreme sociopaths are also
amoral, since they lack a conscience as
a result of a cognitive disorder.
4. Immoral
 Legally evil or wrong. It means failing to
adhere to moral standards.
 Immoral describes a person or behavior
that conscientiously goes against accepted
morals that is, the proper ideas and beliefs
about how to behave in a way that is
considered right and good by the majority
of people.
 A person who does an immoral acts has
acted against his/her conscience/moral
code.
 Example: Stealing someone’s car, cheating
on one’s spouse, Killing a person (murder)
5. Unmoral
 It refers to those having no moral
perception.
 It refers to something to which right and
wrong are not applicable, such as animals,
forces of nature, and machines.
 Example: typhoons, animals, climate
change.
Example:
Typhoons/tropical storms are unmoral,
since they are formed by unconscious
natural processes that exist outside the
bounds of morality.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS
1. Moral standards involve serious wrongs or
significant benefits.
 It means moral standards deal with matters
which can seriously impact, that is, injure or
benefit human beings.
2. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other
values.
 It means moral standards have overriding
character or hegemonic authority.
 If a moral standard states that a person has
the moral obligation to do something, then
he/she is supposed to do that even if it
o
conflicts with other non-moral standards,
and even with self-interest.
moral standards contradicts non-moral
standards; moral standards shall prevail.
Example: RH law – promoting the use of
contraceptives.
3. Moral standards are not established by
authority figures
 Moral standards are not invented, formed,
or generated by authoritative bodies or
persons such as nations’ legislative bodies.
 In principle therefore, moral standards
cannot be changed nor nullified by the
decisions of particular authoritative body.
 One thing about these standards,
nonetheless, is that its validity lies on the
soundness or adequacy of the reasons that
are considered to support and justify them.
 Ideally instead, these values ought to be
considered in the process of making laws.\
 Why moral standard are universally
followed?
- because it is universally accepted and
everyone can benefit from it.
4. Moral standards have the trait of universality
 it means that everyone should live up to
moral standards.
 To be more precise, however, it requires
that moral principles be applicable to
everyone who is in a circumstance that is
relevantly comparable.
 This characteristic is exemplified in the
Golden Rule, “Do unto others what you
would them do unto you (if you were in their
shoes)” and in the formal Principle of
Justice, “It cannot be right for A to treat B
in a manner in which it would be wrong for
B to treat A, merely on the ground that they
are two different individuals, and without
there being any difference between the
natures or circumstances of the two which
can be stated as a reasonable ground for
difference of treatment.”
 It is an extension of the Principle of
Consistency, that is, one ought to be
consistent about one’s value judgments.
5. Moral standards are based on impartial
considerations.
 It means, moral standard does not evaluate
standards on the basis of the interests of a
certain person or group, but one that goes


beyond personal interests to a universal
standpoint in which each person’s interests
are impartially counted as equal.
Impartiality is usually depicted as being
free of bias or prejudice.
Impartiality in morality requires that we give
equal and/or adequate consideration to the
interests of all concerned parties.
6. Moral standards are associated with special
emotions and vocabulary.
 Prescriptivity
 indicates the practical or action guiding
nature of moral standards.
o These moral standards
are
generally put forth as injunction or
imperatives (such as, ‘Do not kill,’
‘Do no unnecessary harm,’ and
‘Love your neighbor’).
o These principles are proposed for
use, to advise, and to influence to
action.
 Retroactively
 this feature is used to evaluate
behavior, to assign praise and blame,
and to produce feelings of satisfaction
or of guilt.