Lesson 1 Introduction to Ethics
Ethics (moral philosophy) - ethos Greek word means character,
customs, behaviors, or habit.
Moral - Latin word mores which also means custom,
habit.
Ethics is the study of the method and principles used to
distinguish good from bad, right from wrong actions.
It is the science of customs or habits in society.
Socratic Method - asking questions that is presumably know
about
Assumptions - are statements of fundamental beliefs that are
accepted to be true without proving or evidence.
Assumptions of Ethics
1. Human is a rational being - a man is rational that acts
accordingly. Can be able to think and reason out.
2. Human is a free being - free to act according to his will
if he is acting with accordance to his/her.
Objects of Ethics
Studies of human behavior and makes evaluative
assessment as moral or immoral.
Makes judgment upon human behavior base on the
standards and norms.
“The principal cause of action is attributed to the doer.”
The Physical Object of Ethics
Doer of an act (moral agent)
The Non-Physical Object of Ethics
The action done by the moral agent (doer of an act)
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2.) Non-consequentialist (Deontological) Ethics
The morality of an action depends on
its intrinsic nature, its motives, or its
accordance with so rules or
principles, not in its consequences.
3.) Authoritarian Ethics
morality appeals to authority and
force
in
determining
what
constitutes right from wrong.
4.) Theological Ethics
Will of God is what determines the
rightness and wrongness of an act.
5.) Legalism of Legalistic Morality
determines right from wrong based
on a body of clearly state and welldocumented body of laws.
6.) Ethical Egoism
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Two general forms of the act
1.
Acts of a Man
Involuntary Natural Acts
Includes intuitive or reflex acts exhibited by
man e.g. yawning, sneezing, coughing,
breathing,
Voluntary Acts
Performs as part of daily activities, socially
learned activities e.g., brushing teeth,
combing hair, taking a bath.
2.
Human Acts
Actions that are conscious, deliberate, intentional,
voluntary, and are within the preview of human value
judgment.
Either moral or immoral
Classification of Human Acts
1. Moral or Ethical Acts - human acts that
observe or conform to a standard or norm of
morality.
2. Immoral or Unethical Acts - human acts that
violate or deviate from a standard of morality.
Normative Ethics
- Beyond the norms/ standards
- question the good or bad of an action
Metaethics dig into the morality of ethical claims e.g., is it wrong
to kill?
Major Normative Ethics
1.) Consequentialist (Teleological) Ethics
Maintains that an action is right only
if it is in the interest of the agent of
the doer of the act. (it is only right if
the intention of the doer is pure)
7.) Situational Ethics
morality of an action depends on the
situation and not the application of
moral laws to the case.
Moral Agent: Responsible for the action
Action: Something that occurs because of the moral agent’s
decision making
Consequences: Result from the action
Recipient: Receives the consequences of the moral agent’s
action
Forms of Ethics
1. Practical Ethics
Primarily concerned with answering matterof-fact questions
Essentially normative that describes course
of action for moral issue where clear answers
are lacking.
2.
Theoretical Ethics
Primarily aims to study the meaning of
ethical concepts such as good, right, fairness,
etc.
Attempts to study of moral acts, inquiries
into what makes a right, and determines the
relation between facts and values.
3.
Personal and Social Ethics
Personal Ethics – how a person should act in relation
to himself (self-preservation)
Social Ethics – how a person should act in relation to
others.
Forms of Ethical Analysis
1. Descriptive Ethics
- aims to discover what moral beliefs are held by a given
society, social group, or organization.
- Norms and standards of society
2.
The morality of an actions if
determined by its consequences.
Utilitarianism – determines right
from wrong by focusing on
outcomes. Holds that the most
ethical choice is the one that
produces the greatest good for the
greatest number.
Different societies have different moral beliefs and that our
beliefs are deeply influence by our own culture.
Different cultures have different moral standards.
Moral Standards - force others to act accordingly (if actions
lead others to harm)
Are norms that individuals have about the kinds of
actions believed to be morally right or wrong, as well
as the values placed on what we believed to be morally
good or morally bad
Normally promote “the good” that is, the welfare and
well-being of humans as well as animals and the
environment
Enduring beliefs about what is good and desirable or not.
Norms + values = moral standard
(general rules about actions or behavior)
Characteristics of Moral standards:
1. Deal with matters we think can seriously injure or
benefit humans, animals, environment e.g., child
abuse, rape, murdered.
2. Not established or changed by the decisions of
authoritative individuals.
3. Overriding, that is, they take precedence over other
standards and considerations especially of selfinterest.
4. Based on impartial considerations - fair and just
5. Associated with special emotions and vocabulary.
Non-moral Standards - we have no right to impose on others.
any violations that do not impose serious harm/threat
to human well-being.
Standards by which we judge what is good or bad and
right or wrong in a nonmoral way e.g., standards of
etiquette, the law
Matters of taste or preference
-
Rules that majority considered as right.
May differ from society to society and culture to
culture.
Dictated by the society, culture, or religion.
Expressed in the form of general rules and statements
(e.g., you shall not kill)
Framed and design by the group of people.
Need to follow since it is mandated by the society,
culture, religion.
Are morals applicable in business? NO
Freedom to think and choose? NO
Ethics - response to a specific situation
Moral values in action
Right and wrong conduct
Decision based - personal choice.
Subjective - understanding of right and wrong.
Generally uniform
abstract
Are ethics applicable in business? YES
Freedom to think and choose? YES
Morals was governed by religious, social, and cultural norms.
Ethics was governed by individual, legal, or professional norms.
Lesson 4
Lesson 2
Philosophy
Ethics - Study of action, what should I do?
Aesthetics - Study of art, what is beauty?
Logic - Study of reason, how do we reason?
Political Philosophy - study of force, how should societies be
governed?
Epistemology - study of knowledge, how do we know?
Metaphysics - study of existence, what is real?
Man based on:
Science - distinguished by a more highly developed brain and a
resultant capacity for articulate speech and abstract reasoning
Anthropology - lives in society, characterized by his rationality.
Religion - created in the image and likeness of God, has
capacity to think and love.
Philosophy as an activity
Human being has a unique facility to reason, it esteems
from our conscious ability to know that we “exist.”
involves thinking abstract ideas.
helps us to ask question that concern our existence in
relation to the world and others.
Based on science, anthropology, and religion a man is rational
and thus has a capacity to think and reason out.
Philosophy as a way of life
Derivation of the word states that philosophy means
love of wisdom.
Wisdom is regarded as knowledge for the conduct of
life and philosophy is valued as a way of life.
Aldous Huxley rightly says, “Man lives in accordance
with their philosophies of life, their conception of the
world. This is true even of the thoughtless.”
Dilemma - no best choice available
Moral Dilemma - exist when available choices and obligations
do not allow for moral outcome.
In each complex case, the moral agent regards himself
as having moral reasons to do each of two actions, but
doing both is impossible.
Moral vs. Ethics
Morals - beliefs of individual or group as to what is right or
wrong.
Morals are the social, cultural, religious or values
beliefs of an individual which tell us what is right from
wrong.
Rules and standards made by the society, culture,
religion which is to be followed by us while deciding
what is right from wrong.
Moral refers to the beliefs that is objectively right.
Moral principles - we are encouraging not to cheat, to be loyal,
be generous to those who are in needs.
Ethics - guiding principles which help the individual to
decide/identify what is good or bad.
Branch of philosophy that deals which principle of
conduct of an individual that.
Moral - general principles set by group.
Principles of right and wrong
Characteristics of Philosophy
In search of truth and reality.
Universal, although its methods and questions remain
the same, interpretations and applications will differ
from place to place.
Based on inquiry about life and existence
A way of life
An attempt to answer the ultimate question of life.
Search for knowledge and wisdom
1. Conceptual rather than a practical activity
2. Explanation of the puzzling features of things
3. Digging beyond the obvious
4. Search for principles which underlie
phenomena.
5. Theory building from these principles.
6. A living force
3 Functions of Philosophy
1. Normative - refers to the “norms” or “standards.”
Means setting of norms, goals, principles,
standards, etc.
2. Speculative - strikes a synthesis within the array of facts
and bits of knowledge gathered from various sources.
-
3.
Leads the man from common sense approach
to rational and perspective approach.
Critical - it classifies concepts, test hypothesis,
establishes consistency, presents unity of outlook, and
inspires logical reasoning.
Moral Standards: These are concern behaviors that is of
serious results/output to human welfare, it can either seriously
injure or benefit people like
Stealing
Lying
Murdering
Helping an injured person
Helping needy person
Origin of Moral Standards
During childhood moral standards are absorbed from family,
friends, and various societal institutions.
Later in life experiences, learning and intellectual development
help a person in forming these standards.
Non-moral standards - are what falls outside the sphere of
moral standards.
Conducts or actions that is not of that much serious
results/outputs.
Example: (1) "When in Rome, do as the Romans do. (2)
Abortion is condemned as immoral in Ph but practiced as
morally neutral form of controlling population in Japan.
Relativist like Albert Carr believe that Business has its own
norms and rules that are different from society.
“What is right in business may be considered wrong in society.”
E.g., Marketing strategy in business is permissible which is used
for deceiving customers but deceiving someone is not
permissible in society.
Conscience is a little voice inside of us that guides us in our
actions.
o
Informed by divinely revealed moral truths or by the
principles of right and wrong, which are perceptible to
the human mind from the natural law, conscience
renders a judgment about the goodness or evil of a
particular act or choice in the specific circumstances of
the moment.
E.g. When you were child, you were told to speak truth and if
you were caught lying, then was probably punished
sometimes.
Code of Ethics - set of rules about good and bad behavior.
Set of rules used by companies, professional orgs to
govern their decision making in choosing between
right and wrong.
Basic Terminologies used in ethics.
Etiquette - socially acceptable code of behavior & it comes
under the context of non-moral standards (do not cause harm).
It concerned manners.
E.g., Pushing your chair back into place upon leaving a dinner
table is good etiquette.
Law - rules and guidelines approved by a state for the public.
Legal acts: in accordance with the law
Illegal acts: violating the law.
A: An action can be illegal but ethically right.
Helping Jewish families to hide from the “Nazis” was against
German law in 1939. but it would have been ethically right.
B: An action that is legal can be ethically wrong.
It may be perfectly legal act for the chairman of a company to
lay off employees, but ethically it is not permissible.
Religion
Involves moral instructions, guidelines, values.
Loving God above all and neighbor as yourself
(Christianity)
No one of you is a believer until he loves for his
brother, what he loves for himself (Islam)
Good people are those people that consider what is
best for others is best for them (Hinduism)
Hurt not others with that which pains yourself
(Buddhism)
A: Some philosophers think that ethics is based on religion which
means that it is the religion that provides ethical guidelines.
B: Some are of the opinion that ethics is not dependent on
religion like materialists they don’t believe in any religion then
on what basis (personal standards) they say, “this is right and
wrong” Outcome…Religion is a source of morality, but morality
is not completely based on religion.
Ethical Relativism (Theory)
Relativists are of the opinion that ethics is just what a
particular society happens to believe what is “right and
wrong”?
Morality is something that is related to society, what is right in
one society may be wrong in another.
Professional Codes:
Somewhere between etiquette and law
Rules that govern the conduct of members of a given
profession
Lesson 5
By Martin Luther King
Religion
Interprets
Gives man wisdom which is control.
Deals with values
Science
Investigates
Gives man a knowledge which is power.
Deals with facts
Religion - Latin word “religare” “to bind fast” (see rely) “Bond
between humans and gods.”
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Belief in something
That belief is not necessarily substantiated by physical
or material evidence.
Religious knowledge obtained through holy writings,
authority, revelations and religious experiences.
Qualitative
Not gotten through experiment
Either true or false
Neither progressive nor tentative
Science - latin word “Scientia” which meant knowledge, a
knowing, expertness, or experience for knowledge.
Scientific knowledge is a relationship between
observations.
Observations are subject to refinement.
It is progressive and tentative.
Neither true nor false, but rather consistent with the
observations and consistent with prior knowledge.
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Formulates quantifiable questions.
Uses units, numbers, etc. to express knowledge.
Numbers are quantitative.
Units are not a quality.
Units are dimension.
Dimensions are independent variable.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is
blind. - Albert Einstein
Science
-
Religion
Natural
Testable claims
and hypotheses
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Supernatural
Individual beliefs
Assumptions of Science
-
The world is real.
Real world is knowable and comprehensible.
There are laws that govern the real world.
Those laws are knowable and comprehensible.
Those laws don’t change according to place or time,
since the early stages of the big bang
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Nature is understandable.
Rules of logic are valid.
Language is adequate to describe the natural realm.
Human senses are reliable.
Mathematical rules are descriptive for the physical
world.
Basic Assumptions of Science - accepted on faith.
Assumptions are accepted without proof.
Form the basis of all scientific thinking.
Limitations of Science
Science can’t answer questions about value, morality,
supernatural.
Religion and Science appear as if they were two
incommensurate paradigms addressing the identical
information arena.
Scientism is the acceptance of scientific theory and scientific
methods as applicable in all fields of inquiry about the world,
including morality, ethics, art, and religion.
Materialism
“We exist as material beings in a material world, all of
whose phenomena are the consequences of material relations
among material entities." In a word, the public needs to accept
materialism, which means that they must put God in the trash
can of history where such myths belong.” Richard Lewontin
Scientific Materialism
 accepts only one reality: the physical universe,
composed as it is of matter and energy.
 Everything that is not physical, measurable, or
deducible from scientific observations, is considered
unreal.
 Life is explained in purely mechanical terms, and
phenomena such as Mind and Consciousness are
considered nothing but epiphenomena - curious
byproducts, of certain complex physical processes
(such as brain metabolism)
 Only that which can be observed and through the
technique of Scientific Method is real, and everything
else is unreal.
Chaos vs Cosmos
God vs. Gods