WHAT IS ETHICS? Ethikos- “Relating to one’s another” Ethikos - “Character, Disposition” How we ought to live? × Not necessarily to commit the memory nor necessarily to provide cognitive substance idea. × A practical concept entails that it is a lived experience. ETHICS Happiness Right Values Good Bad/Evil Morals THE STUDY OF MORALITY AND THE MORAL STANDARDS DO YOU EVER WONDER WHY THERE ARE RULES? Rules are laid down to restrict our actions They are instituted, used and followed to allow only actions that are within the acceptable terms or conditions We are governed by different rules that enable our idea of rightness and wrongness to be consistent But not all rules that we follow are ethical. Usual rules in our lives: 1. Etiquette 2. Athletic 3. Legal 4. Language 5. Aesthetic HOW DO THE RULES DIFFER FROM MORAL STANDARD? Moral Standard o Deal with the matters that can seriously Injury or benefits human beings. o Goes beyond our physical aspects o Concerned with the character of man that impinges our dignity. o For instance, if the rules of grammar are violated, this would not hurt anyone, who hears the language. o The rules on athletics, on the other hand, may physically injure the other but not in moral sense. o Someone who could not appreciate a good art is not necessarily a bad person. o Moral standard is not to be commanded or dictated by anyone. Moral standard is based on impartial considerations. o Moral standard is associated with special emotions such as “guilt”, “Shame”, “remorse”, “Phrase”, “Pity”. These special emotions converge with the human side of man, making ethics not only in the realm of reason but also a “Feelable” phenomenon. Ethics and Moral HOW DO ETHICS AND MORAL DIFFER? ETHICS: o Refer to the rules of conduct often formulated to regulate human actions in a particular group or society. o It has external sources, particularly the social units (Family, community, school, company, church, or nation). o Example. Lawyers follows an ethical code of conduct in relation to his profession. Same for doctors and other medical practitioners who are governed by the ethical rules specifically formulated to regulate their actions and decisions based on their respective professions. ETHICS is accepted by individuals of a community regardless of their feelings and preferences. MORALS: o It has internal sources (From individual themselves). o They are established by habits and adherence to principles which emphasize preference on personal sets of beliefs about what is right and wrong conduct. o Just like we do a certain thing not because there are rules that they say are right actions, but simply because we believe it is the right thing to do. o Example: A judge is supposed to impose to death penalty on the accused because penalty is what the law prescribed for the crime committed. However, his morals dictate that life is sacred and only God could take it away. Ethics is also the study of the moral decisions process. It examines how we arrive at the moral decisions and what are we supposed to consider in the finality of such moral decisions. MORAL DILEMMAS AND THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENT OF MORALITY. A dilemma is a problem about choices. When our problem related plainly to choices, then our dilemma is not moral one. Example: “What do you want to buy, a pair of brand-new shoes or a new chic Shirt” Most dilemmas are inherently about “Sacrifices” because in every option, there is a value. As our options increase, the difficulty of choosing something what we value most also increase. So, how do we qualify the problem of choices to a moral dilemma? What kind of values are at stake in a moral dilemma? A CHOICE BETWEEN TWO EQUALLY GOOD OR TWO EQUALLY BAD. When our choice-problem relates between “two Equally good or Two equally Bad” such problem on choices is an example of a moral dilemma. LEVEL OF MORAL DILEMMAS 1. THE INDIVIDUAL LEVEL OF MORAL DILEMMAS a. This level of dilemma exists within the person only. There are facts or certain truths that are not revealed to organizations or peers but remained hidden the personal level b. Examples: i. Cheat or not, to lie or not, to steal or not 2. ORGANIZATIONAL DILEMMAS a. Basically, ethical cases encountered and resolved by social organizations are organizational moral dilemmas. This category includes moral dilemmas in business, medical field, and public sector. b. Examples: i. resigning from organizations in which membership may give rise to future conflicts; ii. favoring the agenda of one’s political party over a policy one believes to be good for the community; 3. SYSTEMATIC DILEMMAS a. Known as Systematic or Structural dilemma. This dilemma continuously seeks for a system that is satisfactory and acceptable to all concerns. This is because people rarely see problems with clear cut solutions, so they confront enduring dilemmas like tradeoffs and bargaining without exact solutions to offer. b. Examples: i. An example is the prices of medicine in the Philippines which are higher compared to other countries in Asia and in countries of similar economic status. Factors affecting medicine prices include the cost of research, presence of competition in the market, government regulations, and patent protection. ii. The institutions concerned may want to lower the costs of medicine, thereby benefiting the Filipino public, but such a move may ruin the interests or legal rights of the involved researchers, inventors or discoverers, and pharmaceutical companies which own the patent of the medicines or healthcare technologies.
