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Lecture Notes GEC 7

The document summarizes lecture notes on ethics from two parts. Part I discusses moral standards, dilemmas, and acts. It defines ethics and morality, examines characteristics of moral standards and types of moral dilemmas. It also explores the role of freedom, reason, and impartiality in moral acts. Part II discusses the relationship between ethics and culture. It defines culture and examines how moral standards can be influenced by social conventions and conditioning. It also explores cultural relativism, differences in cultural beliefs, universal values, and the six basic Filipino values.

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2K views

Lecture Notes GEC 7

The document summarizes lecture notes on ethics from two parts. Part I discusses moral standards, dilemmas, and acts. It defines ethics and morality, examines characteristics of moral standards and types of moral dilemmas. It also explores the role of freedom, reason, and impartiality in moral acts. Part II discusses the relationship between ethics and culture. It defines culture and examines how moral standards can be influenced by social conventions and conditioning. It also explores cultural relativism, differences in cultural beliefs, universal values, and the six basic Filipino values.

Uploaded by

Fire Heart
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LECTURE NOTES

GEC 7 │ Ethics Part 1 and 2

Part I. Moral Standards, Dilemmas and Acts


1. Moral and Non-Moral Standards
 Ethics - studies morality or the rightness or wrongness of human conduct.
o It is derived from the Greek ethos, which means “character” or in plural, “manners”.
o Also called “moral philosophy”, which evaluates moral concepts, values, principles and
standards.
o Normative study of human actions.
 Morality – speaks a code or system of behavior in regards to standards of right or wrong
behavior.
 Importance of Rules to Social Beings
 Rules – explicit/ understood regulations or principles governing conduct within a specific
activity/sphere. It is the foundation.
 It tells us what is not allowed in a particular context or situation.
o Rules protect social beings by regulating behavior
o Rules help to guarantee each person certain rights and freedom
o Rules produce a sense of justice among social beings
o Rules are essential for a healthy economic system
 Moral standards – kinds of actions they believe are morally right and wrong.
 Equated with moral values / moral principles
 Non-moral standards – unrelated to moral or ethical considerations.
 Etiquette, fashion standards, rules in games, house rules, religious rules, traditions, legal
statuses
 Characteristics of Moral Standards
o Moral standards involve serious wrongs or significant benefits
o Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values
o Moral standards are not established by authority figures
o Moral standards have the trait of universability
o Moral standards are based on impartial considerations
o Moral standards are associated with special emotions and vocabulary
2. Moral Dilemmas
 Dilemma – refers to a situation in which a tough choice has to be made
 Moral Dilemma – are situations in which a difficult choice has to be made between two
courses of action, either of which entails transgressing a moral principle.
 Three levels of Moral Dilemma
o Personal Dilemma – are those experienced and resolved on a personal level
o Organizational Dilemma – ethical cases encountered and resolved by social
organizations. This category includes moral dilemmas in business, medical field and
public sector.
o Structural Dilemma –n refer to cases involving network of institutions. They usually
encompass multi-sectoral institutions and organizations
 “Only human being can be ethical”

Part I. Moral Standards, Dilemmas and Acts, Part II. Ethics and Culture
LECTURE NOTES
GEC 7 │ Ethics Part 1 and 2
o Only human beings are rational, autonomous and self-conscious
o Only human beings can act morally and immorally
o Only human beings are part of the moral community
3. Freedom as foundation for moral acts
 Morality is a question of choice. Humans act on/through their free will while animals act due
to their instinct.
 Reason – a requirement for morality entails that human feelings may be important in ethical
decisions, but they ought to be guided by reason.
 Impartiality – each individual’s interest and point of view are equally important.
 Also called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness, impartiality is a principle of justice.

Part II. Ethics and Culture


4. Culture
 Refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, belief, values attitudes,
meanings, hierarchies, region, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the
universe and material objects and possessions acquires by a group of people in the course of
generations through individual and group striding.
 Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and by
transmitted symbols.
 Culture is the sum total of the learned behavior of a group of people.
 Culture is cultivated behavior
 Culture is symbolic communication
 Culture’s role in moral behavior: Nature vs. Nurture
 Moral standards as Social Convention and the Social Conditioning Theory
 Social convention – existence of moral rules, sense of moral obligation, moral accountability
5. Cultural Relativism
 Moral Relativism - one act is good or bad objectively and there is no single objective universal
standard.
 Cultural Relativism – society in the perspective of the relativist ideology
o It is the most dominant form of moral relativism, it defines “moral” as what is “socially
approved”
o We cannot resolve ethical differences among cultures using some independent
standard of evaluation
o It encourages tolerance
 Cultural Differences Argument – occurs when cultural beliefs overlap
6. The Filipino Way
 Six Basic Filipino Values
o Pakikisama – is having and maintaining good public relations
o Hiya – feeling of lowliness, shame or embarrassment an inhibition or shyness, fear of
losing face
o Amor Propio – self-respect or self-esteem, characterized as the high degree of
sensitivity that makes a person intolerant to criticism and causes him to have a
wounded pride

Part I. Moral Standards, Dilemmas and Acts, Part II. Ethics and Culture
LECTURE NOTES
GEC 7 │ Ethics Part 1 and 2
o Utang na loob- a fundamental aspect of upholding group harmony and relationships
that demand the balancing of obligation and debts (Reciprocity)
o Filipino hospitality – innate ability and trait of Filipinos to be courteous and
entertaining to guests
o Respect of elders – expresses respect in unique ways such as “pagmamano” or the
use of “po” and “opo”
7. Universal Values
 These refer to as shared culture.
 It is the strong proof that cultural relativism is wrong

Part I. Moral Standards, Dilemmas and Acts, Part II. Ethics and Culture

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