Preface

Changes brought about by the global pandemic, COVID-19, resulted to the

formulation of the so-called New Normal set-up affecting the ways of proving education.
This module is primarily formulated to answer the call of this current set up as also
mandated by the basic and higher education. Thus, this will ensure continuity of the
teaching-learning process despite the physical constraints.
This module, titled, “ Go beyond your Virtue” is designed for the subject, “
Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics, a course that aims to provide knowledge that
leads to live in reality and the virtuous life.
Interactive activities are included in this module making the leaning on the
activities involved in Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics challenging and meaningful
for the senior students for journey as professional and educated individuals.
This module is structured into four components: Let’s Check What You Know,
Learning Essentials, Let’s Do This, and Assessing What you Learned. The first part,
Let’s Check What You Know, is the pretest given at the beginning of the unit to check
the leaners’ prior knowledge of the lesson covered. Learning Essentials presents the
lesson contents. Let’s Do This contains the activities to be performed by the learners
which applies the competencies specified by the learning outcomes. Assessing What
You Know include the mastery test given after each unit to assess the learners’ learnings
all throughout the lessons.
This module is composed of 4 units with 11 lessons in all.
Unit 1 is an introduction of philosophy and ethics, importance of ethics. This
includes the moral values and their position in society.
Unit 2 discuss the utilitarianism ethics and Deontological ethics for the
individual, consumer, employee who benefits ethics.
Unit 3 discuss ethics, the human rights and responsibilities and to identify good
from bad.
Unit 4 confers different philosophical arguments and views from philosophers
regarding the purpose of life towards virtuous living.

With this module, the authors hope that the learning of Philosophy and Ethics
will be meaningful and fun.
 Acknowledgment

The development of this module is made possible through the

initiative of Dr. Mary Jocelyn V. Battung, JHCSC President; Dr. Lina T.
Codilla, Vice-President for the Academic Affairs; and Ferlor Angel G.
Rodriguez, IMS Coordinator. They took the lead in conducting webinars
which greatly helped and guided us in crafting this work.
 Table of Contents

Preface i
Acknowledgment ii
ii
General Introduction i

Unit 1 General Ethics 1

Lesson 1 Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics

Lesson 2 Importance of Ethics

Unit 2 The Ethical Theories

Lesson 3 Utilitarian Ethics

Lesson 4 Deontological Ethics
Lesson 5 Virtue Ethics

Unit 3 Morality of Ethics

Lesson 6 Norms of Morality

Lesson 7 Human Acts and Acts of Man

Unit 4 Historical background of Ethics

Lesson 8 Confucius Philosophy of Life

Lesson 9 Greek Wisdom Ethics
Lesson 10 Aristotle Philosophy of Man
Lesson 11 Christian Moral Philosophy
 General Introduction

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

PHILOSOPHY- Greek term philo (friend or love) sophia (wisdom) Literally means “ love for
wisdom”
Phythagoras (c. 580-497 B.C.) - Greek thinker. He was coined the term philosophia

 is a human search for meaning

 It is man’s act of intellectual quest that transcends the limits of the positive sciences.
 goes beyond the boundaries of concrete knowledge
 Searching the truth

Montemayor (1993)
 as the sum and summit of human knowledge
 as the Scienta Scientiarum (Scince of Sciences) the compendium of all learning

Ancient classical thinkers considered the philosophy as:

 As the totality of human knowing, including the knowledge of the positive sciences.
 Specified to mean the branch of human study that specifically deals with the formal
reasons and formal principles of things knowable through the natural light of human
reason alone

Bauzon (1994)
 is the disciplined attempt to look for answers to man’s inquisitive mind that begins in
wonder and ends in awe.

Existentialist Thinker
 is a man who quests for meaning, asking a lot of questions about his existence, his
nature, origin and destiny.
 As being-with-others-in-the-world-in-time, how does he relate with others, the world and
God? What do the “others”, the world and God mean to him? Philosophy, then, is the
search for meaning.

WHAT IS LOGIC?
LOGIC- is a basic science in the field of Philosophy.

 An eye opener for the knowledge necessary in the study and understanding of higher
philosophical filed.
 Is the first subject offered and a prerequisite enrolled in philosophy degree course.
 Helps to develop and sharpen our natural gift of human reasoning.
NATURAL LOGIC IN MAN

 Man is rational , and the fact that he thinks and reasons out, does not guarantee that he is
already an accomplished logician.
What is rational? – Rational- having the ability to reasons out or understanding.
 It is not also a guarantee that upon finishing a course in Logic, one will be a perfect
thinker or will not fall into fallacies.
What is Fallacies? – a false or mistaken idea.
 Mind is mature enough to make rational decisions, people act with logical thinking
remains subject to error.

WHY STUDY LOGIC?

As we develop intellectually on the maturity, we are faced with the challenges of an

ever-changing world.
 First, logic is an intellectual/ mental exercise which individuals become capable of as
they reach a certain level of maturity.
 Second, to establish these relationships, men should have ample background on the kind
of language used to convey information so that information they Impart will be
understood.

LANGUAGE- both oral and written, should be able to express thoughts comprehensively
and correctly. Semantics and syntax should be carefully considered to ensure this end.

What is Ethics?

Ethics- derived from Greek word ethos –which means “characteristic way of acting”
Latin- mos-mores- tradition or custom
Tradition or Custom- a way of thinking, behaving, doing , practice that has been used by
the people in a particular group, family, society for a longtime.

Learning
Contents

1. Introductio
n to
Philosophy
and Ethics
2. Importance of Philosophy and Ethics

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit, you
should be able to demonstrate
understanding of philosophy and ethics,
and its importance; and would be able to
enumerate the scope of ethics and
explain the role of man in the moral
community.

Introduction
Studying the origins of
moral values and their position
in
society helps to understand the
lines that
distinguish reasonable
from unacceptable behaviors.
This unit is composed
of 8 lessons. You will consume
6 hours to complete all the
activities prepared for this unit.
Kindly start by answering the
“Let’s Check What You
Know” for you to review how
far your concepts on ethics is
before going through the first
lesson.
 Before going through the lessons under this unit, kindly perform the given test for
you to find out how far do you know the concepts of ethics; its importance, theories,
norms, determinants and the human acts and its modifiers.
True or False
Directions: Identify its statement as either true or false. Write True if the statement is true
and False if it is not. Kindly write your answers on the spaces provided.
1. Ethics is a normative science because it systematically 1. ________
standards or norms of human conduct.
2. The other term for ethics is moral philosophy. 2. ________
3. Man’s intellect enables him to search for the truth while
his will, for good. 3. ________
4. Intellect and will are correlative faculties that are
intrinsically endowed in man as the moral agent. 4. ________
5. A human act is an act done with freedom, this suggest that when
the agent performs an act with freedom, his
will is not affected or influenced by any constraint either
with himself or outside himself. 5. ________
6. A human act is an act done with knowledge, this suggest that the
agent has intellectual knowledge of the act and
that the he is blind to the end of such act. 6. ________
7. Elicited acts are those which begun in the will, performed by the will,
but are completed by the will through another
medium which is under the control of the will. 7. ________
8. Commanded acts are those which are started by the will, performed
by the will, and is completed by the will as
sole agent. 8. ________
9. Internal act refers to those that are affected by bodily
powers of man under the command of the will. 9. ________
10. Mixed acts refer to actions that include the use of bodily
and mental powers. 10. _______
 “The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our
inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can
give beauty and dignity to life.”
- Albert Einstein

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

recognize ethics as a philosophical science;
compare and contrast morality and ethics using a Venn diagram;
and
explain the scope of ethics in understanding the role of man as a
member of moral community.

What is Ethics?
Referring to its etymology, ethics is derived from the Greek word ethicos, or that
pertains to ethos, which means “custom” or “character”. From this, ethics is taken to
mean as a philosophical science that deals with morality of human conduct, (Babor,
2006).
Ethics as a philosophical science means, it is one of the disciplines in philosophy.
Generally, there are four divisions of philosophy, namely:
Descriptive or Speculative – is the discipline in philosophy which posits the
question: What is nature of reality?
Normative Philosophy – is the discipline in philosophy which posits the question:
What is good and what is bad? Or what is right action or wrong?
Practical Philosophy – is a discipline in philosophy which reflects upon truth in
relation to action.
Critical Philosophy – is the discipline in philosophy which posits the question:
What is truth?
 Since ethics systematically establishes standards or norms of human conduct, it is
therefore considered as a science (normative science). Thus, it qualifies human conduct
as to good or bad and right and wrong. Ethics also requires man to act properly as
human. In order for man to do this, ethics idealistically sets standards that requires man
to do what is good and what is right.
With this, we now say the “Ethics is a normative philosophical science that deals
with the goodness or badness, the rightness or the wrongness of human acts”.
What is the difference between Ethics and Morality?
Morality comes from the Latin word mos or moris, which means “custom”. As to
etymology, ethics and morality bears no difference. In this regard, ethics is also called
moral philosophy, the other term for ethics is moral philosophy.
However, there is a slight difference between the two. We knew that, ethics is a
moral philosophy. Thus, it provides principles on the morality of human act, it equips
man with theoretical knowledge of the morality of human acts or the concept of what is
right from wrong and good from bad. Since it is only theoretical, it does not guarantee
that man will be moral.
A person can be called a moral being if he/she actually does or perform the
theory. When a person performs the theory, he is actually doing ethics. This is the so-
called morality. Therefore, morality is the practice of ethics, then, should be properly
called as Applied Ethics.
Kindly watch the video for addition information on the difference of
morality and ethics by clicking the link; https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-epcc-
introethics-1/chapter/what-is-ethics/
Postulates of Ethics
Babor, (2006) postulates are proven facts that need to be presupposed. Some
examples of postulate are: the Theory of Relativity or the Theory of Gravitational Pull
and other established scientific theories. Ethics need not prove them; instead it takes
them as they are because they are already proven by other sciences. In moral philosophy,
there are three basic postulates, viz.:
a. The existence of God;
b. The existence of intellect and free will; and
c. The spirituality and the immortality of the soul.
The Scope of Ethics

1. Man and fellow man.

It deals with the “oughts” or “shoulds” of human existence in relation to others.
The questions like: “how should I treat other people? Is helping other people in need
something I ought to do? So it investigates how a person should live his life with others
because he does not live in absolute freedom. His desires and action, how he treats
himself and others is necessarily regulated by generally accepted principles of morality
that consider the welfare of others.

2. Man and his society.

Ethics is also a study of man, as a member of moral community. It investigates
how man should relate to his community and vice versa. It prescribes how man should
best contribute to the welfare of his community and how the community should best
foster his personal growth and improvement. “The question like: does my action benefit
the society in general? Is it right to prioritize the interest of society over the interest of
the individuals? Does society respect my rights and dignity?

3. Man and other Sentient Being.

Ethics also deals with the relationship between human beings and other sentient
creatures (lower forms of animals). The main concern here is about proper attitude
toward the sentient being that are capable of feeling the pain. How do we see this
sentient being around us? Do we see them as object or subject? Do we see them in their
instrumental value or intrinsic value? Is it ethical to use other sentient beings which are
also capable of experiencing pains, for the advancement of human knowledge?

4. Man and his natural environment.

It deals with how man treats his natural environment. It tries to
provide rational basis for environmental protection in view of the duty to respect the
right of the future members of the community. Is it ethical to sacrifice the environment
for the sake of progress and development? Basis for our respect to the environment is not
purely based on their instrumental value but their intrinsic values in which we respect the
environment because they have value in themselves despite of their use.

Source: http://dameanusabun.blogspot.com/2013/12/ethics-and-daily-life.html
Activity 1. Complete Me!
Directions: In a group of 4 members, kindly open the link given and collaborate in order
to complete the graphic organizer and do the narrative regarding it.
Kindly open this links, https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethics-philosophy
https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-
making/what-is-ethics/

A. What is ethics?

Ethics

B. Write your narrative here.

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Activity 2. Compare Me!
Directions: Using the Venn Diagram given below, kindly look for the
similarities and the differences of ethics and morality.

_________________________________________________
(Give your own Title)
Activity 3. Collage Making
Directions: In this activity, you need to work in pair. All you have to do is to create a
collage showing the role of man in the moral community based on the scope of ethics.
Just select only two (2) scopes of ethics to work on. Kindly do it in the space provided.

_____________________________________
(Title)