 PRELIMINARIES TO ETHICS

 March 9, 2021
 Preliminaries
 Ethics may be described as a critical reflection on various life situations. It is
an inquiry into some standard to guide one’s action, or as a tool to
understand a given condition. A person who asks himself or herself what to
do next after losing a job or someone who struggles while working abroad,
far away from loved ones is an individual for whom ethics is most real.

 ethics suggests that besides action, one needs something that can make his
or her engagement with life more meaningful and understandable. This
other component is called theory.
 Relationship as the Foundation
 Morality is not a series of commands and prohibitions coming from the
heavens. Morality arises from the human community’s awareness of the
claims and demands of interrelatedness.
 morality is all about human co-existence. It is the search for the acts,
attitudes, dispositions––and more fundamentally perhaps the virtues and
institutions––that make for successful being with others
 Etymological Meaning of Ethics
 Etymologically, the word "ethics" is derived from the Greek word "ethos"
which can be roughly translated in English as custom or a particular way and
manner of acting and behaving. Thus, custom would also mean here as a
form of behavior or character. The Latin equivalent for custom is "mos" or
"mores". It is from this root word that the term moral" or "morality" is
derived (Agapay 2008:1).

 The two terms, ethics and morality, in this sense, therefore, have literally
the same meaning. That is why ethics is usually taken as synonymous with
morality. Also because of this. ethics is also called morality, or more
precisely, the other name of ethics is morality.
 Instances from Daily Conversations
 : “What he or she did is moral or ethical; His or her conduct shows a lack of
ethics/morals;
 "The problem of that person is that he or she doesn't have a sense of
morality and ethics;
 "Our primary concern as a people should be how to become moral or
ethical in our behavior."
 Ethics and Morality Distinguished
 Generally, both ethics and morality deal with the goodness or badness,
rightness or wrongness of the human act or human conduct. But in ethics,
we specifically study morality. Morality gives ethics a particular perspective
of what to study about-that is the rectitude of whether an act is good or
bad, right or wrong. Morality provides with a quality that determines and
distinguishes right conduct from wrong conduct" (Sambajon 2007:7).
 Ethics: A Philosophy of Action
 While Ethics arms the person with a theoretical knowledge of the morality
of human acts, so he/she may know what to do as well as how to do it,
there 1s a whole world of difference between knowing and doing,
knowledge and action.
 While ethics (the theory) provides certain principles and guidelines as to
what is good and bad, right and wrong in human conduct, it is morality
which actualizes the theory. Ethics, as one particular author beautifully puts
it, is the 'word', while morality is the 'flesh. Morality, therefore, is here aptly
understood as the application (praxis) of ethics (theory) (Babor 1999:8).
 Hence, we can say that both of them-ethics and morality truly need and
complement each other. outlines theories of right and wrong and good or
bad actions, morality translates these theories into real actions. Thus,
morality is nothing else but a doing or the practice of ethics" (Babor 1999;
9).
 Ethics: A Practical Discipline
 Ethics, is fundamentally, a "way of life." Ethics should be shown as a
discipline which has an intimate connection with the daily lives of man....To
be vital, the teaching must be something more than the presentation of
exacting moral theories....there [should be] a proper interaction between
knowledge and practice. Knowledge serves practice, for each new truth
learned is a new reason for a better life" (Baldemeca et al. 1984: 85
 Ethics is knowledge transformed into action.
 It is the bridge between theory and doing since it gives meaning to what
one actually does.
 . Ethics is an area of knowledge which is indispensable in the living of life
which is "truly human." It can be said that without moral perception, man
 Without morality, man as a rational [and free] being is a failure (Agapay
1991:3).
 The living of the "good life has always been one of time mankind's most
noble and enduring pursuits Since time since pursuits immemorial. This is
evident in the various works of Literature, Arts, in the Humanities in
general, most notably in Philosophy, and in Theology or Religious Studies.
The question of what kind of life a person ought to live as a free and
rational being, has preoccupied some of the greatest minds in history.
 the idea of right and wrong, good and evil, though viewed and applied
differently at different times by different groups of people all throughout
the ages, has been a major and dominant theme of the various religions,
cultures, and societies in the entire history of human civilization. Every era,
regardless whether it is aware of it or not, has its own ethos" that defines
its character and soul. For ethics and morality served as the very foundation
of every human society.
 without ethics or at least a sense of morality, of what's right and wrong,
good and bad in relation to their conduct and behavior, people and society
in general would naturally and expectedly deteriorate. When the moral
foundation of a nation is shaken, and at the brink of collapse, society itself,
as its very core, is also threatened as to its very existence.
 Since Ethics, as a practical science, is the study of the choices people make
regarding right and wrong, good and bad, and since many of us face several
ethical choices in the course of our lives, it is a given why studying Ethics is
of prime importance. Big and small, the choices and decisions that we make
in our individual and collective lives affect also the kind of life we live to a
considerable extent. Hence, we become good and bad persons through the
choices we make.
 Another important reason why there is a need in studying Ethics is the fact
that making moral decisions is oftentimes difficult. This is very true when
we are confronted and come face to face with moral dilemmas. In here,
there is a need for us to the pause and reflect as to what particular course
of action to take The study of Ethics can provide us with certain moral
paradigms or perspectives that will, In a way, guide us in determining what’s
right and what’s wrong under such condition
 The study of Ethics will also enable us to reason out our moral beliefs and of
why we hold them.If you do not have good [and defensible] reasons for
your moral opinions, why should anyone pay attention to them? More
 important, why should you yourself pay attention to them, if you do not
have good reasons for holding them" (Ellin 1995: 6)? Ethics, as a rational
enterprise, will enable us to critically examine the ground and foundation of
our moral beliefs and claims, whether they are valid or not
 it will aid us to widen our horizon as to what is good and bad. An exposure
to the wide array of ethical paradigms and perspectives that a course in
ethics provides, will naturally allow us to broaden our understanding and
make us appreciate the richness and diversity of ethical views held by
various thinkers of different persuasions throughout the ages. "[A]n
appreciation of the complexity of ethics is valuable in counteracting our
natural tendency toward inflexibility and tribalism where we stubbornly
adhere to the values of our [own] specific peer groups" (Pojman & Fieser
2017:3).
 "[t]he study of ethics is not only of instrumental value but also valuable in
its own right. For it is satisfying to have knowledge of important matters for
its own sake. We are rational beings who cannot help but want to
understand the nature of the good life and all that it implies”
 Ethics "can [also] deepen our reflection on the ultimate or questions of life.
This is of value in itself... "(Gensler 2011:4). Life's ultimate questions involve
questions regarding the meaning of life and what it means to be truly
human? These and other similar questions necessarily deal in one way or
the other, to a significant degree, with the question of what kind of life is
worth living? As the great Socrates famously said: “An unexamined life is
not worth living.”
 Ethics: It’s Formal Definition
 Ethics is defined as the practical science of the morality of human act or
conduct and of the good life. As a science Ethics is a body of knowledge
systematically arranged and presented in such manner that it arrives at its
conclusions coherently and logically. Ethics, as a branch of Philosophy, is
also known as Moral Philosophy. "[lt]” is that branch of philosophy that
deals with how we ought to live, With the idea [and the pursuit] of the
Good and with concepts as right and wrong (Pojman & Fieser 2017:1)
 Ethics tries to investigate and examine critically as well as systematically,
through the use of natural reason, certain principles and codes of right or
wrong, good or bad, particularly those pertaining to human action. lt asks
certain fundamental and intriguing questions such as: What constitutes the
good life for human beings? "What is the basis or standard by which human
 actions can be judged as g0od or bad, right and wrong?," What makes
good-good and what makes wrong-wrong? "How man ought to behave so
as to live a life that is truly human?
 Ethics as a philosophical discipline, deals with ultimate principles and truth
concerning the morality of human conduct through the use of human
reason and experience alone, without the aid of supernatural reason or
divine revelation.
 Material Object of Ethics
 If the material object of a science is its subject matter, the thing, or things,
or that which the science deals with in its study, the subject matter of Ethics
as a particular field of study is human conduct or the human act. Human
conduct, which the science of ethics mainly deals with, refers to the act that
is done by a human person proceeds from one’s which he/she is conscious
of, which deliberation and freewill, and thus, for which one is held morally
responsible
 Formal Object of Ethics
 If the formal object of any science is the special or particular way and
viewpoint that a science employs in dealing with its specific subject matter,
the formal object of ethics in its investigation is the morality or the moral
rectitude of human act or human conduct. Ethics deals with the human
person's right conduct, whether his/her actions conform to right reason
which is the immediate norm of morality. Morality is that quality in the
human act by which it is judged to be good or bad, right or wrong moral or
immoral. Ethics does this through the use of the natural light of human
reason and experience alone.
 Ethics studies how one ought to behave and not merely describe human
behavior.
 It tries to assess and determine whether the actions are moral and worth
doing, or immoral, and have to be avoided. This makes ethics as a critical
normative and prescriptive discipline, while the other above mentioned fields
are simply descriptive. They just deal with the facts as they are and do not
make any evaluative judgments on them whatsoever.