CRT LEARNING MODULE

Course Code THM05

Course Title Professional Development and Applied
Ethics for Hospitality for Professional
Units 3
Module Title Introduction & Challenges to Applied
Ethics

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College for Research & Technology of Cabanatuan

HOW TO USE THIS DIGITIZED LEARNING MODULE

Welcome to the module in Introduction & Challenges to Applied Ethics.
This module is an introduction to the philosophical study of morality,
including the theory of right and wrong behavior, the theory of value
(goodness and badness), and the theory of virtue and vice. This module
contains training materials and activities for you to complete this module.

You are required to go through a series of learning activities in order to

complete each learning outcome of the module. Each of the learning
outcomes is provided with Modules. Follow these activities on your own and
answer the self-check at the end of each learning outcome. You may remove
a blank answer sheet at the end of each module (or get the answer sheets
from the online facilitator) to write the answers for each self-check. If you
have questions, don’t hesitate to ask your facilitator for assistance.

This module was prepared to help you gain fundamentals and basic
knowledge about communication processes. This will be the source of
Information for you to acquire knowledge and skill in this particular trade
independently and at your own pace, with minimum supervision of help from
your instructor.

 Talk to your online facilitator and agree on how you will both organize
the Training of this unit. Read each through the module carefully. It is
divided into sections, which cover all the skills and knowledge you
need to successfully complete this module.
 Work through all the information and complete the activities in each
section. Read Modules and complete self-check. Suggested references
are included to supplement the materials provided in this module.
 Most probably your facilitator will be your supervisor or manager. Your
online facilitator will support and correct you.
 Your online facilitator will tell you about the important things you need
consider when you are completing activities and it is important that
you listen and take notes.
 You will be given plenty of opportunity to ask questions and practice on
the job. Make sure you practice new skills during regular work shifts.
This way you will improve both your speed and memory and also your
confidence.
 Talk to more experienced workmates and ask for their guidance.

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 Kindly the self-check questions at the LMS (EDMODO) to test your own
progress.
 When you are ready, ask your online facilitator to watch you online via
Zoom or Google Meet to perform the activities outlined in this module.
 Ask your online facilitator work through the activities: ask for written
feedback on your progress. Your online facilitator keeps feedback/pre-
assessment reports for this reason. When you have successfully
completed each element, ask the facilitator to mark on the reports that
you are ready for assessment.
 When you have completed this module, and feel confident that you
have sufficient practice, your online facilitator will arrange an
appointment with registered assessor’s to assess you. The results of
your assessment will be recorded in your competency Achievement
Record.

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 MODULE CONTENT

MODULE TITLE: Introduction & Challenges to Applied

Ethics

MODULE DESCRIPTOR:

Welcome to the module in Introduction & Challenges to Applied Ethics.

This module is an introduction to the philosophical study of morality,
including the theory of right and wrong behavior, the theory of value
(goodness and badness), and the theory of virtue and vice. This module
contains training materials and activities for you to complete this module.

NUMBER OF HOURS: 6 hours (2 weeks)

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of the module, you MUST be able to:

1. Explain what ethics is.

2. Discuss applied ethics and its relevance to present time.
3. Explain the essence of practicing morality.
4. Discuss the principles of applied ethics.

Contents:

1. Introduction & Challenges to Applied Ethics

2. Applied Ethics
3. Principles and Applied Ethics

Conditions:

The students must be provided with the following:

1. Hard copy or soft copy of the course syllabus
2. MS Word
3. Pen
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 4. Paper

Assessment Method:

1. Submission of Research paper.

2. Written examination.
3. Quizzes using EDMODO app.

Learning Activities (Study Guide)

1. Using EDMODO app on your phone or the website on your laptop, go to
the Macro Perspective of Tourism and Hospitality class.
2. Click on the FOLDERS section (on menu bar)
1. Click the folder MODULE 1: Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality
3. The digitized Modules, Task Sheets and Job Sheets are available in this
folder.
4. All the Self-Checks are contained in the folder MY ACTIVITIES.

Learning Activities Special Instructions

1. Read Module No. Contained in the Module 1:

1.1(Introduction and (Introduction and Challenges to Applied
challenges to Applied Ethics folder in EDMODO (Module 1.2)
Ethics)
2. Answer self-check for 1.2a The self-checks are available thru the
folder SELF CHECKS. The activity is
timed (15 minutes). The results will be
immediately be available after clicking
SUBMIT and the system will run
through the items incorrectly answered
(and show the correct answer)

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 MODULE 1

Introduction to Challenges in Applied Ethics

Learning Objective: After reading this MODULE, you should be

able to:

1. Explain what ethics is.

2. Discuss applied ethics and its relevance to present time.
3. Explain the essence of practicing morality.
4. Discuss the principles of applied ethics.

What is ethics?

At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect

how people make decisions and lead their lives.

Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society

and is also described as moral philosophy.

The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean
custom, habit, character or disposition.

Ethics covers the following dilemmas:

 how to live a good life

 our rights and responsibilities
 the language of right and wrong
 Moral decisions - what is good and bad?

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Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions,
philosophies and cultures. They infuse debates on topics like
abortion, human rights and professional conduct.

Approaches to ethics

Philosophers nowadays tend to divide ethical theories into three

areas: meta ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics.

 Meta-ethics deals with the nature of moral judgment. It looks

at the origins and meaning of ethical principles.
 Normative ethics is concerned with the content of moral
judgments and the criteria for what is right or wrong.
 Applied ethics looks at controversial topics like war, animal
rights and capital punishment

What is the use of ethics?

If ethical theories are to be useful in practice, they need to affect

the way human beings behave.

Some philosophers think that ethics does do this. They argue that
if a person realizes that it would be morally good to course of
action do something then it would be irrational for that person not
to do it.

But human beings often behave irrationally - they follow their

'gut instinct' even when their head suggests a different.

However, ethics does provide good tools for thinking about moral
issues.

Ethics can provide a moral map

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Most moral issues get us pretty worked up - think of abortion and
euthanasia for starters. Because these are such emotional issues
we often let our hearts do the arguing while our brains just go
with the flow.

But there's another way of tackling these issues, and that's where
philosophers can come in - they offer us ethical rules and
principles that enable us to take a cooler view of moral problems.

So ethics provides us with a moral map, a framework that we can

use to find our way through difficult issues.

Ethics doesn't give right answers

Ethics doesn't always show the right answer to moral problems.

Indeed more and more people think that for many ethical issues
there isn't a single right answer - just a set of principles that can
be applied to particular cases to give those involved some clear
choices.

Some philosophers go further and say that all ethics can do is

eliminate confusion and clarify the issues. After that it's up to
each individual to come to their own conclusions.

Ethics can give several answers

Many people want there to be a single right answer to ethical

questions. They find moral ambiguity hard to live with because
they genuinely want to do the 'right' thing, and even if they can't
work out what that right thing is, they like the idea that
'somewhere' there is one right answer.

But often there isn't one right answer - there may be several right
answers, or just some least worst answers - and the individual
must choose between them.

For others moral ambiguity is difficult because it forces them to

take responsibility for their own choices and actions, rather than
falling back on convenient rules and customs.

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Ethics and people

Ethics is about the 'other'

At the heart of ethics is a concern about something or someone

other than ourselves and our own desires and self-interest.

Ethics is concerned with other people's interests, with the

interests of society, with God's interests, with "ultimate goods",
and so on.

So when a person 'thinks ethically' they are giving at least some

thought to something beyond themselves.

Ethics as source of group strength

One problem with ethics is the way it's often used as a weapon.

If a group believes that a particular activity is "wrong" it can then

use morality as the justification for attacking those who practice
that activity.

When people do this, they often see those who they regard as
immoral as in some way less human or deserving of respect than
themselves; sometimes with tragic consequences.

Good people as well as good actions

Ethics is not only about the morality of particular courses of

action, but it's also about the goodness of individuals and what it
means to live a good life.

Virtue Ethics is particularly concerned with the moral character of

human beings.

Searching for the source of right and wrong

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At times in the past some people thought that ethical problems
could be solved in one of two ways:

 by discovering what God wanted people to do

 by thinking rigorously about moral principles and problems
If a person did this properly they would be led to the right
conclusion.

But now even philosophers are less sure that it's possible to
devise a satisfactory and complete theory of ethics - at least not
one that leads to conclusions.

Modern thinkers often teach that ethics leads people not to

conclusions but to 'decisions'.

In this view, the role of ethics is limited to clarifying 'what's at

stake' in particular ethical problems.

Philosophy can help identify the range of ethical methods,

conversations and value systems that can be applied to a
particular problem. But after these things have been made clear,
each person must make their own individual decision as to what
to do, and then react appropriately to the consequences.

Four ethical 'isms'

When a person says "murder is bad" what are they doing?

That's the sort of question that only a philosopher would ask, but
it's actually a very useful way of getting a clear idea of what's
going on when people talk about moral issues.

The different 'isms' regard the person uttering the statement as

doing different things.

We can show some of the different things I might be doing when I

say 'murder is bad' by rewriting that statement to show what I
really mean:

 I might be making a statement about an ethical fact

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  "It is wrong to murder"
 This is moral realism
 I might be making a statement about my own feelings
 "I disapprove of murder"
 This is subjectivism
 I might be expressing my feelings
 "Down with murder"
 This is emotivism
 I might be giving an instruction or a prohibition
 "Don't murder people"
 This is prescriptivism

Moral realism

Moral realism is based on the idea that there are real objective
moral facts or truths in the universe. Moral statements provide
factual information about those truths.

Subjectivism

Subjectivism teaches that moral judgments are nothing more

than statements of a person's feelings or attitudes, and that
ethical statements do not contain factual truths about goodness
or badness.

In more detail: subjectivists say that moral statements

are statements about the feelings, attitudes and emotions that
that particular person or group has about a particular issue.

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If a person says something is good or bad they are telling us
about the positive or negative feelings that they have about that
something.

So if someone says 'murder is wrong' they are telling us that they

disapprove of murder.

These statements are true if the person does hold the appropriate
attitude or have the appropriate feelings. They are false if the
person doesn't.

Emotivism

Emotivism is the view that moral claims are no more than

expressions of approval or disapproval.

This sounds like subjectivism, but in emotivism a moral statement

doesn't provide information about the speaker's feelings about
the topic but expresses those feelings.

When an emotivist says "murder is wrong" it's like saying "down

with murder" or "murder, yecch!" or just saying "murder" while
pulling a horrified face, or making a thumbs-down gesture at the
same time as saying "murder is wrong".

So when someone makes a moral judgement they show their

feelings about something. Some theorists also suggest that in
expressing a feeling the person gives an instruction to others
about how to act towards the subject matter.

Prescriptivism

Prescriptivists think that ethical statements are instructions or

recommendations.

So if I say something is good, I'm recommending you to do it, and

if I say something is bad, I'm telling you not to do it.

There is almost always a prescriptive element in any real-world

ethical statement: any ethical statement can be reworked (with a
bit of effort) into a statement with an 'ought' in it. For example:
"lying is wrong" can be rewritten as "people ought not to tell lies".

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Where do ethics come from?

Philosophers have several answers to this question:

 God and religion

 Human conscience and intuition
 a rational moral cost-benefit analysis of actions and their
effects
 the example of good human beings
 a desire for the best for people in each unique situation
 political power

God-based ethics - supernaturalism

Supernaturalism makes ethics inseparable from religion. It

teaches that the only source of moral rules is God.

So, something is good because God says it is, and the way to lead
a good life is to do what God wants.

Intuitionism

Intuitionists think that good and bad are real objective

properties that can't be broken down into component parts.
Something is good because it's good; its goodness doesn't need
justifying or proving.

Intuitionists think that goodness or badness can be detected by

adults - they say that human beings have an intuitive moral sense
that enables them to detect real moral truths.

They think that basic moral truths of what is good and bad are
self-evident to a person who directs their mind towards moral
issues.

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So good things are the things that a sensible person realises are
good if they spend some time pondering the subject.

Don't get confused. For the intuitionist:

 moral truths are not discovered by rational argument

 moral truths are not discovered by having a hunch
 moral truths are not discovered by having a feeling
It's more a sort of moral 'aha' moment - a realisation of the truth.

Consequentialism

This is the ethical theory that most non-religious people think

they use every day. It bases morality on the consequences of
human actions and not on the actions themselves.

Consequentialism teaches that people should do whatever

produces the greatest amount of good consequences.

One famous way of putting this is 'the greatest good for the
greatest number of people'.

The most common forms of consequentialism are the various

versions of utilitarianism, which favor actions that produce the
greatest amount of happiness.

Despite its obvious common-sense appeal, consequentialism

turns out to be a complicated theory, and doesn't provide a
complete solution to all ethical problems.

Two problems with consequentialism are:

 it can lead to the conclusion that some quite dreadful acts

are good
 predicting and evaluating the consequences of actions is
often very difficult
Non-consequentialism or deontological ethics

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Non-consequentialism is concerned with the actions themselves
and not with the consequences. It's the theory that people are
using when they refer to "the principle of the thing".

It teaches that some acts are right or wrong in themselves,

whatever the consequences, and people should act accordingly.

Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics looks at virtue or moral character, rather than at

ethical duties and rules, or the consequences of actions - indeed
some philosophers of this school deny that there can be such
things as universal ethical rules.

Virtue ethics is particularly concerned with the way individuals

live their lives, and less concerned in assessing particular actions.

It develops the idea of good actions by looking at the way

virtuous people express their inner goodness in the things that
they do.

To put it very simply, virtue ethics teaches that an action is right if

and only if it is an action that a virtuous person would do in the
same circumstances, and that a virtuous person is someone who
has a particularly good character.

Situation ethics

Situation ethics rejects prescriptive rules and argues that

individual ethical decisions should be made according to the
unique situation.

Rather than following rules the decision maker should follow a

desire to seek the best for the people involved. There are no
moral rules or rights - each case is unique and deserves a unique
solution.

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Ethics and ideology

Some philosophers teach that ethics is the codification of political

ideology, and that the function of ethics is to state, enforce and
preserve particular political beliefs.

They usually go on to say that ethics is used by the dominant

political elite as a tool to control everyone else.

More cynical writers suggest that power elites enforce an ethical

code on other people that helps them control those people, but do
not apply this code to their own behavior.

APPLIED ETHICS

Philosophers usually divide ethical theories into three

general subject areas- meta ethics, normative ethics and applied
ethics Though we are concerned here mainly with applied ethics
but for its clear conception we like to mention both about meta
ethics and normative ethics.

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Meta Ethics

Meta ethics is the critical and analytical study of ethical

terms and judgment used in normative ethics. It involves a bird’s
eye view of the entire project of ethics Meta ethics does not deal
with ethical theories or moral judgments but it deals with the
questions about the nature of these theories and judgments.
Though many thinkers in the field of normative ethics, tried to
explain the meaning of ethical terms and judgments but unit 20th
century the study of the terms did not become a separate
discipline

Normative ethics

Normative ethics wants to set norms or standards for

conduct From ancient times of western ethics philosophers used
these terms in reference to the discussion of ethical theories
about what one ought to do Traditional normative ethical theories
were neglected until 1960s and philosophers were busy in
defining ethical terms and judgments or in the discussion of meta
ethical problems But after1960 philosophers once again began to
think about how individual ought to live. Consequently we have
found different ethical theories in a new form as well as some
completely new theories also. Though we observe the continuity
of normative ethics during the early part of 20tf1 century,
however owing to rise of logical positivism and emotivism them
idea of normative ethics was suppressed to a great extent.

Applied ethics

Applied ethics is the application of ethical theories to solve

our practical problems. It is difficult to say who first used the
term-applied ethics. But it may be thought that Peter Singer was
one of the philosophers who used “applied ethics” to express
practical ethics. Applied ethics is not only the analysis of the
normative theory or the analysis of terms and judgments used in
normative ethics. It has a factual value. It tries to apply normative
principles to our moral problems. Any discussion about applied
ethics takes into account two features which are necessary for an
issue to be considered an “applied ethical issue”.

First, an issue is controversial when there are significant

groups of people both for and against the issue. Such dilemmas,
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as for example, are found in bioethical issues. The issues like
euthanasia, abortion, doctor patients’ relationship have lots of
controversies which cause dilemma in these issues. Secondly, to
be an applied ethical issue it must be a distinctly moral issue. We
are confronted by lots of social problems, which are only issues of
social policy. But moral issues concern more universally obligatory
practices, such as our duty to speak the truth, which are not
confined to our society only. Of course, there are some issues
which are at the same time socially and morally prohibited, such
as murder is prohibited socially and morally also. But still, they
are often distinct. For example, for many people sexual
promiscuity is immoral but there may not be any social policies to
regulate sexual conduct. Similarly there are social policies to
forbid some acts which are not immoral in a sense. So to be an
applied ethical issue it must be more than one of mere social
policy, it must be morally relevant as well.

Here, we may mention some characteristics of applied ethics

by which we can distinguish it from meta and normative ethics.
These are - (1) it helps people and society to clarify concrete
problems of ethical urgency, (2) as a practical ethics its aim is the
well-being of people, (3) though it is not completely theoretical, it
takes help of normative principles or theories to solve the
concrete problem in different aspects, (4) it has a special goal, so
it is goal directed. It is directed towards the well-being of people.
But to reach its goal one practical philosopher should be
conscious about the right ways of well-being and he does not go
beyond the social wellbeing. So, practical ethics always takes a
social footing.

History of applied ethics

The application of normative ethical ideas into practical

problems is not a completely new topic in the field of ethics.
There were many moral philosophers including Plato who were
concerned themselves with practical questions. Christian
philosopher Aquinas held that right and wrong could be
recognized by the use of reason. We should apply the role of
reason in particular cases that confront us in everyday life. St.
Augustine also considered practical problems seriously.
“Augustine and Aquinas examined with great care such matters as
when a war was just whether it could ever be right to tell a lie, or
if a Christian woman did wrong to commit suicide in order to save
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herself from rape”1. David Hume wrote on suicide and
Immortality of the soul in 1873. Practical application of ethical
theory greatly revealed in utilitarianism. Bentham gave
importance on an equal basis for taking into account of
everyone’s pleasure and pain. His ethical theory was applicable to
slaves and also to nonhuman animals. Mill was famous for his
essay on liberty and on the subjection of woman.

Applied Ethics and Its Relevance to present time

Today modern men are trying to fulfill their different needs

by acquiring scientific techniques. But at the same time they are
facing mental conflict for adverse impacts of science and
technology People have now started to think about the loss of
ideal values. A good number of new problems stand in our society
as a consequence of rapid scientific and technological
developments. Bio-ethical and environmental problems are two
notable examples which may be cited here among many other
examples Scientific advancement has presented humanity great
progress in treating and preventing various diseases. But at the
same time it has given new questions and uncertainties about the
nature of life and death. The basic question that arises in this
situation is whether it is morally right or wrong to do one sort of
activity rather than another. Issues such as abortion and
euthanasia fortunately are not everyday decisions for most of us,
but they are issues that arise at sometimes in our lives. There are
many other issues of current concern about which any active
participant in our society’s decisions making process needs to
reflect. Environmental issues are also connected with a host of
difficult ethical questions. Modem technological developments
create a threat not only to human but to non human and plants
also. Modem people are today compelled to think about their
survival in a polluted environment of the earth.

Though bio-medical and environmental issues are two worth

mentioning issues of modem age, but the whole value system
have changed due to other scientific developments. Industrial
system and machines have made man its slave replacing the
quality by quantity and beauty by utility. Science has gifted
abandon items to modern people ignoring its detrimental effects.
It brings major problems when we accept all these gifts of science
without considering, what type of comfort and utility we get from
these. One significant characteristic of science is that, it divides
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our world into many branches. No doubt, it makes easy to study
all these branches carefully. But when we left it, without making a
unique relation among all, it creates some unsolvable value
problems. Now every group of people in society has begun to
think independently. Business wants to be free to make decision
for its own sake. Professional groups like doctors, teachers,
lawyers and others are busy with their own interests. Benefits
have been brought with it but it brings danger also. Social peace
and individual prosperity may remain with the combination of
ethical knowledge, law, loyalty and proper scientific development.
Without proper ethical knowledge mere science and technology
may lead a society to a dangerous situation.

Here we can think about the role of religious ethics also. The
relation between ethics and religion is very old. For some thinkers,
ethics cannot do anything without religion and good is nothing but
what God approves. But when we depend upon God’s approval,
we already assume God as an omnipotent, omniscient being who
is necessity good. And it is a contradiction to suppose a good
supernatural being may give evil commands. When we take this
line of reasoning we find that we have already formed an idea of
goodness which we impose upon the Supreme Being. And it
follows that religion is based upon morality. Before religious
commitment, we are capable to make moral judgment. Most
philosophers including Kant have accepted the autonomy of
morality. Modem moral philosopher Peter Singer, in his book
“Practical ethics" states that ethics is entirely independent of
religion2. Ethics is concerned with human voluntary actions. The
objective of ethics is to tell us what we ought to do and what not.
Ethics is related to man’s welfare living in the society. To solve our
modem day’s problem we should make ethics free from religion.
Giving up our personal emotion and faith we should look after our
problems from scientific outlook. In this respect relevance of
applied ethics is worth mentioning.

In applied ethics a philosopher wants to apply normative

principle keeping view in the moral conflict. Direct use of
traditional normative principle cannot solve our moral dilemma.
As for example, in 1982 a couple from Bloomington Indiana gave
birth to a severely retarded baby. The infant was known as Baby
Doe. His stomach was disconnected from his throat and was
unable to receive nourishment. Although this stomach deformity
was adjustable by surgery, his parents did not want to bring up a

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Date Revised:
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Applied Ethics
severely retarded baby and they chose to deny surgery, food and
water for the infant. Local courts supported the parent’s decision
and six days later Baby doe died. There were arguments in favor
of corrective surgery from the infant’s right to life and the
principle of paternalism which indicates that we should pursue the
best interest of others when they are incapable to do for
themselves. But there were arguments against the corrective
surgery also. The quality of life of Baby Doe would have been poor
and in happy case it probably would have died as a result of
corrective surgery. Again it would have been a significant
emotional and financial burden to his family. So there were
stronger arguments against surgery than for surgery.

Not only in case of bio-ethical issues, but applied ethics have to

play an important role in different spheres of our moral dilemmas
such as in environmental, professional, business issues etc. In
solving different moral dilemmas applied ethics keeps in view on
some basic principles. The following principles are most common
in applied ethical discussions:

The following principles are most common in applied

ethical discussions:

(1) Personal benefit

(2) Social benefit (3)

Principle of benevolence

(4) Principle of paternalism

(5) Principle of harm

(6) Principle of honesty

(7) Principle of lawfulness

(8) Principle of autonomy

(9) Principle of justice

Document No. 001-2020

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and Applied
Date Revised:
Ethics Issued by:
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Applied Ethics
(10) Rights: acknowledge a person’s rights to life, information,
privacy, free expression and safely.

Document No. 001-2020

Professional Date Developed:
Development August 1, 2020
and Applied
Date Revised:
Ethics Issued by:
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Introduction & Developed by:
CRT
Challenges to Jennifer J. Miranda
Applied Ethics