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Ethics Outline

This document outlines the key concepts and topics covered in an ethics course, including: - The definition of ethics and morality, and the differences between ethics, morality, law, and religion. - The main objects and divisions of ethics, as well as the moral dimension of human existence. - Characteristics of moral principles such as reasonability, impartiality, and universalizability. - The differences between moral and non-moral standards, and examples of each. - The doctrine of double effect principle and its requirements. - The concept of moral dilemmas on individual, organizational, and systematic levels. - The foundations of morality being freedom, responsibility, and conscience.

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Olivia Almazan
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103 views

Ethics Outline

This document outlines the key concepts and topics covered in an ethics course, including: - The definition of ethics and morality, and the differences between ethics, morality, law, and religion. - The main objects and divisions of ethics, as well as the moral dimension of human existence. - Characteristics of moral principles such as reasonability, impartiality, and universalizability. - The differences between moral and non-moral standards, and examples of each. - The doctrine of double effect principle and its requirements. - The concept of moral dilemmas on individual, organizational, and systematic levels. - The foundations of morality being freedom, responsibility, and conscience.

Uploaded by

Olivia Almazan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ETHICS (SOC112)

OUTLINE
PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION COVERAGE
(Supplementary Lessons)

CONCEPT OF ETHICS AND MORALITY:


 Nature, Meaning and Scope
 Ethics means behavior or character (Greek: “ethos”)
 A branch of philosophy and a practical science of the morality of human act or
conduct and of the good life.

 Ethics vs. Morality


 Ethics is doing what is right because you know that it is right. Morality on one
hand, stems from tradition, law and constitution and our upbringing.

 Importance of Ethics
 We become good or bad persons depending on the choices we make.
 It will enable us to examine our moral beliefs rationally.
 It will widen one’s horizon to the paradigm of justice.

 Ethics vs. Law


 Ethical rules are necessary even if laws implemented by civil authorities
exists.
 Legality is different from morality.

 Ethics vs. Religion


 Ethics solely rely on natural reasons. Religion on supernatural reasons.
 The practice of morality need not be motivated by religious considerations.

 Objects of Ethics
 Material – the subject matter of ethics is human conduct or human act (deed).
 Formal- the rightness and wrongness of the deed.

 Division of Ethics
 General – deals with the morality of human acts.
 Special/Applied – applies the specific and fundamental norms in the specific
areas of human life.
 Read: Norms and Kinds of Norms
 Moral Dimension of Human Existence’
 Answers the application of morality to human existence.
 Read: Moga’s Three Positions (LMS)

 Characteristics of Moral Principles


 Reasonability – moral judgments must be backed by good reasons and not
with an unguided emotion.
 Impartiality – an ethical or moral rule should be neutral regardless of who the
recipients are.
 Prescriptivity – also known as the ‘commanding aspect of morality’.
 Overridingess – moral standards must reign above all other standards or
norms of valuation.
 Autonomous from Arbitrary Authority – moral standards should stand in spite
of the biases of the majority.
 Publicity – moral standards should be made public for us to have a guideline
to our actions.
 Practicability – moral standards should be at reach. It must be doable by
human beings.
 Universalizability – it must be applied to all regardless of the context and
situation.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MORAL AND NON-MORAL STANDARDS:


 Moral Standards and their Characteristics
 Non-Moral Standards and Examples
Morals
1. Morals are the prevailing standards of behavior that enable people to live
cooperatively in groups.
2. Moral refers to what societies sanction as right and acceptable.
3. Morality often requires that people sacrifice their own short-term interests for the
benefit of society. 4. People or entities that are indifferent to right and wrong are
considered amoral.
5. Those who do evil acts are considered immoral.
6. Morality is not fixed because it describes the particular values of a specific group at a
specific point in time.
7. Morals are the principles that guide individual conduct within society.
8. Moral remain the standards of behavior that society uses to judge right and wrong.
Moral Standards and their Characteristics:
Moral standards are norms that individuals or groups have about the kinds of actions
believed to be morally right or wrong, as well as the values placed on what we believed
to be morally good or morally bad. Moral standards normally promote “the good”, that is,
the welfare and well-being of humans as well as animals and the environment. Moral
standards, therefore, prescribe what humans ought to do in terms of rights and
obligations. According to some scholars, moral standards are the sum of combined
norms and values. In other words, norms plus values equal moral standards. On the
one hand, norms are understood as general rules about our actions or behaviors. For
example, we may say “We are always under the obligation to fulfill our promises” or “It is
always believed that killing innocent people is absolutely wrong”. On the other hand,
values are understood as enduring beliefs or statements about what is good and
desirable or not. For example, we may say “Helping the poor is good” or “Cheating
during exams is bad”.
Non-Moral Standards
Non-moral standards refer to standards by which we judge what is good or bad and
right or wrong in a non-moral way.
Examples of non-moral standards are:
1. standards of etiquette by which we judge manners as good or bad
2. standards we call the law by which we judge something as legal or illegal
3. and standards of aesthetics by which we judge art as good or rubbish.

THE DOCTRINE OF DOUBLE EFFECT PRINCIPLE IN ETHICS


 This doctrine says that if doing something morally good has a morally bad side-
effect, it's ethically okay to do it providing the bad side-effect wasn't intended.
This is true even if you foresaw that the bad effect would probably happen.
 It is permissible to perform an action if it is pursuit of good end in full knowledge.

The Double Effect Requirements:


1. The action in itself from its very object be good or at least indifferent.
2. The good and not the evil effect be intended.
3. The good effect be not produced by means of the evil effect.
4. There be a proportionately grave reason for permitting the evil effect.
Example: Pregnant Woman with Cancerous Uterus.
Legal Abortion (the voluntary termination of pregnancy to save the mother)
MORAL DILEMMA
 Referring to our standards for judging right and wrong.
Three Levels of Moral Dilemma:
1. Individual – it concerns about individual experiencing difficulty because he is
confronted with two opinions.
2. Organizational – ethical dilemmas in workplace are quite common and they are
not always easy to answer.
3. Systematic – refers to vague system in the society or organizations. The
members or the employees are misled and the tendency they cannot function as
what they are supposed to do.

FOUNDATION OF MORALITY:
 Freedom, Responsibility, Conscience

 Freedom is the power or right to act, speak or think whatever one wants but this
‘whatever’ is a dynamic one.
The function of freedom as a tool is to make sure that values and moral conduct are
deliberated and reflected.
 This freedom is coupled with responsibility. They are not separate entities.
Freedom is (also) responsibility.
Freedom means who have to be responsible for every act.
 Conscience on the other hand means trial of oneself. It is the proximate norm of
morality.
Kinds of Conscience:
1. Correct or True – it judges good as good and evil as evil.
2. Erroneous or False Conscience – it judges good as evil and evil as good.
3. Certain Conscience – a subjective assurance of an act that is lawful or unlawful.
4. Doubtful Conscience – it cannot form a definitive judgment on a certain action
because of doubt.
5. Scrupulous Conscience – it cannot form a definitive judgment because of fear to
commit mistakes.
6. Lax Conscience – manifested by indifferent acts in performing the same act
either good or bad.
End of Preliminary Coverage

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