ETHICS

ETHICS AND DIFFERENT

BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY
RULES AND ITS IMPORTANCE
•Ethics, or moral philosophy, ask basic
questions about the good life, about what is
better and worse, about whether there is any
objective right and wrong, and about how we
know it if there is.
• Ethics deals with such questions at all levels.
• Its subject consists of the fundamental issues of
practical decision making, and its major concerns
include the nature of ultimate value and the standards
by which human actions can be judged right or wrong.
ETHICS VS. MORALITY
•Morals-are the beliefs of the individual or
group as to what is right or wrong.
•Ethics- are the guiding principles which
help the individual or group to decide what
is good or bad.
• Morals- Governed by Social and cultural norms

• Ethics- Governed by Individual or Legal and

Professional norms
• Morals-Principles of right and wrong

• Ethics- Right and wrong conduct

•Morals-Morals may differ from society
to society and culture to culture

•Ethics- Ethics are generally uniform.

 KINDS OF NORMATIVE OR BEHAVIORAL CODES
1. Law

-A legal code represents the minimum acceptable behavior of a

particular group.

Members of the community or society who are unwilling to abide by

the law are sanctioned by the community as a whole. (e.g. penal laws)
2. Moral codes

It covers a broader set of normative controls and is identifiable by the

inverse proportion to the severity of the sanctions associated with the
legal code.

Societies are more tolerant of moral violations than of violations of

laws. (e.g moral code on marriage, issue of virginity or premarital sex)
3. Etiquette-

The broadest possible set of behavioral expectations of a

society.

Those who violate the etiquette codes suffer the least serious
sanctions of all. (e.g scandal in a social gathering)
4. Religion

It tells people how to behave.

Unlike the first three systems, it usually entails non-

natural sanctions for violations of the code of conduct.
PROFESSIONAL CODES OF ETHICS

•Rules that are supposed to

govern the conduct of
members of a profession.
• Landmark Case: CHUA – QUA vs. CLAVE G.R. No. L-49549 August 30, 1990
• A truly remarkable case wherein the Supreme Court ruled in favor of “love”. The setting of
the case was in when marriage between minors was still legal, way before the Family
Code. In this case, a 30 year old teacher had married her student which prompted the
school to terminate her. And against all odds the Supreme Court Ruled in favor of her,
hence, creating this Landmark Case. “truism that the heart has reasons of its own
which reason does not know.”

• CHUA – QUA vs. CLAVE G.R. No. L-49549 August 30, 1990
• FACTS:

This would have been just another illegal dismissal case were it not for the
controversial and unique situation that the marriage of herein petitioner, then a
classroom teacher, to her student who was fourteen (14) years her junior, was
considered by the school authorities as sufficient basis for terminating her services.
The case was about an affair and marriage of 30 years old teacher Evelyn Chua in
Tay Tung High School in Bacolod City to her 16 years old student. The petitioner
teacher was suspended without pay and was terminated of his employment “for
Abusive and Unethical Conduct Unbecoming of a Dignified School Teacher” which
was filed by a public respondent as a clearance for termination
.
• ISSUE:

Was her dismissal valid?

Whether or not there is substantial evidence to prove

that the antecedent facts which culminated in the
marriage between petitioner and her student constitute
immorality and or grave misconduct?
RULING:

• The Supreme Court declared the dismissal illegal saying:

• “Private respondent [the school] utterly failed to show that petitioner [30-year old lady teacher] took
advantage of her position to court her student [16-year old]. If the two eventually fell in love,
despite the disparity in their ages and academic levels, this only lends substance to the
truism that the heart has reasons of its own which reason does not know. But, definitely,
yielding to this gentle and universal emotion is not to be so casually equated with immorality. The
deviation of the circumstances of their marriage from the usual societal pattern cannot be
considered as a defiance of contemporary social mores.”
 THERE ARE VARIOUS SUB-TYPES WITHIN ETHICS:

• Descriptive Ethics: Psychological, anthropological, or sociological

explanations, with the goal of attaining empirical knowledge of the
morality of accepted moral views.
• The views could be current or past moral views. E.g., Why did we as a
culture accept slavery, as a practice? Why does this person have these
views of abortion? Women’s vs. men’s view as to what is right and wrong?
• Normative Ethics: An attempt to determine what is morally right
and what is morally wrong with regard to human action.

• Normative ethics determine what should be the case, whether or

not it currently is the case. E.g., Applied normative ethics
questions: Are abortions in the case of the imminent death of the
mother morally permissible? Is the death penalty morally
permissible?
• Metaethics: Concerned with tasks such as analyzing the nature of
moral judgments and specifying appropriate methods for the
justification of particular moral judgments and theoretical systems.

• E.g., Which theory is the better moral theory: Utilitarianism or

Kantianism? Are consequences or intentions more useful in determining
the rightness of actions? What makes a right action right and a wrong
action wrong?
MORALITY
 KEY FEATURES OF MORALITY

• People experience a sense of moral obligation and accountability

• Moral values and moral absolutes exist
• Moral law does exist
• Moral law is known to humans
• Morality is objective
• Moral judgments must be supported by reason
MORAL AGENCY
AND
MORAL ACTIONS
• Moral Standard • Non Moral
Standards
• Refers to the norms
which we have about •Refers to the rules
the types of actions
which we believe to be that are unrelated
morally acceptable and to moral or ethical
morally unacceptable.
considerations.
ETIQUETTE

•Refers to the norms of correct

conduct in polite society or, more
generally, to any special code of
social behavior or courtesy
STATUTES

•Laws enacted by legislative

bodies
HOW MORAL
STANDARDS FORMED?
 CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS

• They involves serious wrongs or significant benefits

• They ought to be preferred to other values
• They are not established by authority figures
• They have the trait of universalizability
• They are based on impartial considerations
• They are associated with special emotions and vocabulary
AN ETHICAL THEORY IS

•A systematic exposition of a
particular view about what is
the nature and basis of good or
right
• An ethical theory provides reasons or
norms for judging acts to be right or
wrong and attempts to give a justification
 EGOISM
You should act in your
own best interest
 UTILITARIANISM
You should act to create the
greatest good for the
greatest number
 KANTIANISM
You should do your moral duty by following the
Categorical Imperative:
• Form 1) Do only that which you would will to be
a universal law
• Form 2) Treat all people as ends, never as merely
means
VIRTUE ETHICS
You should be a good
(virtuous) person
NATURAL LAW ETHICS

You should act in accordance with

your human nature and with the
natural laws of the universe
DIVINE COMMAND
•Do what your
religion say is right
• Leviticus 11:9-12
• These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters, whatsoever hath fins and scales in the
waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.
• And that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the
waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be abomination unto
you.
• They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye
shall have their carcasses in abomination
• Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto
you
THE EUTHYPHRO PROBLEM

1.Are right actions right because God

commanded them?

2.Are right actions commanded by God

because they are right?
DO MEN AND WOMEN
REASON DIFFERENTLY
ABOUT MORALITY?
IF MEN AND WOMEN REASON DIFFERENTLY
ABOUT MORALITY, WHY MIGHT THAT BE?

• Explanations for a difference MIGHT

include:
• BIOLOGY
• SOCIAL TRAINING
• PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES
• Brain structure
• Hormones
• Physical strength/ body and muscle mass
• Being able to get pregnant
• Giving birth
 SOCIAL/CULTURAL INFLUENCE

• Socialization from birth

• Education
• Expectations (vocational, familial)
• Role training as caregivers
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

• Freud
• Male life task: differentiate from feminine,
develop autonomy
• Female life task: seek similarity to, and
relationship with, feminine
 TRADITIONAL ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES
• FEMININE:
• MASCULINE:
• Responsibility • Rights
• Relationship • Individual
• Solidarity • Autonomy
• Personal • Impersonal
• Partial • Impartial
• Private • Public
• Natural • Contractual
• Feeling • Reason
• Compassionate • Fair
• Concrete • Universal