Introduction to Ethics

Presented by: Lean Monique A. Legarde

 • WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT
TREATING OTHERS WITH
RESPECT?
• WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT
STEALING?
• WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT
ASK CHEATING?
• DO YOU PRACTICE WHAT YOU
YOURSELF PREACH AND/OR HONESTLY
BELIEVE?
• ARE YOUR BELIEFS REASONABLE?
• ARE THEY MORALLY SOUND?
• DO THEY AND OR WILL THEY
SURVIVE MORAL ARGUMENT?
 Why Study Ethics?

“Flowing beneath everyhuman action

is the current of ethical significance.”
 Why Study Ethics?
 Guidance for our Decisions. Through a study of ethics, we
learn to make moral decisions based on values, principles,
rather than on personal preference alone or ─ at random!
 Aid to Self-evaluation ─ Studying ethics helps us see our own
virtues and vices, and to evaluate our own behavior more
objectively.
 Protects us from deception, exploitation ─ The best protection
against being deceived by others is knowing what you believe,
and why you believe it.
 Etymologies, Definitions
 Ethics ─ fr. Greek ēthikós which implies “relating to one’s
character”; root word ethos “character, morality”
 Moral, morality ─ fr. Latin, mōrālis “customary”; root word
mos “manner, custom”
 ETHICS VS MORALITY
 Definitions
 Norms ─ standards of conduct, principles of right action,
“ought” statements.
 Values ─ principles, qualities, behaviors, etc., we view as
intrinsically worthy, desirable, important, or useful.
 Values => Norms ─ Ethical norms express our fundamental
values in concrete prescriptions for morally acceptable behavior.
 Thoughts to ponder:
 Do we always behave in consonance with our fundamental
values?

 Does our behavior demonstrate what we truly value?

“Actions speak louder than words.”

 Sub-disciplines of Ethics
 Metaethics ─ (lit. “beyond ethics”) “the study of the origin
and meaning of ethical concepts”. Lays the theoretical
foundations for …

 Normative ethics ─ develops theories of morality which

set standards of right and wrong conduct

 Applied ethics ─ examines specific, controversial ethical issues,

seeking a morally justifiable position (or positions) and
ethical course(s)s of action.
 Approaches to Ethics

 Normative ethics ─ deals with what people ought to do, with

what kind of persons they ought to be.

 Descriptive ethics ─ describes what a group, culture or society

actually does, what they actually believe is right and wrong.
 Approaches to Ethics
 Action-based ethics ─ Sees ethics as a matter of doing right.
Key question: “What ought we to do? What action should we
take?”

 Virtue-based ethics ─ Sees ethics as a matter of being good.

Key question: “What sort of persons ought we to be?”
 Source of Normativity
 Objectivism ─ Views the proper source of ethical norms as
external to human persons, in the objective features of the
world. These norms apply universally to all moral beings.

 Subjectivism ─ Sees the proper source of ethical norms as

internal to human persons, in the subjective feelings, beliefs,
and preferences of the person or group. These norms apply
only to the person or group which formulates them.
 Potential Sources of Normativity
 Religion ─ Most religions specify the nature of good and evil,
what type of person one should be, and how one should live.
 Natural Law ─ Some ethical systems see right and wrong as
inherent in the nature of the world and human nature (natural
law).
 Culture, Society ─ All societies permit/praise some actions,
and prohibit/blame others. Some ethicists believe that
right and wrong are determined exclusively by the culture
or social group of which one is a member.
 Potential Sources of Normativity
 Intuition ─ Some ethicists believe that human beings
intuitively know right from wrong. These ethical
standards apply to all people universally.
 Personal preference ─ Some ethicists feels that
statements about right and wrong are, ultimately, no
more than expressions of individual preference.
Each one’s ethical standards apply to oneself only.
 Important Ethical Theories
 Divine Command Theory ─ asserts that guidelines for
right conduct have been revealed to humankind by God,
who requires obedience to them. Morality is what God
wills it to be.
 Natural Law Theory ─ holds that the moral
standards which govern human behavior are derived from
the nature of human beings and of the world itself.
 Important Ethical Theories
 Consequentialism ─ holds that an action is morally right if the
consequences are more favorable than unfavorable. For
consequentialism, the end result determines an action’s morality.
• Ethical Egoism ─ an action is moral if its consequences are more favorable
than unfavorable only to the agent doing the action. “I should do what’s
best for me.”
• Ethical Altruism ─ an action is moral if its consequences are more favorable
than unfavorable to everyone except the agent. “I should do what is best for
others.”
• Utilitarianism ─ an action is moral if its consequences are more favorable
than unfavorable to everyone. “I should do what’s best for us all.”
 Important Ethical Theories
 Kantian Ethics ─ based on the teachings of Immanuel Kant
(1724–1804). He asserted that truly ethical actions are: 1)
motivated by a sense of duty; and 2) universalizable, i.e.
they can be recommended to all people everywhere.

 Social Contract Theory ─ the view that the moral and/or

political obligations of any group of people are
dependent upon a contract or agreement between
them to form society and live according to its rules.
 Important Ethical Theories
 Intuitionism ─ holds that certain actions are intrinsically right or
wrong, and that human beings can (often) intuitively recognize
and distinguish between them. Because humans are fallible, the
intuitive opinion of a group may be more reliable than that of a
single individual.
 Virtue Ethics ─ insists that ethical actions are those performed
by a virtuous person, who possesses the full range of moral
excellence and virtue, whose only necessary motivation for
action is that, “Such-and-such is intrinsically right, therefore I
must do it.”
 Important Ethical Theories
 Feminist Ethics ─ seeks to rethink and reformulate those aspects
of traditional Western ethics that depreciate or devalue women's
moral experience. Some feminist ethicists affirm that women may
have moral insights which differ fundamentally from those of men.
They also suggests that women may make moral decisions based
more on an intuitive grasp of the situation than on considerations
of duty or rules. And it is suggested that in evaluating possible
courses of action, women may place relatively more emphasis on
issues of relationship and caring than do men.
 Important Ethical Theories
 Moral Relativism ─ the position that there are no objective,
universal moral truths; definitions of right and wrong are relative to
social, cultural, historical or personal beliefs and circumstances.
Varieties of relativism include cultural relativism, historicism, and
extreme or individual relativism.

 Moral Nihilism (Latin nihil “nothing”) ─ literally, moral

nothingness. This is the (meta-ethical) view that objective morality
does not exist, and therefore no action is ethically superior or
preferable to any other.
 Issue, Decision, Judgement, and
Dilemma
• A situation that calls for moral valuation can be called a moral
issue.
• When one is placed in a situation and confronted by the choice of
what act to perform, s/he is called to make a moral decision.
• When a person is an observer making an assessment on the actions
or behavior of someone, s/he is making a moral judg ment.
• When one is torn between choosing one of two goods or choosing
between the lesser of two evils, this is referred to as a moral
dilemma.
Theory of the Right: Deontological
and Teleological
• Teleological ethics focuses on the end goal or outcome
of an action and determines morality based on whether
the outcome is good or bad.
• Deontological ethics, on the other hand, evaluate the
morality of an action based on its inherent rightness or
wrongness, regardless of its consequences.
Reasoning
• What reasons do we give to decide or to judge that a certain way of
acting is either right or wrong?
• A person’s fear of punishment or desire for reward can provide him/her
a reason for acting in a certain way.
• The promise of rewards and the fear of punishments can certainly
motivate us to act, but are not in themselves a determinant of the
rightness or wrongness of a certain way of acting or of the good or the
bad in a particular pursuit.
• Beyond rewards and punishments, it is possible for our moral
valuation—our decisions and judgments—to be based on a principle.