ETHICS REVIEWER FOR PRELIM PERIOD

Reference: Bulaong, Jr., Calano, Lagliva, Mariano, and Principe. Ethics – Foundation of Moral
Valuation. First Edition, 2018. REX Book Store.

A. Ethics in general
- Matters such as the good things that we should pursue and the bad
thing that we should avoid
- The right ways in which we could or should act and the wrong ways of
acting
- It is about what is acceptable and unacceptable in human behavior
B. Kinds of Valuation
a. Ethics vs. Aesthetics
- Aesthetics refers to the judgments of personal approval or disapproval
that we make about what we see, hear, smell, or taste.
b. Ethics vs. Etiquette/Manners
- Concerned with right and wrong actions, but those which might be
considered not quite grave enough to belong to a discussion in ethics
c. Ethics vs. Technique/Technical
- Refer to a proper way of doing things, but a technical valuation may not
necessarily be an ethical one.
C. Ethics and Morals
a. Morals may be used to refer to specific beliefs or attitudes that people have or to
describe acts that people perform. It is an individual’s personal conduct.
b. Ethics can be described as the discipline of studying and understanding ideal
human behavior and ideal ways of thinking.
c. Most of the time, distinctions as to the use of the word “morals” and “ethics”
become interchangeable.
D. Descriptive and Normative
a. Descriptive
- A descriptive study of ethics reports how people, particularly groups, make
their moral valuations without making any judgment either for or against
these valuations.
b. Normative
- A normative study of ethics prescribes what we ought to maintain as our
standards or bases for moral valuation.
E. Moral Issue
- Often used to refer to those particular situations that are often the source of
considerable and inconclusive debate.
F. Moral Decision
- There is a need to make a moral decision when one is placed in a situation and
confronted by the choice of what act to perform.
G. Moral Judgment
- An individual makes a moral judgment when a person is an observer who makes
an assessment on the actions or behavior of someone.
H. Moral Dilemma
 - Choosing right over wrong, or good over bad, and considering instead the more
complicated situation wherein one is torn between choosing one of two goods or
choosing between the lesser of two evils.
I. Reasoning
a. What reasons do we give to decide or to judge that a certain way of acting is
either right or wrong?
b. A person’s fear of punishment or desire for reward can provide him 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.
c. A moral theory is a systematic attempt to establish the validity of maintaining
certain moral principles. Insofar as a theory is a system of thought or of ideas, it
can also be referred to as a framework. Framework, as a theory of
interconnected ideas, and at the same time, a structure through which we can
evaluate our reasons for valuing a certain decisions or judgment.
J. Sources of Authority
a. Law
- Positive law refers to the different rules and regulations that are posited
or put forward by an authority figure that require compliance.
- Generally, one should obey the law. However, not all laws prohibit
wrongful acts and we might find that there are certain ways of acting
which are not forbidden by law, but are ethically questionable.
b. Religion
- The divine command theory supposes the idea that one is obliged to
obey her God in all things. It expresses a claim that religious upbringing
and religious backgrounds back up our moral valuations.
- However, we have to realize that the presence of a multiplicity of
religions which each faith demands differently can result to conflicting
ethical standards.
c. Culture
- Exposure to different societies and cultures makes us aware that there
are ways of thinking and valuing that are different from our own, that
there is in fact a wide diversity of how different people believe it is proper
to act.
- Cultural relativism provides that there are different cultures with different
moral codes and we are in no position to render any kind of judgment on
the practices of another culture.
K. Senses to the Self
a. Subjectivism
b. Psychological Egoism
c. Ethical Egoism
L. Utilitarianism
a. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure and
the determination of right behavior based on the usefulness of the action’s
consequences.
b. The principle of utility
 i. Jeremy Bentham argues that our actions are governed by two sovereign
masters – pleasure (happiness) and pain. These are given to us by nature
to help us determine what is good of bad and what ought to be done and
not.
ii. On the other hand, the principle refers to the motivation of our actions as
guided by our avoidance of pain and our desire for pleasure
iii. John Stuart Mill argues that we act and do things because we find them
pleasurable and we avoid doing things because they are painful.
c. Principle of the Greatest Number
i. Equating happiness with pleasure does not aim to describe the utilitarian
moral agent alone and independently from others. This is not only about
our individual pleasures, regardless of how high, intellectual, or in other
ways noble it is, but it is also about the pleasure of the greatest number
affected by the consequences of our actions.