ETHICS Moral - It is an adjective describing

human act as either ethical right or

The word ethics came from the Greek wrong.
word Ethos which means custom or
Moral standards - Are norms that serves
character.
as the frameworks for determining what
• Studies the righteousness or ought to be done.
wrongness of human action.
MORAL STANDARDS
• How human person ought to act.
Consequence Standards
TWO VIEW OF ETHICS
Depends on result/outcome
Greek Tradition Judeo-Christian
Greatest good of greatest numbers
Tradition
The main goal is The main goal is Non-consequence standards
to have a “Good “The ideas of
Based on the natural laws
Life” righteousness
before God” Law of god that is written in the hearts of
the men
Being happy Doing what is
Based on goodwill
right.
Sense of duty that you wish to apply to
all human-person
Importance of rules - Rules are a set of
guidelines that got created in Non-Moral standards:
communities and countries and get used
all as a standard. These rules usually • Social Rules
differ from one place to the other and the • Etiquette
differences are often determined by
factors such as social interactions, • Good Manners
beliefs, policies, and the method of COMPLIANCE OR NON COMPLIANCE
governance in place. Also, the violators
of these rules are often handled by the MORAL STANDARD
penalties which the laws of the land for
- Causes guilt.
the violation.
NON-MORAL STANDARD
Types of Applied Ethics
- May only cause shame and
• Bioethics - This concerns with ethical
embarrassment.
issues about life, biomedical researches,
medicines, health care, and the medical CLASSIFICATION OF THEORIES OF
profession. MORALS STANDARDS – GARNER AND
ROSEN (1967)
• Business Ethics - It examines moral
principles concerning the business CONSEQUENCE STANDARD
environment, which involves issues
 Teleological
about corporate practices and policies.
 -The act is wrong depending on
• Environmental Ethics - It deals with the consequences of the act.
moral issues concerning nature,
NOT-ONLY CONSEQUENCE STANDARD
ecosystem, and its nonhuman contents.
 Right and wrong depends on the
• Sexual Ethics - It studies moral issues
sense of duty.
about sexuality and human sexual
 Deontological
behavior.
 Natural Law
WHAT MAKES STANDARD MORAL? based on that person’s own culture,
rather than be judged against the criteria
THEIST
of another.
 Moral standards are
THE FILIPINO CHARACTER
commandments of
God revealed to man through POSITIVE TRAITS
prophet
1. Regards for other
2. Family centeredness
NON-THEIST 3. Hospitality
4. Sense of humor
 Based on sages like Confucius and
5. Faith and religiousity
Kant
6. Creativity
 Don’t do unto others what you
7. Hardwork
don’t want
8. Ability to survive
others to do unto you. – Confucius
 “Act only according to that maxim NEGATIVE TRAITS
whereby you can at the same
1. Extreme personalism
time will that it should became a
2. Extreme family centeredness
universal law” – Immanuel Kant,
3. Mañana habit
Categorical Imperative.
4. Ningas-Cogon
FREEDOM 5. Kanya-Kanya Syndrome
6. Crab Mentality
• Exercising our capacity to make
7. Colonial Mentality
decisions, choose or life path and direct
8. Split Personality
the course of our live through our own
9. Palusot Syndrome
steering/
10. Bahala na system
• Human has freedom.
Universal Values:
• Dilemmas presuppose Freedom • Happiness
• Without freedom it is impossible to • Peace
make a moral choice • Love
• Freedom
• Making moral choice is a necessary • Safety
consequence for being free, a • Intelligence
consequence of being human person. • Human Respect
FACTICITY - Refers to the “givens” of our • Equality
situation. • Justice
• Nature
CULTURE • Health
• Total way of life.
Character - refers to a set of moral and
• Ralph Linton (1945) defined the culture mental qualities and beliefs that makes a
of a society as 'the way of life of its person different
members: the collection of ideas and from others.
habits which they learn, share and Personality refers to the combination of
transmit from generation to generation. qualities, attitude and behavior, that
makes a person distinct
CULTURAL RELATIVISM - The idea that a
from others.
person’s beliefs, values and practices
Moral character – refers to having or
should be understood
lacking moral virtue
Moral agent – It is the person who do
moral act.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS – Medieval • Acts of moral agent.
Philosopher • Involves reasoning.
• Summum Bonum - “Every human act is • Observing prescribed diet, tutoring the
directed toward an end” slow learners and preparing the board
exam.
• THREE THOMISTIC PRINCIPLES:
Act of Human
According to Alfredo Panizo (1964):
a. Every agent that performs an action • Actions merely happen in the body
acts for the sake of the end purpose to without the awareness of mind.
be • Breathing, blinking of the eyes, dilation
attained. of
b. Every agents acts for an ultimate end. pupil of the eye, perspiring and jerking of
c. Every agent has the power of moving the knee.
for an end which is suitable or good for The determinants of the morality of
him. human act:
According to 20th Century thinkers – 1. The object of the act
there were NO Pre-fixed plan for man. 2. The end, or purpose
• Jean Paul Sartre - A human person is or 3. Its circumstances
becomes what he/she makes of For an act to be morally good, all three
him/herself by determinants must be without flaw.
choice.
• Teilhard de Chardin (1948) and Alfred FEELINGS AND MORAL DECISION MAKING
north whitehead (1946) – believers of
Process FEELINGS - Is an emotional state or
Philosopher – For them, whatever a reaction, experience of physical
human person is or will be a result of sensation like feeling of joy, feeling of
creative process. warmth, love affection, tenderness, etc.
• Martin Heidegger, Gabriel marcel and
Martin Buber. - See themselves as being- FEELINGS as Instinctive response to
with-others, moral dilemma - Several studies
inseparably related to their fellow man, conclude that up to 90% of the decisions
we made are based on emotion. They
The Development of Moral Character Of can be obstacle but they can also help in
The Moral Agent making
right decisions.
DEFINING MOMENTS - Refers to the life
changing event or moment that Ethical Subjectivism
reverberates throughout your • Moral statements cannot be objective
career and personal life and so changes because it is only people’s perception
everything. and attitudes that makes them right or
Relationship between moral acts and wrong.
character - “The person who has moral • It highlights the subjectivity of morality
character does moral it is always dependent on feelings.
actions more readily” • It allows us to see convicting intentions
behind moral statements.
Stages of moral development: • People may get involved in an
1. Pre-Conventional argument by ethical subjectivism to
2. Conventional persuade the opponent to follow their
3. Post-Conventional point of view but not to disprove their
objective truth.
Human Act
2 Versions: decision, the strongest desire from
1. Simple subjectivism - One can only among the various present.
approve or disapprove of the things
Moral Courage – means doing right thing
thathe states to be Good or bad in
even at the risk of inconvenience,
aspects of morality.
ridicule, punishment or loss of job,
security or social status.
2. Emotivism - Moral Statements simply
reflects preference. Moral Statements are ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS
neither used to state facts nor to convey
information instead it serves as means of • Is a set of codes that an individual uses
affecting human behavior and expressing to guide his or her behavior
one’s feelings and emotion. Known as • Also known as “Moral Standard”.
Boo-Hooray Theory.
• It is what people use to distinguish
RULE OF REASON - When we make any right from wrong in the way they interact
kinds of judgment we must reinforce in the world.
them for valid reason. Dominant Mental Frames:
• Feelings can help in making right
decision - Subjective feelings sometimes 1. Virtue or Character Ethics
matter when deciding between right and 2. Natural Law or Commandment Ethics
wrong. Emotions, like our love for our
friends and family, are a crucial part of 3. Deontological and Duty Framework
what gives life meaning, and ought to
4. Utilitarianist, Teleological and
play a guiding role in morality.
Consenquentialist Approach
Reason and Impartiality as Minimum
Requirement for Morality 5. Love and Justice Framework

1. ARISTOTLE VIRTUE ETHICS

• Reason – is the basis or motive for an
action, decision, or conviction. • This question focuses on the character
• Impartiality – is a principle of justice traits one is supposed to have in order
holding that decisions ought to be based for that person to be considered as
on objective criteria, rather than on the ethical.
basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the
• An ethical person is a virtuous person.
benefit to one person over another for
improper reasons. • Virtue ethics is Person-based Rather
than action-based.
The 7-step model is as follows: Aristotle - A Philosopher from Stagira, he
wrote a lot of ranging topics in various
1. Gather the facts
disciplines.
2. Determine the ethical issues
• “Good character is the indispensable
3. Determine what virtues/principles condition and chief determinant of
have a bearing on the case happiness, itself the goal of all human
doing. The end of all action, individual or
4. List the alternatives
collective is the greatest happiness
5. Compare the alternatives with the
of the greatest number.” – Ethics, 350
virtues/principles
BCE
6. Consider the consequences
• “Happiness is the meaning and the
7. Make a decision purpose of life, the whole aim and end of
human existence”
Will – refers to that faculty of mind which
chooses, at the moment of making
• We must cultivate virtues because they 3. Propagation of human species - The
are the qualities that will help the people reproductive organ is by nature designed
to live well. to reproduce and propagate human
species.
• Telos – End / Ultimate Goal:
• An act does not obey conscience; It is
• Happiness = Eudamonia
therefore immoral.
2. ST. THOMAS NATURAL LAW ETHICS
Circumstance - The CONDITIONS
• “Some truths about God exceed all the affecting the morality of a action.
ability of human reason... but there are
o Classification:
some truths which natural reason also is
able to reach. Such as that God exists” - o Quality of person (Who)
Summa contra Gentiles
o Quality/Quantity of the moral object
• He was from a noble family in Naples (What)
and early in his life he decided to join the
o Circumstances of place (Where)
Dominican Order.
o Circumstances of mean (By what
• “We call this man a dumb ox, but his
means)
bellowing in doctrine will one day
resound throughout the world.”- Albertus o Circumstances of end (Why)
Magnus in defense of Aquinas
o Manner in which the action is done
• “REASON” is the source of the moral (How)
law; it directs us towards the “GOOD”
o Time Element (when
• GOOD – is the ultimate GOAL of the
person’s actions. The good is 3. KANT’S DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
discoverable within the person’s nature. • Born in 1724 in Konigsberg, Prussia. He
• An act is morally right if it is done is a Philosopher that published books
according to moral law. entitled Critique of Pure Reason and
Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics
• What is MORAL LAW?
• “I had to deny knowledge in order to
Do good and avoid evil make room for faith.”
• How do we know that one is acting in • Deontological – means duty. It focuses
accordance with good? An action is Good on “duty, obligation and rights” instead
if it is done in accordance with of consequences or ends.
CONSCIENCE.
• The duty-based approach argued that
• How do we know that one’s action doing what is right is not about the
obeys conscience? If it satisfies the consequences of our action (something
three-fold natural over which we ultimately have no
control) but about having the proper
inclination of the human person.
intention in performing the action.
THREE-FOLD NATURAL INCLINATION OF
THE ETHICAL ACTION IS ONE TAKEN
THE HUMAN PERSON
FROM THE DUTY.
1. Self-preservation - Natural inclination
• How important is the intention in the
to take care of one’s health or not to kill
analysis of one’s ethical behavior?
or to put one’s self in danger.
• Whatever result may happen as
2. Just dealing with others - Treat others
consequence of the act is not included in
with the same respect that we accord
this moral assessment. Thus, it is
ourselves
possible that though the consequence
was not the desired result, or may result • Common Good – refers to those
in something bad, still- the act can be facilities that the members of community
considered good. provide to all members in order to fulfil a
relational obligation they all have to care
• A person should be morally judged only
for certain interests that they have in
on things, that are within his control, in
common.
short those that he willed.
• When the government improves public
• An action is legally right if it is the
property and services, and develops the
same in accordance with a universal law,
natural resources, it simultaneously
that is , in accordance with the
promotes equal access to wealth,
categorical imperative
opportunities, and privileges within
4. UTILITARIANISM: THE society.
CONSEQUENTIALIST ETHICAL
FRAMEWORK

• An action is morally right if it

maximizes overall well-being and
happiness.

• “The said truth is that it is the greatest

happiness of the greatest number that is
the measure of

right and wrong” -Jeremy Bentham

• Bentham studied law and wrote on

ethics, politics, economics and the law.
He is known as the founder of
Utilitarianism.

• The primary motivation of human

behavior is the desire for pleasure and
the avoidance of pain.

• Hedonism – The pursuit of pleasure.

• “I have learned to seek my happiness

by limiting my desires, rather than in
attempting to satisfy them” -John Stuart
Mill

• He continued Bentham’s legacy and

generally credited for having popularized
it. As utilitarian, he lived its tenet and
found that one of the secrets of
happiness is the limitation of desire.

5. JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS PROMOTING

COMMON GOOD

• Social Justice is equal access to wealth,

opportunities and privileges within
society.

• Promotion of Social Justice is equivalent

to promotion of the common good.