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Ethics: Basic Concepts and Issues

Module 1 of the document provides an overview of ethics, including: 1) It defines morality and ethics, noting that ethics examines moral standards. 2) It outlines the 3 general areas of ethics: metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. 3) It discusses descriptive ethics and how it differs from philosophical ethics. The document then summarizes key concepts from the first 4 lessons, including: the normative nature of moral statements; characteristics that distinguish moral standards from other norms; and arguments for and against ethical relativism.

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120 views

Ethics: Basic Concepts and Issues

Module 1 of the document provides an overview of ethics, including: 1) It defines morality and ethics, noting that ethics examines moral standards. 2) It outlines the 3 general areas of ethics: metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. 3) It discusses descriptive ethics and how it differs from philosophical ethics. The document then summarizes key concepts from the first 4 lessons, including: the normative nature of moral statements; characteristics that distinguish moral standards from other norms; and arguments for and against ethical relativism.

Uploaded by

Adam Martinez
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Module 1

Ethics: Basic Concepts and Issues


Lesson 1. Meaning and Scope of Ethics
Lesson 2. Normative Nature of Moral Statements
Lesson 3. Characteristics of Moral Standards
Lesson 4: The Issue of Ethical Relativism
Lesson 1: Meaning and Scope of Ethics
Morality and Ethics
Morality
• Morality refers to the set of standards an individual person or society uses to judge
whether an act is good or bad, whether someone is virtuous or not, or whether we
ought to do this or that.

Ethics
• The word “Ethics” is sometimes used to refer to one’s set of moral beliefs and
practices. Strictly speaking, however, it refers to the discipline that examines the
moral standards of an individual or society. Being a branch of philosophy that
studies the nature of morality, it is sometimes also called moral philosophy.
3 General Areas of Ethics
1. Metaethics
• It looks into the nature, meaning, scope, and foundations of moral values, beliefs,
and judgments. Examples of metaethical questions are: Is morality objective or
relative? Is morality based on reason, emotions, intuition, or facts? What are moral
persons? What does it mean to be morally accountable?

2. Normative Ethics
• It is concerned with the formulation of moral standards, rules, or principles to
determine right from wrong conduct or ways of life worth pursuing.
• Normative ethical theories are generally built on 3 considerations about acts: (a) that
they lead to consequences; (b) that they follow or violate rules; and (c) that they are
done by persons with character traits. Accordingly, these theories are generally
classified into consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics.
3. Applied Ethics
• It examines the particular moral issues occurring in both the personal and social
spheres. It determines the moral permissibility of actions and practices in specific
areas of human concern like business, medicine, nature, law, sports, and others.
• Areas in applied ethics include business ethics, bioethics, environmental ethics,
computer ethics, and social media ethics.
__________
Descriptive Ethics
• Metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics are areas of Ethics taken as a
philosophical study of morality. A non-philosophical study of morality which seeks to
objectively record and present how people in a certain community make moral judgments
or develop their capacity for such is called descriptive ethics. Descriptive ethics can be
done in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, and psychology.
Lesson 2: Normative Nature of Moral Statements

Moral Statements as Normative Statements


• Moral statements are normative or prescriptive, not descriptive or factual. They are
concerned with how things should be rather than what things are.
Normative Statements in General
• While we appeal to the results of research, experiment, or observation in validating
factual statements, we appeal to certain standards in validating normative
statements.
• Normative statements may involve matters concerning morality, aesthetics, grammar,
legality, and etiquette (among others), which are distinguished according to the
standards used for making these statements.
Examples:
Normative Statements Standards
“You ought to return the excess change to the cashier.” Moral Standard
“There should be unity, balance, and contrast in your painting.” Aesthetic Standard

“You ought to use the preposition “in” rather than “on.” Grammatical Standard

“It is illegal to make a U-turn there.” (“Based on the law, you Legal Standard
ought not to make a U-turn there

“You ought to cover your mouth when you laugh.” Standard of Etiquette
Lesson 3: Characteristics of Moral Standards

Moral Standards and Other Normative Standards


• Moral standards are often confused with other normative standards also
concerned with “good” or “proper” behavior, such as:
1. Standards of Etiquette: based on culture or conventional practices
2. Legal Standards: based on governmental laws
3. Religious Standards: based on religious laws

• What may be acceptable for these other normative standards may not be
acceptable for moral standards due to the characteristics of moral standards.
Four Characteristics of Moral Standards
1. Moral standards deal with matters that can seriously harm or benefit
human beings (and other moral persons).
2. Moral standards have universal validity.
• If it is morally wrong for Person A to do act X, then it is wrong to do X for anyone under
circumstances relevantly similar to Person A’s.
3. Moral standards have a particularly overriding importance.
• Moral standards are used to evaluate even the correctness of other normative
standards such as legal and cultural ones.
4. Moral standards are not established by the decisions of authoritarian
bodies, nor are they determined by appealing to consensus or tradition.
Lesson 4: The Issue of Ethical Relativism

Defining Ethical Relativism


• Ethical Relativism: the view which states that all moral principles are valid
relative to a particular society or individual.
• Ethical Relativism should be distinguished from:
• Ethical Skepticism: the view which states that there are no valid moral
principles at all (or at least we cannot know whether there are any)
• Ethical Objectivism: the view which states that there are universally valid
moral principles binding all people.
Two Forms of Ethical Relativism
1. Individual Ethical Relativism /Ethical Subjectivism
• The rightness or wrongness of an action lies on the the individual’s own
commitments and interests.
• There is no interpersonal basis by which to judge whether an act is morally
good or bad, right or wrong.
2. Cultural Ethical Relativism /Ethical Conventionalism
• The rightness or wrongness of an action depends on society’s norms.
• Morality is social in nature. While there are no universal moral principles, there
are valid moral principles justified by virtue of their cultural acceptance.
• Considered more acceptable or reasonable than individual ethical relativism.
Arguments For and Against Ethical Relativism
Some Arguments in Support of Ethical Relativism
1. Ethical relativism must be true since moral beliefs and rules vary from culture to
culture (and within the same culture, they vary over time). (Diversity Argument)
2. Our perception of things is inescapably culture-bound: there is no independent,
non-cultural viewpoint. Consequently, moral beliefs can only be true or valid
relative to certain groups. (Dependency Argument)
3. Relativism must be the right way to view the nature of morality since
acknowledging the differences among various societies in terms of their moral
beliefs and practices leads to respect, social harmony, and peaceful co-existence
among the different cultural, religious, and social groups. (Toleration Argument)
Some Arguments Against Ethical Relativism
1. Moral diversity or disagreement does not establish moral relativism.
• When two people disagree about something, it may be that one of them is
correct while the other is wrong.
2. Ethical relativism leads to absurd consequences.
• First, moral criticism would be impossible or meaningless. It would be senseless
to criticize an action by another individual or group however abhorrent or
inhumane.
• Second, morality would simply be a matter of following social norms, which
would undermine our rational nature.
• Third, moral progress would be impossible. For how can we change social
practices for the better if we cannot criticize them?
3. Despite the fact that some moral beliefs and practices vary among cultures,
there are still universal moral standards that exist, such as those that respect
life and promote the pursuit of truth, justice, and peace.
• Cultural practices may differ but the fundamental moral principles underlying
them do not.
GEETHIC Blueprint Presentations
Prepared by: Napoleon M. Mabaquiao, Jr
Department of Philosophy
DLSU, Term 3, AY 2019-20

Reference: Evangelista, F. and N. Mabaquiao. Ethics: Theories and Applications


(Anvil Publishing Inc., 2020).

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