Mapua University

Department of Arts and Letters

GED107 – B2, 1stQ2019

Name: _SALVADOR, Joshua B._ SN: _28_

Activity: _1_ Date: _August 22, 2019_

1. What is Ethics?

The term “ethics” was derived from the Greek word “ethos” which means, customs or
character. It is simply the set of moral principles that serves as a guide of every people especially
when it comes with their decisions in life. It is the discipline which is concerned with our actions
whether it is morally good or bad, and morally right or wrong.
In life, we often find ourselves being confuse on what’s happening in the world. It makes
it more difficult to decide among the choices given that there might be consequences afterwards.
Some of us might choose the one which has been the choice of most people. Some might choose
the one which they think would benefit them the most. In this kind of moments, ethics tells us the
best option which we can achieve what’s good and right. These options refer as values that tells us
what’s good, principles that tells us what’s right, and purpose that tells us our reason for being.
According to Mintz (2010), ethics answers the typical questions in life like: how should
we live our life? That eventually becomes the root of different inquiries in our life such as: What
kind of person should we strive to be? What values are important? What standards or principles
should I live by?
Ethics can’t be acquired overnight. It comes from our fellow people and from the
experiences we gathered throughout our lives. It was mentioned by Resnik (2015) that most of us
learned ethical norms at home, at school, at the church, and with socializing with different people.
He also stated that we obtain the sense of right and during in our childhood, but we continuously
experiencing development throughout life as we became more mature and aware on the reality.

2. Why study Ethics?

As mentioned above, ethics serves as our guide in life. It has a huge effect on how we
behave as human beings in this world. Thus, ethics affects how we interact with different people
and all the things that exist.
As stated by Fischer (n.d), our society can’t function well without the set of accepted moral
codes that define boundaries of acceptable behaviors. He also added that accepting the fact that
our freedom has its limitation for the benefit of the greater society is important to every member
of a society.
There is no doubt that ethics is a central component for any happy, healthy, and mature
life. However, there are still some detractors that question the essence of understanding and
studying ethics. As believed by Panza and Potthast (n.d), there are five reasons why we should
start to study ethics. Here are the five reasons they stated:
 Ethics allows us to live an authentic life – Integrity is the key to experience an authentic
and meaningful life.
Ethics makes us more successful – Ethical people knows the proper way of handling
tasks and proper way of interacting with different people which leads them in creating
greater decisions that eventually help them to become more successful
Ethics allows us to cultivate inner peace - Lives that lived in an ethical way are said to
be calmer and more focused on being productive. Ethical people tend to find their inner
peace because most of their decisions made never gave them problems.
Ethics provided for a stable society – as mentioned earlier, a society can’t stand without
the accepted moral codes that defines boundaries of acceptable behaviors.
Ethics may help out in afterlife – No one can be sure if there are eternal life but some
religious institution tends to practice ethical life because they believe that it would help
them afterlife.

What happens if live our life unethically? Well, maybe small problems might occur or
maybe, catastrophe might happen. According to Carucci (2016), billions of dollars have been paid
as fines by different companies that were proven and charged with ethical breaches. It is an ethical
violation wherein a person within a community or system creates an ethical choice that sets a
standard by which others can make a similar decision.
Life is a continuous process. Everyday, we learn from the things that surrounds us. What’s
the most important thing to learn is being able to create decisions on our choices in this world and
use it to promote greater good for the society.

References

Carucci, R. (16, December 2016). Why Ethical People Make Unethical Choices. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2016/12/why-ethical-people-make-unethical-choices
Fischer, W. (n.d). Why do we Study Ethics? Retrieved from https://www.enotes.com/homework-
help/why-we-study-ethics-1134271
Mintz, S. (21, December 2010). What is Ethics? Retrieved from
https://www.ethicssage.com/2010/12/what-is-ethics.html
Panza, C. & Potthast, A. (n.d). Why Study Ethics? Retrieved from
https://www.dummies.com/education/philosophy/why-study-ethics/
Resnik, D. (1, December 2015). What is Ethics in Research & Why is it Important? Retrieved from
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/index.cfm