SCHOOL OF THOUGHT 1

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the period, students will be

able to:
1. Integrates moral principles and concepts
of human behavior in managing clients
2. Applies the moral concepts and
principles in the holistic care of clients
3. Exemplify love and carrying out CEU
core values for country in service of the
4. Filipinos.
5. Customized nursing interventions based
on Philippine culture and values
 ETHICAL THEORIES

CLASSIFICATION OF
ETHICAL THEORIES

TELEOLOGICAL
(CONSEQUENTIAL)

DEONTOLOGICAL
 DEONTOLOGICAL

 Stress DUTY as the norm of moral

actions.

 Also known as DUTY ETHICS

 TELEOLOGICAL (CONSEQUENTIAL

Stresses the END, RESULT, GOAL,

CONSEQUENCE of an act as the
determining factor of its rightness and
wrongness
ETHICAL RELATIVISM

 Also known as moral relativism

 claims that there are no universal or

absolute moral principles.

 Standards of right or wrong are always

relative to a particular culture or society.
SITUATION ETHICS

• Advocated by Joseph Fletcher, an American

Protestant Medical Doctor
3 APPROACHES TO MORALITY

1.LEGALISM / LEGALISTIC /
NORMATIVE

2.ANTONOMIAN

3.SITUATIONISM / SITUATIONIST
3 APPROACHES TO MORALITY

1.LEGALISM / LEGALISTIC / NORMATIVE

 Prescribes certain general moral

prescriptions, law, or norms by which to
judge, determine, & settle the rightness and
wrongness of human judgments or
decisions.
3 APPROACHES TO MORALITY

2. ANTINOMIAN
 Free the Christian from the obligations of
the moral law in which case there are no
absolute precepts or moral principles by
which to be guided in making decisions.

 Too liberal and unconventional.

3 APPROACHES TO MORALITY

3. SITUATIONISM / SITUATIONIST
 states that the moral norm depends upon a
given situation, but whatever this situation
may be, one must always act on the name of
Christian love.

 Situation in this context refers to HUMAN

CONDITION or any state of moral affairs and
issues that demands a moral judgment or
action.
3 TYPES OF LOVE

EROS
PHILIA
AGAPE
 3 TYPES OF LOVE

EROS / EROTIC LOVE

Means sexual love which normally relates

a man to a woman, but it may also exist
between a tomboy and another woman or
between a gay and another male.

Refers to heterosexual relationships

 3 TYPES OF LOVE

PHILIA / FILIAL LOVE

Refers to the affections that binds a

parent to his / her child, a brother to his
sister, a brother to his brother or sister to
her sister.
3 TYPES OF LOVE
AGAPE / AGAPEIC LOVE
Refers to one’s care and concern and
kindness towards others.

Christian love best exemplifies agape

Love of and for one’s neighbor (any fellow

human) just as Christ himself exemplified
is love which concerned for the well being
of another, regardless of his station in life.
 3 TYPES OF LOVE
AGAPE / AGAPEIC LOVE

Characterized by CHARITY,
RESPECT, AND RESPONSIBILITY
to and for the other.
This is the kind of love by which one
should act and settle what is right and
wrong, just and unjust, in any complicated
situation.
 3 TYPES OF LOVE
AGAPE / AGAPEIC LOVE

Most reliable norm by which to settle

moral issues moral issues is agapeic
love.
This kind of love goes beyond racism and
religionism, sexism, nepotism, favoritism,
kinship, and ethnocentrism.
SITUATION ETHICS

Key Points in Medical Context

 combine love and justice in treating ill patients.
 agapeic love serves to check selfish motive as well
as uncaring health personnel.
 it makes moral decisions flexible and adaptable to
varying situations.
PRAGMATISM

Charles Peirce William James Peirce

PRAGMATISM

• More of a theory of knowledge, truth and

meaning than of morality

• Holds that the true and valid form of

knowledge is one which is practical,
workable, beneficial and useful.
True and Valid form of Knowledge according to Pierce

1. Practical – one that we can practice and

produces practical results

2. Workable – one that we can put to work; it

can be worked out and it works

3. Beneficial – it benefits people

4. Useful – one that can be used to attain good

results
PRAGMATISM

Key Point in Medical Context

*The truth happens to ideas and is not a

quality or property of ideas.

*Truth is made by true events or happening

PRAGMATISM

Argument

Materialistic- its claim that the

truth is the cash value of an idea

Too individualistic
UTILITARIANISM

 English philosophers: Jeremy Bentham

and John Stuart Mill

 It claims that there is one and only one

moral principle – the principle of utility

 States that the rightness and wrongness

of actions is determined by the goodness
and badness of their consequences
UTILITARIANISM
UTILITARIANISM

 The utility of an action is determined by the

extent to which it promotes happiness
rather than its reverse.

 Consequences, effects, results and

outcomes are most important

 Alternative form of the utilitarian’s utility

principle as to get rid of individualism and
subjectivism: PRINCIPLE OF THE
GREATEST HAPPINESS
UTILITARIANISM

PRINCIPLE OF THE GREATEST HAPPINESS

 An action is good (right) in so far as it

produces the greatest happiness for the
greatest number of people

 An action is bad (wrong) in so far as it

produces more harm than benefit for the
greatest number of individuals
TYPES OF UTILITARIANISM

ACT UTILITARIANISM

 Determines the rightness and wrongness by

weighing the consequences of the act itself.

 situationalistic; it applies the principle of utility

to particular cases in particular situations.
TYPES OF UTILITARIANISM

RULE UTILITARIANISM

 appeals to a set of criteria, norms, or rules to settle

what is right, just, and ethical decision to make.

 Absolutistic, for once rule or policy has been

formulated, it must be followed, given the same set of
circumstances.

 Relativistic, once a certain policy or rule becomes

irrelevant to the demands of a new set of
circumstances, it will have to be revised, modified, or
altered
Utilitarianism

 Key Points in the Medical Context

provides a system for formulating, testing and
evaluating hospital policies and regulations
which give rise to the enactment of laws,
directives, guidelines and codes of conduct
Utilitarianism

Argument
It justifies the imposition of discomfort or
suffering on a few for the sake of the many
 It is somewhat impractical to attempt to
determine all the possible legitimate results
that must be taken into account before a
moral decision can be adjudged as right or
wrong.
 It ignores the motives from which some
moral decisions are made.
THANK YOU!