ETHICS - The good things that we should do and the bad things that we should avoid; the right

ways in which we could or should act and the wrong ways of acting.

Aesthetics – derived from the Greek word “aesthesis” (“sense” or “feeling”) and

refers to the judgements of personal approval or disapproval that we make about

what we see, hear, smell, or taste.

Etiquette – concerned with right and wrong actions, but those considered not

quite grave enough to belong to the discussion on ethics.

Technical Valuation – derive from the Greek word “techne” the English words

techniques and technical which are often used to refer to a proper way (or right

way) of doing things but may not necessarily be an ethical.

Morals – used to refer specific beliefs or attitudes that people have or to describe

acts that people perform.

 Ethics- the discipline of studying and understanding ideal human behavior and

ideal ways of thinking

Descriptive Ethics – reports how people, particularly groups, make their moral

valuations without making any judgement either for or against these valuations.

Normative Ethics – often done in philosophy or moral theology, engages

questions “What could or should be the right way of acting? In other words, a

normative discussion prescribes what we ought to maintain as our standards or

bases for moral valuations.

Moral issue – used to refer to those particular situations that are often the source
of considerable ad inclusive debates

Moral Decision – when one is faced in a situation and confronted by the choice

of what act to perform.

Moral Judgment – when one is an observer who makes an assessment on the

actions or behavior.

Moral Dilemma – Going beyond the matter of 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; When an individual can choose only one from a number of possible

actions and there are compelling ethical reasons for the various choices.

Moral Theory/Framework

- A systematic attempt to establish the validity of maintaining certain moral principles.

It is a structure which can evaluate our reasons for valuing a certain decision or

judgement.

AUTHORITY OF THE LAW

It is a system of rules that are created and enforced through social and governmental

institutions to regulate behavior. It has been defined as the science of Justice or the Art

of Justice.

Law - is a system that regulates and ensures that individuals or a community

adhere to the will of the state.

Divine Command Theory - the divinity called God, Allah, or Supreme Being commands and one is
obliged to obey her Creator.
Culture - is the integrated pattern of human knowledge belief and behavior that depends upon

the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.

Cultural Relativism – From the reality of diversity, it is possible for someone to jump to the

further claim that sheer variety at work in the different ways of valuation means there is no

single universal standard for such valuations, and that this holds true as well in the realm of

ethics. Therefore, what is ethically acceptable or unacceptable is relative to, or that is to say,

dependent on one’s culture.

James Rachels’ Criticism

1. The argument of criticism is premised on the reality of difference.

2. We realize that we are in no position to render any kind of judgement on the practices

of another culture.

3. We realize that we are in no position to render any kind of judgement on the practices

of even our own culture.

4. We can maintain it only by following presumption of our culture as a single clearly

defined substance or as something fixed and already determined.\

Positive Points- Promotes sense of humility, that is, urging us not to imagine that our own culture is

superior to another. Such humility, however, should go hand in hand with a capacity for a

rational, critical discernment that is truly appreciative of human values.

Weak Points - It basically renders us incapable of discerning about what values we may wish to

maintain as we are forced to simply accept whatever culture gives us. It keeps us from exploring

whether there are values that are shared between cultures; keeps us from comparing and

judging- either positively or negatively – the valuations that are made by different cultures.
Strong Points

1. Simplicity – when an idea is marked by simplicity, it has unique appeal to it; a theory

that conveniently identifies a single basis that will somehow account for all actions is a

good example of this.

2. Plausibility- It is plausible that self-interest is behind a person’s actions. It is clearly the

motivation behind many of the actions one perform which are obviously self-serving;

it could very well also be the motivation behind an individual’s seemingly otherdirected actions.

3. Irrefutable – there is no way to try to answer it without being confronted by the

challenge that, whatever one might say, there is the self-serving motive at the root of

everything.

ETHICAL EGOISM - It does not suppose all actions are already inevitably self-serving. Instead, ethical

egoism prescribes that we should make our own ends, our own interests, as the single

overriding concern. We may act in a way that is beneficial to others, but we should do

that only if it ultimately benefits us.

- It is not just some pleasant pursuit of one’s own desires, but the imposition of a will to

power that is potentially destructive of both the self and the others. One can take on this

view, if one wishes, but it is also possible to wonder whether there is a way of

recognizing our being in the world with others, of thinking of our own wellbeing

concomitantly with the wellbeing of others.

UTILITARIANISM

- It 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.

- It claims that one’s actions and behavior are good inasmuch as they are directed toward

the experience of the greatest pleasure over pain for the greatest number of person.

- Its root word is “utility” which refers to the usefulness of the consequences of one’s

actions.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

- He argued that our actions are governed by two sovereign masters – which he calls

“pleasure and pain”. These masters are given to us by nature to help us determine what

is good or bad and what to be done and not; they fasten our choices to their throne.

- He equates happiness with pleasure.

- He provided a framework for evaluating pleasure and pain commonly called Felicific

Calculus.

o Felicific calculus is a common currency framework that calculates the pleasure

that some actions can produce. In this framework, an action can be evaluated on

the basis of intensity or strength of pleasure; duration or length of the experience

of pleasure; certainty, uncertainty, or the likelihood that pleasure will occur;

propinquity, remoteness, or how soon there will be pleasure.

o In measuring the tendency to choose these actions we need to consider two more

dimensions:

Fecundity – chance it has of being followed by sensations of the same

kind, and purity of the chance it has not being followed by sensations of

the opposite kind.

Lastly is consideration of the number of person who are affected by

pleasure or pain, another dimension called Extent should also be

considered.

o Felicific calculus allows the evaluation of all actions and their resultant

pleasure.

o This means that actions are evaluated on this single scale regardless of

preferences and values. In this sense pleasure and pain can only quantitatively

differ but not qualitatively differ from other experiences of pleasure and pain.

The Principle of Utility

- Refers to our subjection to our sovereign masters: pleasure and pain

- Refers to the motivation of our actions as guided by our avoidance of pain and our
desire for pleasure.

- Refers to pleasure is only good if and only if, they produce more happiness than

unhappiness. This means that it is not enough to experience pleasure, but to also inquire

whether the things we do make us happier.

Principle of the Greatest Number

 According to John Stuart Mill, equating happiness with pleasure does not aim to

describe the utilitarian moral agent and independently from others. This 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

consequence of our actions

John Stuart Mill understands JUSTICE as respect for rights directed toward society’s pursuit

for the greatest happiness of the greatest number. MORAL RIGHTS is a valid claim on

society and are justified by utility.

THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274)

Hailed as a doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. A Dominican friar who was the

preeminent intellectual figure of the scholastic period of Middle Ages, contributing

to the doctrine of the faith more than any other figure of his time. His Summa

Theologiae, his magnus opus, is a voluminous work that comprehensively

discusses many significant points in Christian theology. He was canonized in 1323.

Final cause - It has an apparent end o goal.

THE ESSENCE AND VARIETIES OF LAW

ESSENCE

There are many possible desirable ends or goods, and we act such ways as to

pursue them. However, just because we think that a certain end is good and is

therefore desirable does not necessarily mean it is indeed good.

 COMMON GOOD- Considering what is good for the community as well as our

own good.

 LAW- The determination of the proper measure of our acts.

VARIETIES

 ETERNAL LAW- refers to what God wills for creation, how each participant in it is

intended to return to Him.

 NATURAL LAW- refers to the natural inclination to its proper act and end.

 HUMAN LAW- refers to all instances wherein human beings construct and enforce

laws in the communities.

 DIVINE LAW-refers specifically to the instances where we have precepts or

instructions that come from divine revelation.

NATURAL LAW

IN COMMON WITH OTHER BEINGS

 In Aquinas view, we have to consider how we human beings are both unique and at

the same time participating in the community of the rest of creation.

o desire to preserves one’s own being

IN COMMON WITH OTHER ANIMALS

 In Aquinas view, we human beings has a desire to do with sexual intercourse and the

care of one’s offspring.

UNIQUELY HUMAN

 We have a natural inclination to know the truth about God and to live in the society.

 Presented three inclinations as bases for moral valuation;