ETHICS • Morality can be defined as the
standards than an individual or a
ELIMINATE YOUR….
- Prejudice in using your own norms
to determine things.
- Arrogance in knowing the correct
the answer.
Philosophy is the science of all things
by their ultimate principles and causes , as
known by natural reason alone.
Empiricism– knowledge by means of
experience
Rationalism- knowledge by means of
reason
Man is a rational animal.
• Ethics, or moral philosophy,
may be defined in a provisional way,
as the scientific study of moral
judgments. (The practical science of
the morality of the human conduct)
• Fundamental issues of practical
decision making.
• Major concerns: the nature of the
ultimate value and the standards by
which humans can be judged right
or wrong.
• The Greek word ethos which can
mean custom, habit, character, or
disposition.
- Morals are seen as a part of a
greater system that is not objective
group has about what is right and
wrong, or good and evil.
• Morality is often defined in one of
two ways:
Normative Ethics: actions are
judged by their merits, allowing societies to
develop codes of conduct or behavior.
(How should people act?)
- GOLDEN RULE
- If your actions to another person
align with how you want to be
treated, they are moral.
- Try and define how people should
act.
Descriptive Ethics: What do
people think is moral?
- Does not actually claim that things
are right or wrong, but simply
studies how individuals or societies
define their morals.
What makes something right or wrong in a
specific culture?
Descriptive ethics defines morals in
terms of their cultural or personal
significance.
or unbiased but is created by a
culture, like language.
- Non moral standards:
- Etiquette
- Professional codes of ethics
Normative: adjective which comes from
"norm." norm: means standard, or rule, or
principle, as opposed to what is "normal"
for people to do, that is, what they actually
do. 
• For example, the rules
of mathematics are normative
because reasoning can be assessed
against these rules and judged
correct or incorrect, irrespective of
whether this usage is the normal
usage. If everyone were to calculate:
– 3 + 3 = 33---a mistake,
• Misunderstanding the rules (norms)
of mathematics. So even if this
mistake were "normal,"
• a normative appraisal would hold
everyone's actual thinking to the
rule which legislates how they
ought to think, and judge it
incorrect.
• Normative ethics is concerned with
moral norms.
 • A moral norm is a norm in the sense
of being a standard with which
moral agents ought to comply.
• "Thou shall not murder" is an
example of a moral norm: It is
meant to guide our actions, and to
the extent that people do not
comply, we may be judged morally
—that is, morally blamed. This is
then the meaning of a moral norm.
Two central concepts of
normative ethics:
- The right and the morally good.
- The concept of the right is:
the concept of duty,
the concept of which actions we
ought to perform, which it would be
wrong not to perform.
- The concept of the morally good, a
target of the theory of value,
or axiology (Greek: axios =
worth; logos = study of),
- refers to morally good properties
of human beings.
- Virtuous character traits such as
kindness, courage and honesty are
examples of states that are
generally thought to be morally
good.
- the term "right" is usually reserved
for actions,
- the "morally good" is for states of
character, including motives.
- Normative ethics is interested in
both: It aims to determine which
actions are right, and which states of
character are morally good.
Which actions are right?
• The central question of normative
ethics involves asking which actions
fall into the category of the right
and the category of the wrong.
This is called the theory of right action.
• The theory of right action is an
investigation and an attempt to
answer the question:
"What ought I to do?"
• "What is the right thing to do?"
• Besides the already mentioned
terms, "right," "wrong," and
"ought,"
• other important normative concepts
relating to action include
"obligatory," "forbidden,"
"permissible," and "required."
• A normative theory aims to answer
the question of "what makes
actions right or wrong."
• This usually amounts to drawing out
basic principles as standards of right
action.
• These basic principles may be
employed as a moral guide
to human beings in their lives,
deciding whether particular courses
of action—or particular types of
action—are right or wrong.
• The principle of utility
in utilitarianism, for example, is a
fundamental moral principle
according to which right actions are
those that maximize happiness.
• In Kantianism, the categorical
imperative is such a fundamental
principle from which right actions
are derived as duties.
Which states of character
are morally good?
 What states of character are
desirable, or morally good.
 Here normative ethics attempts to
answer the question:
"What sort of person ought I to
be?"
This is called the theory of virtue,
or virtue ethics.
 The focus of this aspect of
normative ethics is character. A
 virtue is a morally desirable state of
character such as courage.
 The theory of virtue is directed not
at what actions one ought to do, but
what person one should be. What is
a virtuous person like? What is a
vicious person like?
 What makes traits of character
virtuous or vicious?
 Virtue ethics emphasizes an
individual’s character as the key
element of ethical thinking.
 A virtue is an excellent trait of
character. It is moral excellence. A
trait or quality that is deemed to be
morally good and thus is valued as a
foundation of principle and good
moral being.
 Personal virtues are characteristics
valued as promoting collective and
individual greatness.
Important concepts for the theory of virtue
include terms such as good, bad, virtuous,
vicious, honest, courageous,
and praiseworthy.
Only good people can make good moral
decisions.
The best way to be moral is to constantly
seek to improve oneself.
• Theory of right action aims
to specify which actions are right,
• Theory of virtue should
specify the virtues, that is, traits of
character it is good or bad to
possess.
– It should say, for example,
that courage is a virtue, and
cowardice a vice.
– It should explain why we
should think of traits like
these as virtues or vices.
– The form of this justification
might be: Courage is a virtue
because it tends to bring
benefits to other people.
Here again, the state of
character is assessed against
a basic normative principle,
namely, that it is right to
bring benefits to other
people.
Descriptive ethics investigates the
attitudes of individuals or groups of people.
(comparative ethics)
• What ought to be noted is that
culture is generational and not
static. Therefore, a new generation
will come with its own set of morals
and that qualifies to be their ethics.
Descriptive ethics will hence try to
oversee whether ethics still holds its
place.
• It would be describing the norms or
ethical systems used in a given
geographical locale or a given
culture.
• it simply involves describing how
people behave and/or what sorts of
moral standards they claim to
follow. 
Descriptive ethics is about:
• what motivates pro-social behavior,
• how people reason about ethics,
• what people believe to have
overriding importance,
• how societies regulate behavior
(such as by punishing people for
doing certain actions).
• We know that empathy helps
motivate pro-social behavior (such
as giving to charity) and we know
that our beliefs about what has
overriding importance is somewhat
based on the culture we live in.
Cultural relativism
• The ability to understand the culture
on its own terms and not to make
 judgments using the standards of
one’s own culture.
• Culture: derived from the Latin word
“cultura” or “cultus” which means
care or cultivation.
• Culture as cultivation implies that
every human being is a potential
member of his own social group.
• He cannot develop inborn talents
without other people.
• His accomplishments not only help
him achieve self-actualization but
also make him/her a contributing
member of society.
Man as Moral Agent
• The idea of moral agency
• Moral Agent is a being capable of
acting with reference to right and
wrong.
 An intelligent being who has
choices and the power to
choose.
 Moral action- an action that
springs from choice, and is
not necessitated either by
mental propulsions or
external circumstances:
Intelligent, free, accountable.
 Instinctive Action- the result
of an undeviating and
unfailing but blind
propulsion.
 Divine Action- which though
certain as instinct, is yet in
the fullest sense intelligent
and free.
 It does not necessarily mean
that they are successfully
making moral decisions. It
means that they are in a
category that enables them
to be blamed.
To be blamed:
to have rights and duties.
 Must be a living creature.
 Must be able to comprehend
abstract moral principles and
apply them to decision
making.
 Must have self-
consciousness, memory,
moral principles, other
values
Reasoning faculty – devise plans for
achieving his objectives, to weight
alternatives, and so on.
 What you will learn and gain
from conforming to your
principles.
 Advantages and
disadvantages of violating
your moral principles.
 A moral agent lives in a
society with others who they
consider to have moral
rights.
 A being capable of moral
agency is one who possesses
the means of judging rightly,
and power to act
accordingly; but whether he
will do so or not, depends on
the voluntary exercise of his
faculties.
 Ethics is concerned with
other people’s interest, with
the interest of the society,
with God’s interest, with
“ultimate goods”, and so on.
Why Study Ethics
• His understanding of moral
problems will be widened
• His critical faculties will be trained
• It will enable a person to understand
better what his conscience is, how
he acquired it, how far he is likely to
 be able to trust to its deliverances
with safety, and how he can improve
it and make it more intelligent.
• Self-realizations.
MORAL DILEMMA
• A Conflict in which you have to
choose between two or more
actions and have moral reasons for
choosing each action.
• What is common to the two well-
known cases is conflict. In each case,
an agent regards herself as having
moral decisions to do each of two
actions, but doing both actions is not
possible.
• Ethicists have called situations like
these moral dilemmas.
• The crucial features of a moral
dilemma are these:
• The agent is required to do
each of two or more actions;
the agent can do each of the
actions; but the agent cannot
do both or all of the actions.
• The agent thus seems
condemned to moral failure;
no matter what she does,
she will do something wrong
(or fail to do something that
she ought to do.)
A moral dilemma is a situation where:
• You are presented with two or more
actions, all of which you have the
ability to perform.
• There are moral reasons for you to
choose each of the actions.
• You cannot perform all of the
actions and have to choose which
action, or actions when there are
three more choices, to perform.
• Since there are moral reasons for
you to choose each action, and you
cannot choose them all, it follows
that no matter what choice you
make, you will be failing to follow
your own morals.
• In other words, someone or
something will suffer no matter
what choice you make. .
• For example, your friend will suffer if
you tell the truth, and you will likely
lose your friendship. But if you do
not tell the truth, you will be a liar
and possibly a law breaker.
Lawrence Kohlberg Six
Stages of Moral
Development
Level 1: Pre-Conventional Level
Stage 1: Punishment/obedience
orientation
– Behavior is determined by
consequences. The individual
will obey in order to avoid
punishment.
Stage 2: Instrumental purpose orientation
– Behavior is determined again
by consequences. The
individual focuses on
receiving rewards or
satisfying personal needs.
Level 2: Conventional Level
Stage 3: Good Boy/Nice Girl Orientation
– Behavior is determined by
social approval. The
individual wants to maintain
or win the affection and
approval of others by being a
good person.
Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation
– Social rules and laws
determine behavior. The
individual now takes into
 consideration a larger
perspective, that of societal
laws.
– Moral decision making
becomes more than
consideration of close ties to
others. The individual
believes that rules and laws
maintain social order that is
worth preserving.
Level 3: Post Conventional or
Principled Level
Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation:
– Individual rights determine
behavior. The individual views laws
and rules as flexible tools for
improving human purposes.
– That is, given the right, there are
exceptions to rules. When laws are
not consistent with individual rights
and the interest of the majority, it
does not bring about good for
people and alternatives should be
considered.
Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle
Orientation:
– The highest stage of functioning.
However, some individuals will
never reach this level. At this stage,
the appropriate action is determined
by one’s self-chosen ethical
principles of conscience.
– These principles are abstract and laws of nature: the laws I give
universal in application. myself. This reason, “pure practical
– This type of reasoning involves reason”, legislates a priori–
taking the perspective of every regardless of all empirical ends.
person or group that could
potentially be affected by the
decision. Categorical vs. Hypothetical
Imperative
• Kant acknowledges two ways in
Kant’s Morality and which reason can command the
Freedom will, two imperatives.
Hypothetical Imperative
Duty vs. Inclination (morality)
uses instrumental reason: If I want X, I must
– Only the motive of duty, acting
do Y. (If I want to stay out of jail, I must be a
according to the law I give myself
good citizen and not rob banks.)
confers moral worth to an action.
Hypothetical Imperative is always
Any other motive, while possibly
conditional.
commendable, cannot give an action
moral worth. • If the action would be good solely as
a means to something else, the
Autonomy vs. heteronomy imperative is hypothetical.
(freedom)
• If the action is represented as good
– I am only free when my will is in itself, and therefore necessary for
determined autonomously, a will which of itself accords with
governed by the law I give myself. reason, the imperative is
Being part of nature, I am not categorical.
exempt from its laws and I’m
Categorical Imperative:
inclined or compelled to act
according those laws (act • 2 main foundations of categorical
heteronomously). imperative:
– My capacity for reason opens 1. Act only on that maxim whereby
another possibility, that of acting you can at the same time will that it
according to laws other than the should become a universal law.
Maxim is a rule, principle, that gives reason
to action. This is a universalizing test that
checks whether my action puts my interests
and circumstances ahead of everyone else’s
2. Act in such a way that you always
treat humanity , whether in you,
own person or in the person of any
other, never simply as a means, but
always at the same time as an end.
• Ethics is concerned with other
people’s interests, with the interests
of society, with God’s interest, “with
ultimate goods”, and so on.
• So when a person thinks ethically
they are giving at least some
thought to something beyond
themselves
• Rules are important because they
tend to protect the weaker class in
the society as they might be
disadvantageous position if rules are
broken.
• When rules are used right away they
provide a stable environment and
human co-existence in a society
which leads to peace and
development.
• Morality is an informal public
system applying to all rational
persons, governing behavior that
affects others, has the lessening of
evil or harm as its goal.
• From the Kantian standpoint,
agents such as psychopaths, rational
egoists, collectives and robots do
not fulfill some of the essential
conditions of moral agency.
• Morality is a complex system of
concepts and philosophical beliefs
by which an individual determines
whether his or her actions are right
or wrong.
• Often, these concepts and beliefs
are generalized and codified in a
culture or group, and thus serve to
regulate the behavior of its
members.
• Conformity to such codification
is called morality, and the group
may depend on widespread
conformity to such code for its
existence.
• A “moral” may refer to a particular
principle, usually as informal and
general summary of a moral
principle, as applied in a given
human situation.
Key Features of Morality
• People experience a sense of
moral obligation and
accountability.
– Even secularists like Karl
Nielsen recommend that one
“ought to” act to follow
some rules, policies,
practices, or principles.
• Moral values and moral
absolutes exist.
– It’s hard to deny the
objective reality of moral
values– actions like rape,
torture, and child abuse are
not just socially unacceptable
behavior but are moral
abominations.
– Some actions are really
wrong in the same way that
some things like love and
respect are morally good.
There are moral absolutes–
truths that exist and apply to
everyone.
• Moral law is known to
humans.
– Moral law is also called Law
of Nature because early
 philosophers thought that
generally speaking,
everybody knows it by
nature.
• Morality is objective.
– Morality is absolute there is
a real right and real wrong
that is universally and
immutably true, independent
of whether anyone believes
it or not.
– Since almost all people
assume certain things to be
wrong– such as genocide,
murder of babies for feast,
and rape– the best
explanation is that such
things really are wrong and
morality is objective.
• Moral judgments must be
supported by reasons.
– Moral judgments are
different from mere
expressions of personal
preference– they require
backing by reasons, and in
the absence of such reasons,
they are merely arbitrary.
• Moral law does exist.
– When we accept the
existence of goodness, we
must affirm a moral law on
the basis of which to
differentiate between good
and evil.
Aristotle and Moral
Responsibility
• Aristotle was the first to discuss
moral responsibility.
• He stated that it is “sometimes
appropriate to respond to an agent
with praise or blame on basis of his
or her actions and dispositional
traits of character.”
• For him, “only a certain kind of
moral agent qualifies as a moral
agent and is thus properly subject to
ascriptions of responsibility, namely
one who possesses a capacity for
decision.”
• Praiseworthy and blameworthy
actions are not those which match
up to a particular template of rules
or principles. Rather, they are ones
which flow from, and reveal a
certain type of character.
• Moral agency is not just about rules
to follow, it comes from a way of life
which Aristotle called the virtuous
life, which necessitates a unison of
thought and feeling.
Moral standard refers to norms which
we have about the types of actions which
we believe to be morally acceptable and
morally unacceptable.
Non-moral standards refer to rules that
are unrelated to moral or ethical
considerations. Either these standards are
not necessarily linked to morality or by
nature lack ethical sense.
• Basic examples of non-moral
standards include rules of etiquette ,
fashion standards, rules in games,
and various house rules.
• Religious rules, some traditions, and
legal statuses (i.e. laws and
ordinances) are non-moral
principles, though they can be
ethically relevant depending on
some factors and contexts.
• Etiquette refers to the norms of
correct conduct in polite society or,
more generally, to any special code
of social behavior or courtesy.
• The rules of etiquette are
prescriptions for socially acceptable
behavior.
 If you violate, you’re likely to be a profession are understood to have
considered ill-mannered, impolite, agreed to abide by those rules as a
or even uncivilized, but not condition of their engaging in that
necessarily immoral. profession.
If you want to fit in, get along with • Violation of a professional code
others, and be thought well of by may result in the disapproval of
them, you should observe the one’s professional peers and, in
common rules of politeness or serious cases, loss of one’s license
etiquette. to practice that profession.
• Statutes are laws enacted by
government. The law that defines
and prohibits theft (pagnanakaw) is
a statue. Congress and state
legislatures enact statutes.
• Statutes make up a large part of the
law and are what many of us mean
when we speak of “laws.”
• For example, state legislatures
establish licensing boards to
formulate regulations for the
licensing of physicians and nurses.
As long as these regulations do not
exceed the board’s statutory
powers and do not conflict with
other kinds of law, they are legally
binding.
• Somewhere between etiquette and
law lie professional codes of ethics.
These are the rules that are
supposed to govern the conduct of
members of a given profession.
Generally speaking, the members of