JMJ MARIST BROTHERS

NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines

Name: Rosario Cabarrubias Course and Year: BSMA – 2 Date: December 15, 2020
Subject: SSP 114 – TTH 10:30 am-12:00 pm Professor: Fr. Ariel Destora

A Synthesis Paper
on
THE LESSONS DISCUSSED IN ETHICS CLASS

In this new chapter of my life as a second-year student I have mine subject and

including those 9 subjects is a subject called SSP 114 or the as named as Ethics. As I learned

during the early sessions of our class, I have learned that ethics is the one that heavily influences

our choice between what is right and what is wrong and what to do and what not to do. It serves

as a basis and guide for our decision-making because our decisions in life can cause series of

unknown events which are connected like dominoes when one domino falls off the following

subsequent dominoes also fall and in decision making is also similar because when decisions are

made there are results and after the result there is another decision scenario waiting and another

result waiting to happen upon the decision making.

The Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic started during the late 2019 and is had

greatly impacted our lives as a student during midway February and March and it also has made

innumerable number of unexpected events that has greatly impacted our daily life patterns and

presumption it has greatly changed our lifestyle and it had greatly carved the world into a new

normal way of living. But despite of all the changes the simple yet complicated word with his
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines

ethics has never changed and as human beings We face more decisions in life than you can ever

imagine and those decision cause a series or domino effect in our daily lives and in order to help

and guide our decision making in life ethics is the one that we rely on.

Ethics is the one who heavily influences our choices between what is right and

what is wrong or what to do and what not to do. It helps us in answering the questions of human

morality by providing a set definition and standard for the concepts of right and wrong, of what

is good and evil, the vice and virtue of an action, and so on. When in doubt we always result on

thinking about the moral and ethical values we have been taught since our early childhood and

conclude on a decision to get clarity of thoughts and minds. While the ethics have been the

standard set for the well-being of our individuality, for all of the society and the overall whole

being of each of every one of us good of the people living here on earth, these can also be a cause

of unexplainable unhappiness for some individuals and can also affect the societal status of a

person. This is because people have gone excessively extreme with these and sometimes abuse

their power of majority over the people.

Due to the alarming rate of the virus, almost everything including the business

industry stopped and ceased to operate but not in the education system. Classes still resumed in

a way of either online and modular learning. Most learnings are usually done online and not the

traditional way of learning within the four corners of a classroom I can say without a doubt that

I still had fun along with the learnings that I have achieved in these past few synchronous

sessions during the online class in this subject SSP 114. I have learned and Instill relearning I

have game especially the learning of our lessons such as the seven threats to ethics. It is still
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines

clear in my mind that a threat to ethics can result in a threat to our very own individuality and

personality and we eventually threaten our whole society. Those 7 threats are the following; First

is the Death of God, Relativism, Egoism, The Evolutionary Theory, Determinism and Futility,

The Unreasonable Demands, and lastly is the False consciousness. Out of the seven threats, I

would like to elaborate more about the first threat which is the Death of God. In the Death of

God, the standard of an individual's ethics Is based on the terms and conditions of their god.

Christians such as myself believe that God has commanded an absolute standard for morality

and for ethical judgment which serves as our ethical standards for what is ethically and morally

right and what is ethically and morally wrong. Such devoted Christians also passionately

believed that everything we do for ourselves, our friends, family, and for our fellow neighbors

as Christians and as fellow children of God must be according to God's will and commandment

and such will and commandment is the main source of our judgment for our daily decision

making and for our ethical standards.

As for Relativism, in my opinion, the idea of relativism is not a threat to ethics

since the domain of ethics is larger than the different truth or ethical code of different

communities. They are just a part of the bigger picture since etiquette is a universal principle of

ethics and moral philosophy. Also, as an individual I think that we can still look for reasons why

we need to be ethical since it is beneficial for all of us.

 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines

During our class discussion, I find it very interesting whenever Father mentions

or discusses the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas especially the two laws, the law of the "I" and

the law of the "other". Wherein the law of the "I" starts within the individual self and ends with

the individual self. In the law of the "I" is the centerpiece of everything is the self-being and it

reduces itself to the others. while on the other hand the law of the other abandons the self and

moves towards the other it does not return with the shelf and rather circulates and encircles itself

to others regarding what the self-being preferred. An example of the law of the other is that when

a person based their moral and ethical standards on god's commandment then everything aside

from his or her god's command he will follow, without considering what he or she thinks and

prefer.

Learning from Emmanuel Levinas during our discussion created many intriguing

speculations for myself and it made me feel a new conception of subjectivity it made me visualize

my sense of subjectivity to phenomenal activities in my daily life even the common to be a

scenario that I have faced in my day today lifestyle. Levinas explores and explains the

relationship between the I and the other and how it involved in a special sense for truth justice

and or goodness and making it possible for an individual being to be unique and irreplaceable.

Levinas philosophy has been called ethics in means of shelf legislation and freedom, also the

measurement of one's happiness or utilitarianism, cultivates once virtue but in my own

perspective
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines

As an aspiring Certified Management Accountant (CMA) I must be able to develop

and eventually master my management accounting skills and techniques so that I’ll have a strong

foundation to use in the future as I work as a Management Accountant. As commented by Dr.

Baker “Management Accountants will be presented with many opportunities for innovative actions

in the global economic environment. In addition to their role of providing accurate timely and

relevant information, management accountants will be expected to participate as business

consultants and partners with management in the strategic planning process” (Barker, n.d.). Dr.

Barker’s statement made me realize that as I aim to become a CMA I must practice providing

accurate timely and relevant information and I can start it with this synthesis, also I must be able

to keep in mind the technical standards and morality in heart aching and undergoing a business.

Business and ethics are not too far from each other because ethics standardized a person's way of

knowing and doing what is right and avoiding what is morally and ethically wrong.

In having or operating a business, it has its own morality etiquette laws and codes

similar to ethics since they are already etiquettes in ethics there are laws in ethics and they're also

ethical chords and standards in order for a person to have his or her own bases. Realize that ethics

and business have a lot in common for example there is no need for discrimination between one's

religion whenever a person has his or own ethical standard and whenever a person engages in a

business whatever religion you have you are free to have your own business at the same time you

are free to follow your own ethical standard.

The ongoing discussion and learnings revolving about ethics made me improve

my way of recognizing certain ethical issues but don't get me wrong i am still far from being
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines
perfect on recognizing or even identifying ethical issues and making the right decisions. there are

instances that i may not be able to understand the situation or even conclude a right answer for my

decision but i know that in ethics there are also risk especially on making the decision and even

identifying various issues and it can greatly affect one's outcome for example in the industrial

world it could greatly affect one's organization even in the internal factor of an industry.

In the market, various ethnic issues arise and even classes from one another. The

battlefield between the competitions of each business is a war zone of ethical issues among

employees’ customers organization and even competitors not to mention the government there are

ethical issues around and as a spiral of an entrant in the business world, I must be able to distinguish

such issues and be able to master how to deal with such situation. Examples of ethical issues around

the business industry are abusive behavior, conflicts of interest, bribery, discrimination, fraud

sexual harassment intellectual property rights and privacy issues and other environmental

misconduct can arise and I must be able to regulate those misconduct and unethical deeds in order

for my business to continue to prosper and have minimal problems that would eventually destroy

of my very own business

One more thing that this subject made me realize is decision-making is not only

hard but putting the decision into action is much more difficult than I'd rather expect. As an

aspiring CMA, it would become my sole responsibility to uncover and assess activities that most

likely become our risk in my business and my fear that I would unlikely put my decisions into

action due to hesitation or what rather would become the outcome. I would fear that when in the

face of risk and disasters and other misconduct I would just end up paralyzed and stare or even
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines
become a puppy hiding its tail between its legs from behind and I would become too scared and

hide whenever a problem or concern arises thus making my performance and feasible to the

business and also to the organization. Putting a fast reaction on ethical issues as much as possible

would allow ethical issues to become highly impossible due to the preparations and actions that

I have prepared and it can also allow the business to have an early recovery whenever face with

dreadful dilemmas. Handling conflicts will soon become my sole responsibility and this position

is given along with the trust of the fellow co-workers and whenever misconduct is present there

comes the ethical policy of the business to ensure the prevention or even minimize the occurrence

of such conflicts and dilemmas.

Upon listening and realizing the connection of ethics in a business and how to

avoid conflicts and apply ethics in order to avoid dilemma as a future CMA I made a deduction

on how to avoid such conflicts. the first one is to avoid or even eradicate potential and possible

conflicts and dilemmas that may arise and occur, next is avoiding any decisions or events which

with conflict with your current decisions and it would greatly impact the result, lastly do not let

emotions take over your well-being whenever making a decision or even facing a dilemma

because sometimes we tend to think and make irrational decisions whenever our emotions

control our thoughts.

Entering into an industrial world conducting sales and other operations I have

realized that whenever I am in the process of creating, distributing, promoting, and even when

placing a price on a product must operate and sell my products and services to the customers

ethically because in business we are not selling the goods or services but we are offering them
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines
our trust and loyalty so that they will continue on buying the products and the flow of profit will

continue to generate an order for that I will sell ethically and must be committed to selling and

gaining my customers' loyalty and trust and being serious about not destroying the customers

trust in my future business.

I have also learned various philosophical approaches in studying a human person

which is also vital because in the business industry it is our role to no our customers what they

prefer in order to also gain an advantage on gaining their loyalty and trust. I was astounded with

the various philosophical approach that I have learned such as the ancient philosophy or cosmo-

centric, in medieval times the theocentric, in modern times the anthropocentric, and lastly in the

contemporary times the linguistic-cultural and data-centric. I have learned that in the times of

ancient philosophy ethics were based upon the stars and the holy bodies from the word cosmos

which defined as the substance made up of body and soul as a human person can see conceive and

understand the parts of the cosmos and in the cosmos centric. For a human person in the cosmos

centric a human life is good when he or she is good in nature since the cosmos is naturally whole.

In the medieval philosophy or theocentric, the ethics here is mostly based on divinity which defines

as God's will and commandment and the primary scope of an individual rotate on God and their

faith. Everything that can be seen within the naked eye of a human person is all in relation to God

and everything is explained by the creation of God and our faith in simple terms in this medieval

philosophy ethics is based on theology or the faith in God there is a creator and creation

relationship. our relationship to god as he is our creator and as his creation and the swords of his

creation. Show in ethics based on theocentric actions are based on the divine laws of God and to

conform to the natural law is to conform to the divine law of God. On modern philosophy or
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines
nthropocentric Rene Descartes was mentioned during this lesson and I can remember that Rene

Descartes was a proponent of the famous line i think therefore I am or Cogito ergo sum wherein I

realize that whenever a person thinks and doubts he exists because he is not contented with what

he has now or what is his current position but he persevered to have more and therefore having a

goal to reach more than the certain heights is the same as living and existing in this world.

It is my goal to own my very own business venture and whenever the time comes

that I have become my own boss I intend to fully apply. theories principles and concepts that I

have learned during this semester in order to completely enhance and heighten up my business

transactions for the great and good and of course for a profit realization in the future. with the

learnings that I've learned from Father Ariel Destura I intend to overtake any trials and dilemmas

that I have may come ahead in my life and with the help of identifying ethical dilemmas and

examine what decision should I make in order to have a non-problematic outcome that would have

greatly helped for myself and for those who surrounds me especially my neighbors as fellow

Christians. I intend to fully utilize and apply the learnings I have learned especially on how to base

my decisions on the principles of ethics and I will keep in mind the learnings also that I have

learned from Emmanuel Levinas with the learnings that I've learned this semester I am certain that

I can take full advantage on determining the dilemmas I face in the industrial world in my

upcoming future. I tend to carry on these learnings as a weapon as I face numerous trials and

uncertainties in the future. I will analyze situations and come up with a strategy and take up a full

advantage on a certain factor and adjust it in order to achieve a preferable result.

 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines
In this semester it has unfolded many chapters in my own life, various lessons

discussed made me grow with patience and perseverance. To patiently and critically think on

deciding especially when facing two trials and I intend to trust myself and produces surrounds

me continue to make smart decisions and not harm those people around me. I intend to use the

learnings I've gained from the very first meeting up to the last synchronization we have and

intend to grasp more about many things that will come in my way.

I have learned that decision-making takes time and it needs a lot of patience

especially in major decisions, I also learned that becoming decisive decision makers can also make

us clearer thinkers because we do not let our emotions get the best of us but rather rationally think

on what action must be done. what is really important is the amount of courage and will of that

person to carry out the decision and not be afraid or become wary on what the outcome may result.

I intend to apply my learnings based from the video such as practicing the use of the steps

mentioned by the speaker and the moral decision-making reason process, and being able to face

whatever may be the outcome or endgame of every decision I make. I also came to realization that

when facing a dilemma and is need on ethical decision making, we must do it rationally and have

minimal-to none emotions attached to avoid biased-reasoning leading to unwise decision. So,

while ethics and moral values must be embedded in people for the smooth functioning of the

society and must be redefined from time to time for the proper growth and development of

individuals as well as the society as a whole. According to French Author, Albert Camus, “A man

without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world”, this defines that a man or even the whole

society is without ethics and/or disregarded Ethics, total calamity and disorder will be showered

upon us and there will be no order on earth. Ethics holds immense importance in our personal,
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines

societal and professional life. A person who holds high ethical values truly believes in them and

follows them would be much more sorted as compared to those who follow the set ethical norms

but do not really believe in the same. Our minds as individual human beings are conditioned as

per the accepted moral and ethical values existent in the society, they are brought up in. The

importance of ethics cannot be easily undermined.

To end this synthesis and I would like to thank God with a prayer,

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful opportunity that we have learned for the entire

semester. I thank you for the knowledge and wisdom and that I together with my classmates will

continue to harbor it and use it for the greater good. Keep us safe from any harm and I include

in my prayer the victims of this dreadful Covid-19 pandemic. Lord, please heal our Land and

please lead us o Lord towards your way and path towards heaven, may I be able to apply what

I have learned in this semester. Also, as we go on our separate ways towards a new chapter

which I would like to call "2nd semester" I hope that you will continue to guide us and help us

to be a better student Lord Thank you for giving me a golden opportunity on becoming a student

of our Professor Father Ariel Destora, I pray for him to continue on sharing his knowledge and

experience for the sake of all of our future. Bless us oh Lord with your mercy and wisdom. I

know Lord that everything that is going on and is currently happening is just part of your plan I

believe in you. I thank you, Lord, for everything. This is all I ask in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
 JMJ MARIST BROTHERS
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION
City of Koronadal 9506
South Cotabato, Philippines

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