ETHICS

Prepared by:
Ms. Diana B. Estrella
 1.
Introduction to Ethics

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 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
o What are Rules?
o Why does the society have
rules?
o Why do some people do not
conform with the rules?
o Why do you follow rules?
o What rules do you find
restricting?
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❑ What is Ethics?
❑ What are the Branches of
Ethics?
❑ Why study Ethics?
❑ What is the difference
between Morality and Ethics?
 RULES
✘ A set of guidelines
✘ Monitor the interactions of human beings
✘ Provide a sense of predictability, consistency, and stability

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 ETHICS
✘ “Moral Philosophy”
✘ The study of moral judgments, what is good or evil, right or
wrong.
✘ A system of moral values and principles.
✘ Greek word: ethos – custom, habit, character, disposition
✘ Usually derived from religions, philosophies, and culture.
✘ “Goodness of individuals”, “good life”
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 BRANCHES OF ETHICS
NORMATIVE ETHICS DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS
✘ Actions are judged by merits ✘ Does not determine the

✘ Determined by how you want rightness or wrongness of an

to be treated action
✘ Defines what is right or ✘ Studies how individuals or

wrong societies define morals

✘ Example: The Golden Rule ✘ Defines morals in terms of
cultural or personal
significance
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 2.
Standards

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 MORAL vs. NON-MORAL STANDARDS
MORAL STANDARDS
✘ Norms that consider an action to
be morally acceptable or
unacceptable.
✘ Deal with matters that can
seriously harm or benefit human
beings.
✘ Moral values and principles.
NON-MORAL STANDARDS
✘ Rules that are unrelated to moral or
ethical considerations.
✘ Not linked to morality or lacks
ethical sense.
✘ E.g. Etiquette, fashion standards,
rules in games, house rules,
religious rules, some traditions and
legal statutes.
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 CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARD
1. Moral standards 3. Moral standards 5. Moral standards
involve serious are not are based on
wrongs or established by impartial
significant authority figures. considerations.
benefits. 4. Moral standards 6. Moral standards
2. Moral standards have the trait of are associated
ought to be universalizability. with special
preferred to other emotions and
values. vocabulary.
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 3.
Dilemmas

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 MORAL DILEMMA
✘ A conflict where an agent has moral reasons to do two actions, but doing
both is not possible. No matter what choice you make, you will be failing
to follow your morals.

1. You are presented with two or more actions, all of which you have the
ability to perform.
2. There are moral reasons for you to choose each of the actions.
3. You cannot perform all of the actions and have to choose which to
perform.
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 Activity!
BY GROUP
1. Cite at least 3 examples for moral standards and 3 for non-moral
standards.
2. As a student, did you encounter some dilemmas in your school? What
did you do?
3. A loved one is suffering from a debilitating disease that has put
him/her in constant pain and agony. One day, he/she decides to die.
However, the condition is such that he/she cannot die on his own.
What would you do?

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 4.
FREEDOM and
MORAL ACTS
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Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
✘ German philosopher during the
Age of Enlightenment
✘ His contribution to Philosophy
include Metaphysics,
Epistemology, Ethics, and
Aesthetics
✘ Deontological Ethics
✘ Categorical Imperative

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 Kant’s Morality and Freedom
✘ To act freely is to act autonomously – to act according to a
law I give myself.

○ NOT FREE: Acting according to the laws of nature,

demands of social convention, pursuit of pleasure and
comfort
○ To act freely is not simply to choose a means towards an
end.
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 Kant’s Morality and Freedom
○ To act freely is to choose the end itself, for its own sake.
○ Acting freely = Acting morally
○ The capacity to act freely and morally gives humans the
dignity that animals do not have. Respecting this dignity
requires us to treat others not as means but as ends.

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 Categorical vs. Hypothetical Imperatives
✘ Hypothetical Imperative

○ Uses instrumental reason: If I want X, I must do Y. (If I

want to stay out of jail, then I must be a good citizen.)
○ Always conditional
○ The action is good because it is a means to something
else.

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 Categorical vs. Hypothetical Imperatives
✘ Categorical Imperative
○ Non-conditional – the action is good by itself, regardless of its
consequences
○ Concerned with form and principle, not results.
○ “Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that
it should become a universal law.”
○ “Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your
own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means,
but always at the same time as end.”

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 The Role of Freedom in Morality
✘ Ethics is the cultivation of virtue: the development of character traits so
that choosing the good becomes a matter of habit.
✘ Freedom is the power rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do
and to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility.
✘ Freedom = responsibility
✘ If man does good but not freely, was his action really moral?

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 Human Acts vs. Acts of Humans
✘ Human acts – utilize knowledge and free will; voluntary acts
✘ Acts of humans – actions that do not utilize intellect, will, or
knowledge; natural acts

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 Reference
✘ Ethics for College Students: CHED Curriculum-Compliant
○ Roman D. Leaño, Jr.
○ Arthur B. Gubia-on

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