INTRODUCTORY

ETHICS
Dr. NGUYEN BICH NGOC
 ABOUT ME

• Dr. Ngoc, Nguyen Bich

School of Trade and International Economics, NEU

• Education:
▫ Ph.D. of International Business, NEU, Vietnam, 2017
▫ Master of International Business, La Trobe University,
Australia, 2008
▫ Bachelor of International Economics, Foreign Trade
University, Vietnam, 2006
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 Research

• Foreign investment and trade

• Sustainability and development

• Apply ethics on doing business

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Contact

• Email: ngocnb@neu.edu.vn
• Phone: 0919956929
• Office: Room 907, Building A1, NEU campus
• Office hours: Anytime with appointment (by email)
• Please do not call me after 9pm

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WHAT IS ETHICS?
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Think about
• Actions

• Motivations

• Consequences

• Characteristics of the actors

• Responsibility

• Right or wrong

(?) Will you stop use plastics? Why?

(?) What will you do to change the situation?

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(Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG

Food waste is sorted at the Puente Hills

Material Recovery Facility on Thursday, Feb.
15, 2017. The waste is turned into a slurry and
digested along with the treatment of waste
water.
Los Angeles County produces around
4,000 tons per day of food waste. Starving in Africa
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 overweight and obesity

Source: Internet

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Malnutrition
War!

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Environment

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 • Adjust national exam results in Vietnam
2018
– Ha Giang: 114 students
Why need exam?
– Son La?
– Lang Son?
– Other provinces?

Cheating

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How it effects?

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Questions to consider

• Is lying always wrong?

• When is it okay to break the law, if ever?
• Should we live for only today, and not worry about the
long term?
• Who sets up the rules for what is right and wrong?
• Is every act selfish? Or is there true selflessness?
• Does what’s moral very? Is it relative?

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What will I
study?

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WHY SHOULD I STUDY
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS?

This course aims at

introducing students to
various ethical concepts
related to the practice of
your professions and opens
to you a new panorama of
virtuous living.

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YOU ARE A PART OF THE SOCIETY

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Books
• Textbook:

Lewis Vaughn (2016), Doing ethics: Moral reasoning

and contemporary issues 4th edition, W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc, in USA, ISBN 978-0-393-26541-5

• Reference book:
• Louis P. Pojman (2007). Ethical theory: classical and
contemporary readings, 5th edition. Thomson Wadsworth
Publisher, USA, ISBN-13: 978-0-495-00671-8
• Torbjörn Tännsjö (2002), Understanding ethics: an
introduction to moral theory, Edinburgh University Press, in
Scotland, ISBN 0 7486 1638 1
• Ferrell & Fraedrich & Ferrell (2015), Business Ethics: Ethical
Decision Making & Cases, 10th edition, Cengage
Learning, in USA, ISBN 13: 978-1-285-42371-5 ISBN 10: 1-285-
42371-2.
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Class Below are class rules:

participation • Arrive on time and be seated and ready to begin when the
class begins. If you do arrive late for more than 60 minutes,
you will not be counted for that class. Note that this class is
intended for registered students only.

• Come prepared – read the readings assigned.

• Turn off cell phones during classes.

• Do not engage in individual discussions

• No food in class time

• Participate by contributing comments and questions during

the discussions. The instructor will call on students during the
class if participants do not volunteer.

• Please use common courtesy and polite manners in class.

• I have no tolerance for acts of academic dishonesty.

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 Grade, Exam, assignments
Class Participation
Class participation points will be based on general class attendance, contribution in class 10%
and compliance with the class rules
Individual Assignment
20%
Home work

Group Project
Each group has 3 – 5 members (total 12 groups)
20%
Groups are expected to do a report and a presentation. The report needs to be submitted
through Turnitin 2 days before the presentation.

Final Exam 50%

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Syllabus
• ..\syllabus\59B-KTTT-AEP-Detailed Syllabus-Introduction to Ethics-
Phil 160.pdf

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WHAT IS ETHICS?
 "What does ethics mean to you?"
Among replies were the following:

"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong”

"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs”

"Being ethical is doing what the law requires”

"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts”

"I don't know what the word means"

These replies might be typical of our own. The meaning of "ethics" is hard to pin
down, and the views many people have about ethics are shaky.
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 "Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me
is right or wrong”
• Many people tend to equate ethics with their feelings.

• But being ethical is clearly not a matter of following

one's feelings.

• A person following his or her feelings may recoil from

doing what is right.

• In fact, feelings frequently deviate from what is ethical.

She killed her grand baby because she did not

feel good when the baby was living!
http://soha.vn/ba-noi-lam-roi-chau-be-20-ngay-tuoi-lay-khan-
bit-mat-khien-chau-chet-ngat-20171206155305706.htm
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 "Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs”
• Religion can set
high ethical
standards and
can provide
intense
motivations for
ethical behavior.

• Ethics,
however,
cannot be
The Khua (an ethnic minority in confined to
Quang Binh) believed that giving religion nor The Bana and Jrai in Tay Nguyen believed
birth is dirty, so that the women is it the that it’s better for the babies to die with their
has to hide in forests to give birth mothers if their mothers die when giving birth
same as or breastfeeding.
alone.
religion.
Photo: Y Byen against that belief to save and raise 2 kids
many babies and by her own.
mothers dies 25
 "Being ethical is doing what the law requires”

• Being ethical is
also not the same
as following the
law.
• The law often
incorporates
ethical standards
to which most
citizens subscribe.
• But laws, like
feelings, can Islam offers 4 wives +
deviate from what unlimited sex slaves for
is ethical.
a man

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 "Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our
society accepts”
• Being ethical is not the same as
doing "whatever society accepts.“

• In any society, most people

accept standards that are, in fact,
ethical.

• But standards of behavior in

society can deviate from what is
ethical.

Eskino infanticide
• “Once when there was a famine Nagtak gave birth to a child, while people lay
around her dying of hunger. What did that child want here? How could it live
when its mother who should give it life was herself dried up and starving?

• So she strangled it and allowed it to freeze and later on ate it.”

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29

Question for you

What is ethics?
What is ethics?
• Ethics, or moral philosophy, is
the philosophical study of
morality.
• Morality refers to beliefs
concerning right and wrong,
good and bad— beliefs that
can include judgments,
values, rules, principles, and
theories.

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Ethics vs. Morality

• Ethos (Greek) and Mores (Latin) are

terms having to do with “custom,”
“habit,” and “behavior”
• Ethics is the study of morality.

• This definition raises two questions:

(a) What is morality?
(b) What is the study of morality?

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 What is Morality?

• Morality can be defined as:

a system of rules for guiding • Morality refers to beliefs

human conduct, and concerning right and wrong,
principles for evaluating good and bad— beliefs that
those rules can include judgments, values,
rules, principles, and theories.
• They help guide our actions,
define our values, and give us
reasons for being the persons
we are
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What is Morality?
Two points are worth noting in this
definition:
(i) Morality is a system; and
(ii) It is a system comprised of moral
rules and principles.

Moral rules can be understood as

"rules of conduct" which are very
similar to "policies."

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Morality is “relative”
A Matter for Individual Cultures to Decide

• A moral system is dependent on, or relative to, a particular culture or group.

• Ethical Relativism.

Need to distinguish between:

– Cultural relativism: Different cultures have different beliefs about what

constitutes morally right and wrong behavior.

– Moral relativism: No universal standard of morality is possible because

different people have different beliefs about what is right and wrong.

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 The nature of ethics

• Ethics is considered to be a theoretical, normative and

practical science…

• Ethics can also be divided into three areas:

– Normative ethics: How should people act?
– Meta ethics: What does 'right' even mean?
– Applied ethics: How do we take moral knowledge and put it
into practice?

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 The nature of ethics
Normative ethics
Provide a general theory that
tells us what is wright or wrong
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Meta ethics
Look at the works of ethics
and try to make sense of
everything that is going on
Applied ethics
The actual application of
ethical theory for the
purpose of choosing an
ethical action in a given
issue.
 Normative Ethics
• The study of the principles, rules, or theories that guide our actions and
judgments.

• The word normative refers to norms, or standards, of judgment—in this

case, norms for judging.

• For any act,

– There are three things that might be thought to be morally interesting:
– first, there is the agent, the person performing the act;
– second, there is the act itself;
– third, there are the consequences of the act.
– There are three types of normative ethical theory–virtue, deontological, and
consequentialist–each emphasizing one of these elements.
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Normative Ethics
• Concentrate on the act being performed. According to
deontological theories, certain types of act are
Deontology intrinsically good or bad, i.e. good or bad in themselves.
These acts ought or ought not to be performed,
irrespective of the consequences.

• Consequentialist theories hold that we ought always to

act in the way that brings about the best consequences.
Consequentialism It doesn’t matter what those acts are; the end justifies the
means. All that matters for ethics is making the world a
better place.

• Concentrates on the moral character of the agent.

According to virtue theory, we ought to possess certain
character traits–courage, generosity, compassion, etc.–
Virtue Ethics and these ought to be manifest in our actions. We
therefore ought to act in ways that exhibit the virtues,
even if that means doing what might generally be seen
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 Application – Normative ethics
Suppose that a man bravely intervenes to prevent a youth from being
assaulted.

• The virtue theorist will be most interested in the bravery that the man
exhibits; this suggests that he has a good character.

• The deontologist will be more interested in what the man did; he stood
up for someone in need of protection, and that kind of behavior is
intrinsically good.

• The consequentialist will care only about the consequences of the

man’s actions; what he did was good, according to the
consequentialist, because he prevented the youth from suffering
injury.
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 Meta Ethics
• Metaethics—sometimes known as analytic ethics—is the branch
of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties,
and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments.
• The study of the meaning and logical structure of moral beliefs.
• It asks not whether an action is right or whether a person’s
character is good.
• It takes a step back from these concerns and asks more
fundamental questions about them:
– What does it mean for an action to be right?
– Is good the same thing as desirable?
– How can a moral principle be justified?
– Is there such a thing as moral truth?
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 Applied Ethics

• The application of moral norms to specific

moral issues or cases, particularly those in a
profession such as medicine or law.

• Applied ethics in these fields goes under

names such as medical ethics, journalistic
ethics, and business ethics.

• In applied ethics we study the results derived

from applying a moral principle or theory to
specific circumstances.

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 • What is ethics?
• The nature of ethics?
• The 3 branches of ethics
Now you know • What is morality
End of chapter 1
• Why you should study the unit:
Introduction to Ethics

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 Case to start – Group assignment

Using ethical theories to discuss any ethical

Eskimo female infanticide
issue in the world today.
Sharing your opinions.
✓ How do you think?
✓ How do you fell?
✓ What are you going to do to deal with that
issue?

30 minutes of delivering your message > 30 pages of report with data and analysis
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Eskimo

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Who
Are The
Eskimo
People?

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 Who Are The Eskimo People?
• Eskimos or the Inuits are the indigenous people inhabiting parts
of the northern circumpolar region ranging from Siberia to
Canada.
• The term Eskimo is slowly being replaced by the Canadian
term ‘Inuit’ or ‘Yupik.’
• The term Eskimo is considered derogatory in some areas,
especially Canada and Greenland since it is perceived to
translate to “eaters of raw meat” in Algonkian languages.
• Eskimos inhabit arctic regions which are characterized by
extreme cold.
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 Eskimo female infanticide

• Eskimo groups were reported to practice

female infanticide in the belief that the time
spent suckling a girl would delay the mother's
next opportunity to bear a son

• Males being preferred to females because of

their future role as providers in a hunting
economy.

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Migrations

Migrations, forced upon . . .(the Inuit). . .

during the long, severe winter, involve the
transportation of the entire household.
Utensils, bedding, tools, weapons, furs, hides,
garments and fishing gear must be hauled
on the sled or carried on the back. If there
should be a new baby in the family, the
mother must decide whether or not the pack
she must carry is more important than the
infant. In most cases the decision is made in
favor of the pack. Especially is this true if the
infant is a female.

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 Conditions of extreme ecological pressure:
• Kadjak and Iksivalitak were starving on their way to Pelly Bay. They were
dragging their sled and were so weak that they could hardly pull anymore. Their
adopted son Pupupuk, about 8 years old, could not walk anymore; so they
abandoned him, still alive.

• Apitok was starving with her husband and little daughter. The hunter could not
follow anymore and fell behind. Then Apitok, dragging a little led with the girl in
it, joined Itoriksak’s family, also on the move. Itoriksak asked Apitok to kill the girl,
which she did, although with some hesitation.

• Once when there was a famine Nagtak gave birth to a child, while people lay
around her dying of hunger. What did that child want here? How could it live
when its mother who should give it life was herself dried up and starving? So she
strangled it and allowed it to freeze and later on ate it.

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 whereas we
believe infanticide
is immoral.

The Eskimos see nothing wrong with

infanticide
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 Why Eskimo did this?
• Even in the best of times, a mother could sustain very
few children
• As hunters (primary food providers), male children
were favored, and hunters suffered a higher casualty
rate.
• Were it not for female infanticide, there would be
about 1,5 times as many females in the average
Eskimo local group as there are food - producing
males.
• Life forced choices upon them that they do not have
to make.

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 Case to start – Group assignment

Using ethical theories to discuss any ethical

Eskimo female infanticide
issue in the world today.
Sharing your opinions.
✓ How do you think?
✓ How do you fell?
✓ What are you going to do to deal with that
issue?

30 minutes of delivering your message > 30 pages of report with data and analysis
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Create a group
• Each group has 3 – 5 members.

• Groups are expected to do a

report and a presentation. The
report needs to be submitted
through Turnitin 2 days before the
presentation.

• Groups assignment is accounted

for 20% of the total grade

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 Home work 1
What is ethics?
Explain the reason for Infanticide among Eskimo
people. Do you think Infanticide is unethical?
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