ETHICS

Chapter 1
 WHAT IS ETHICS?

• A branch of Philosophy and a social science and academic discipline that

aids in understanding and adapting situations that affect lives.

• It is an inquiry into some standard to guide one’s action, or as a tool to

understand a given condition.
 ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY
• Greece is traditionally considered the birthplace of philosophy.
• Early Greek thinkers realized they needed more than what poets and
storytellers could tell about the world around them.
• These Greek wise men were also recognized as “first natural scientists”
because of their efforts to understand the inner workings of nature through
theoretical experiments.
 NOTED GREEK PHILOSOPHERS
• Thales of Miletus – postulated this primal matter to be water.

• Anaximander – a student of Thales, said this substance was unidentifiable

and called it “apeiron” (infinite).
• Anaximenes – a student of Anaximander said it was air.
• Anaxagoras – another Greek philosopher, traced all natural movements to
the ordering power of a cosmic mind or “nous”.
• Pythagoras – described their pursuit as “philo sophia”.
• Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
 SOCRATES
• Appeared in 15th century B.C.
• Though not the first one, yet still
recognized for being the first to
redirect the focus of philosophy
from natural world to the human
person.
• Roam the street of Athens to teach
the importance of critical inquiry
beginning from his assumptions
about human beings.
 SOCRATES
• He believed that if one knows
what the good is, one will
always do what is good.
• Thus, if one truly understands
the meaning of courage, self-
control, or justice, one will act
in a courageous, self-
controlled, and just manner.
 PLATO
• He took place after his
teacher Socrates was
executed.
• Enhanced the ethical
orientation of philosophy, that
is, to live according to a
certain idea or form of what
life ought to be.
 PLATO
• His conception of ethics is
happiness or well-being
(eudaimonia) is the highest
aim of moral thought and
conduct and the virtues
(arête) are the requisite
skills and dispositions
needed to attain it.
 ARISTOTLE
• The student of Plato, who carried
on what Socrates and Plato
started as evidenced in the
famous Aristotelian work
“Nicomachean Ethics” – that
happiness is the end of human
endeavor.
• For him, a happy life is not just
merely an art of doing particular
tasks but also knowing what are
these for.
 ARISTOTLE
• Hence, that people should
achieve an excellent
character as a pre-
condition for attaining
happiness or well-being.
 ETHICAL DILEMMA
• Moral dilemma is a problem in the decision-making
between two possible options, neither of which is
absolutely acceptable from the ethical perspective.
• It is also referred as ethical dilemma.
• Ethical dilemma as a “decision-making problem
between two possible moral imperatives, neither of
which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable. It
is sometimes called an ethical paradox in moral
philosophy.”
 STEPS IN DEALING ETHICAL
DILEMMA
1. Identify the ethical problem.
2. Identify the ethical principles involved.
1. Principle of Socrates
2. Principle of Aristotle
3. Principle of Plato
3. List all possible course of action.
4. Describe the course of action you decide upon
and the rationale for choosing this decision.
 ETHICAL DILEMMAS
1) An elderly woman living alone in poor circumstances with
few friends or relatives is dying, and you, her friend, are at her
bedside. She draws your attention to a small case under her
bed, which contains some mementos along with the money she
has managed to save over the years, despite her apparent
poverty. She asks you to take the case and to promise to
deliver its contents, after she dies, to her nephew living in
another state. Moved by her plight and by your affection for
her, you promise to do as she requests. After a tearful
goodbye, you take the case and leave. A few weeks later the
old woman dies, and when you open the case, you discover
that it contains $500,000 dollars. No one else knows about the
money, or the promise you made. You learn that the nephew
is a compulsive gambler and has a drug addiction.
 ETHICAL DILEMMAS
2) Suppose you are a famous anthropologist. One day you
find a remote tribe in the middle of the Amazon rain
forest. The tribe is really surprised by your visit. After
all, you are the first stranger they have ever seen. The
tribe is just in the middle of a religious ritual. They are
preparing to execute 20 prisoners from a neighboring
tribe as a gift to the sun god. However, since they also
want to honor you, they offer you the honor of strangling
one of the prisoners with your own hands. If you do that
they will let the others go back to their own tribe. If you
refuse to accept this honor, they will sacrifice all 20
people. You try to tell them that your god does not allow
you to strangle people, but the tribe leader is unwilling to
make any deals. He is very clear, either you strangle one
of the prisoners or else all 20 will be killed.
 NOTE IN ETHICAL DILEMMA

• If confronted with an ethical dilemma,

you have to choose either of the
following:
• greater good and less evil;
• do only what you can where you are;
• love and do what you will.