ETHICS?

Is a branch of philosophy that studies morality or the rightness

or wrongness of human conduct
Ethics is derived from the Greek

word ethos which means character, custom, or manners

 ETHICAL QUESTIONS:

• What is the good and the bad?

• Who is a moral person?
• What makes an act right?
Ethics centers on norms of human conduct
 MORALITY

• Speaks of a code or system of behavior in regards to

standards of right or wrong behavior

Morality and ethics are oftentimes used interchangeably but

both carry the concept of moral standards or rules with regard
to behavior
 ARE YOU A MORAL PERSON?

• Why do you do good things?

• Are humans by nature good or evil?
• Are humans really altruistic?
 WHAT INFLUENCES THE CONCEPT OF
MORALITY?

• Religion
• Culture
• Social contract to live in harmony
• Evolutionary trait to survive
• Empathy
IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO HUMAN BEINGS

• Rules refer to explicit or understood regulations or

principles governing conduct within a specific activity or
sphere→ dictates what is allowed or not allowed in a
particular situation

• What would happen if there are no rules in a specific

society?
IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO HUMAN BEINGS

• 1. Rules protect social beings by regulating behavior

-rules limit behavior by imposing consequences to those who
will violate them
- to gain acceptance in a society
-fear to be imprison
e.g. panopticon
IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO HUMAN BEINGS

• 2. Rules help to guarantee each person certain rights and freedom

-Rules are framework for society
-nation of laws→ Constitution
-checks and balance of power between government and its people
-grants freedom and protection
IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO HUMAN BEINGS

• 3. Rules produce a sense of justice among social beings

• -prevents exploitation and domination of the
strong/privilege
• Rules provide justice→ richest and powerful people have
limitations that they need to abide like the rest
• Justice- giving what is due
IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO HUMAN BEINGS

• 4. Rules are essential for a healthy economic system

• It ensure product safety, employee safety, and
product quality
• Regulate monopolies and competitiveness
 MORAL STANDARDS

• These are moral values and moral principles that

people have for kinds of actions they believe are
morally right/acceptable and wrong/unacceptable,
 NON-MORAL STANDARDS

• Rules that are unrelated to moral or ethical considerations→ they are

not necessarily linked to morality or lack ethical sense
• E.g. rules of etiquette, fashion standards, games, house rules
• Religious rules, some traditions, ordinances are technically non-moral
standards.
 DISTINCTIONS

• A. Moral Standards involve serious wrong or significant

benefits
Example: lying, deception, killing
Compared to non-moral standards for example; violating rules
in sports does not necessarily affect one’s life or wellbeing
 DISTINCTIONS

• Moral Standards are not established by authority figures- moral

standards are not invented, formed, or generated by authoritative
bodies or persons for they are socially constructed
• Moral standards cannot be nullified by the decisions of particular
authoritative body
• Concept of superiority and achieve social reality apart from the
individual
 DISTINCTIONS

• Moral Standards have the trait of universalizability-

everyone should live up to moral standards→ must
apply to all who are relevantly in the same situation
• e.g. murder is a criminal offense, stealing is wrong
• Consistency
 DISTINCTIONS

• Moral Standards are based on impartial consideration- it

goes beyond certain personal interests in which each
person’s interests are impartially counted as equal and
giving equal consideration to the interests of all
concerned parties
• Impartiality- free of bias or prejudice
• E.g. observance of laws-objectivity
 DILEMMA AND MORAL DILEMMA

• Dilemma- refers to a situation in which a tough choice has to

be made between two or more options, especially more or
less equally undesirable ones, not all dilemmas are moral
dilemmas
• Moral/ Ethical Dilemmas- are situations in which a difficult
choice has to be made between 2 courses of action, either of
which entails transgressing a moral principle. In short, it
involves conflicts between moral requirements
 MORAL DILEMMA

• A friend discovers her best friend’s boyfriend is cheating. She must decide whether
to tell her friend or keep it a secret.
 KEY FEATURES OF MORAL DILEMMA
• 1. the agent is required to do each of two (or more)
actions;
• 2. the agent can do each of the actions; but cannot do
both or all the actions

• Often condemned to a moral failure, no matter what he

does, he will do something wrong, or fail to do
something that he ought to do.
 THREE LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMA

• 1. Personal Dilemmas- are those experienced and resolved

on the personal level.

• Since many ethical decisions are personally made, many, if

not most of, moral dilemmas fall under, or boil down to this
level.
 THREE LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMA

• 2. Organizational Dilemmas- refer to ethical cases encountered

and resolved by social organizations. This category includes moral
dilemmas in business, medical field, and public sector.
• E.g. healthcare orgs- euthanasia, right to die
• Business-related dilemmas- employee rights, harassment, misleading
advertising, job discrimination, labor unions
• Public government- accepting gifts, transparency, agenda setting
 THREE LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMA

• Structural Dilemmas- refer to cases involving network of institutions

and operative theoretical paradigm. As they usually encompass multi-
sectoral institutions and organizations, they may be large in scope and
extent than organizational dilemmas.

e.g. prices of medicine in the Philippines (conflict between the buyers

and involved researchers)
Political dynasties
 ONLY HUMAN BEINGS CAN BE
ETHICAL

• One basic tenet in ethics is the belief that only human beings
can be truly ethical. Most philosophers hold that unlike
animals, human beings possess some traits that make it
possible for them to be moral.
 A. ONLY HUMAN BEING ARE RATIONAL,
AUTONOMOUS, AND SELF-CONSCIOUS
• These qualities are believed to confer a full and equal moral status to those
that possess them as these beings are the only ones capable of achieving
certain values and goods.
• These qualities are deserve full and equal moral status. In short, these are only
exclusive to humans.
• E.g. appreciation of art, literature, music that come with deep personal
relationships
-Human have the ability to select his actions and is not led by blind instinct
- capable of self-respect through empathy
 B. ONLY HUMANS CAN ACT MORALLY OR
IMMORALLY

• Only beings that can act morally or immorally can

sacrifice their interests for the sake of others
• Other species do things out of instinct
C. ONLY HUMAN BEINGS ARE PART OF THE
MORAL COMMUNITY
• The so-called moral community is not defined in terms of the intrinsic
properties that beings have, but rather in terms of the essential social relations
that exist between or among beings. Distinctively, only human beings can
possess or practice values such as love, honor, social relationships,
forgiveness, compassion, and altruism.
• Only human beings can communicate with each other in truly meaningful
ways, and can form deep personal relationships with each other (showing
concern)
• Only humans has the ability to participate in collective cognition
 MINIMUM REQUIREMENT FOR MORALITY:
REASON AND IMPARTIALITY

• “Moral judgments must be backed by sound

reasoning and that morality requires the impartial
consideration of all parties involve” (Rachels, 1941)
 REASON AND IMPARTIALITY
• Reason as a requirement for morality entails that human feelings may
be important in ethical decisions, but they ought to be guided by
reason. It helps us to evaluate our feelings and intuitions

• Impartiality known as evenhandedness or fair-mindedness involves the

idea that each individual’s interests and point of view are equally
important. Decisions must be based on objective criteria rather than
on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person
over another for improper reasons
CULTURE IN
MORAL
BEHAVIOR
Kayan Tribe from Thailand
Dead Bodies in Indonesia
Lip plate in Ethiopia
Tatbir
Finger Cutting
 Culture Definition

• Refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge,

experience, beliefs, ideas, values, attitudes,
meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time,
roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe,
and material objects
 • Includes all the things
individuals learn while
growing up in a
particular group:
attitudes, standards of

Culture in morality, rules of

etiquette, perceptions of

short… reality, language,

notions about the proper
way to live, and other
ideas about how the
world works→ we call
this cultural knowledge
• Culture is way of life that includes moral
values and behaviors, along with knowledge,
beliefs, symbols that they accept “generally
without thinking about them, and that are Culture’s
passed along by communication and imitation
from one generation to the next” Role in
• Social Learning- process by which individuals
acquire knowledge from others in the groups to
Moral
which they belong.
Behavior
 It is
improbable, if It is hard to grow up in a particular culture
without being impacted by how it views
not morality or what is ethically right or wrong
impossible, to
live in a
society without
being affected
by culture This is the case because individuals are a
product of their culture and learning a
culture is an essential part of human
development (De Guzman and Pena, 2016)
Moral Standards as Social
Convention
• Social Facts- are values, beliefs, cultural
norms, and social structures that transcend the
individual and control them. These are external
to us and are outside of our control.
• Social Convention- those agreed upon by
people in society→ these are the usual,
customary, and acceptable ways through which
things are done within a group. There is a
blanket of legitimacy.
 • Is the idea that a person’s beliefs,
values, and practices should be
understood based on that person’s
Cultural own culture, rather than be judged
Relativism against the criteria of another
• Other cultures are not wrong, rather
different…
 Cultural Relativism in
Ethics

• Cultural Relativism, the most dominant

form of moral relativism, defines moral as
what is socially approved by the majority
in a particular culture. In short, an act is
ethical in a culture that approves of it, but
immoral in one that disapproves of it.
• Moral Subjectivism- the standard is a
particular agent
• Cultural Relativism- the basis is the
given society
 Cultural Relativism: An
Analysis

• 1. Valuable lessons from ethical relativism:

• There is no universal truth, so this encourage tolerance by
being open-minded
• Our feelings and beliefs are only products of cultural
conditioning thus, it do not reflect the truth
• Believes that culture and morality is conventional
 Cultural Relativism: An
Analysis

• 2. The theory’s ethical faults

• Cultural Relativism discourages analytical thinking and independent
decision making in ethics as it requires unsuspecting compliance and
subscription to social norm. Thus, in order to be ethical, folkways and
cultural norms should be followed uncritically
• Concept of tolerance is self-contradictory
• It begs the question, then is the culture of slavery, racism, and oppression
morally acceptable?
• Cultural Relativism ins only practicable if people do not belong to more
than one institution
Rachel’s Evaluation of
Cultural Relativism
• He explains that the cultural relativists’
approach is to argue from facts about the
differences between cultural outlooks to a
conclusion about the status of morality.
• Example: The Greeks believed it was
wrong to eat the dead, whereas the
Callatians (an Indian Tribe) believed it
was right. Therefore, eating the dead is
neither objectively right nor objectively
wrong. It is merely a matter of opinion
which varies from culture to culture.
• Cultural Differences argument-
different cultures have different moral
codes. Therefore, there is no objective
truth in morality.
Against the • Another example:
• People in some societies (primitive tribes) believe
Cultural that the Earth is flat, whereas Europeans hold
that the Earth is (roughly) spherical. Therefore,

differences there is no objective truth in geography. Belief in

the shape of the earth is only a matter of opinion,

argument: and opinions vary from culture to culture.→ is

this argument valid?
• With this, we can say that just because various
societies disagree with something, it does not
mean that there is no objective truth
• Cultural Relativist goes wrong in sweeping a
conclusion about an issue from the mere fact
that people disagree about it…
Just how much do
cultures differ?
• Example:
• Eskimos see nothing wrong with infanticide, whereas
we believe that infanticide is immoral. With this, the
first assumption is that Eskimos have very different
values from ours however:
• Eskimos protect its babies if conditions permit. They
nurse their infant for very long time.
• Infanticide especially among girls (males are primary
food providers, hunters suffer high casualty rate) is a
recognition that drastic measures are sometimes
needed to ensure the family’s survival.
• This shows that it is wrong to conclude that there is
disagreement about values and morality just because
customs differ.
• A. We could no longer say that the customs of
other societies are morally inferior to our
own
• Example: We could not say that Anti-Semitism and The bad
Slavery are wrong
• B. We could decide whether actions are right
consequences
or wrong just by consulting the standards of
our society
of cultural
• The implication is that people will think that their Relativism
own society’s code is perfect, rather than thinking
of ways it might be improved. In short, cultural
relativism would stop us from criticizing our own
• C. The id a of moral progress is called into
doubt
• There is no standard by which we judge the new
ways as better or progressive. (e.g. Social reform)
 Asian • Eastern Ethics:
• is very much about the protocol of
Moral showing respect and the notion that one
must do what is right and expected of
Standing him and the universe will take care of
the rest
• Western Ethics:
• is basically about finding truth or what
is rationally or logically true. It puts
emphasis on justice and law.
 WESTERN ETHICS EASTERN ETHICS

FOCUS Finding truth Protocol and Respect

BASIS Rational thought Religious teachings

EMPHASIS Logic, cause, and effect Respect towards famiy

ROOTS IN Athens, Rome, Judeo, and Hinduism, Buddhism,

Christianity Confucianism, and Taoism

APPROACH Rational Holistic and Cultural

CONFLICT AND HARMONY Good over evil Good and Bad, light and dark all
exist in equilibrium

East vs. West

 Filipino • Filipino Cultural Morality centers on ideally
having a smooth interpersonal relationship with

Moral others through:

• 1. Pakikisama- maintain good public relations

Character: • 2. Hiya- concern with how one appears in the

eye of others
Strengths • 3. Amor Propio- comes from the tendency of a

and person to protect his or her dignity and honor

• 4. Utang na Loob-debt of gratitude, balance of

Weaknesses obligations and debts

• 5. Filipino Hospitality- innate ability and trait
of Filipinos to be courteous and entertaining to
their guests
• 6. Respect for elders
Universal • Strong proof that cultural relativism is wrong
• Values that must be generally shared by

Values: many cultures are:

• 1. Truth Telling- communication in all forms is

values universal, saying the truth is the most

important reason on what someone is paying

generally attention to what anyone communicates

• 2. Valuing or Respecting Life- necessitates

shared by the prohibition of murder. If everyone is trying to

kill each other, everyone is on guard and

cultures avoiding people that will make societies

impossible to emerged.
• This proves that there are some moral rules that
all societies will have in common because those
rules are necessary for society to exist.