MODULE 1

WHAT IS ETHICS? BASIC CONCEPTS

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. Recall the meaning of ethics.

2. Define and explain the terms that are relevant to ethical thinking
3. Evaluate any ethical issues in connection to self, society, and environment.

Introduction

This module aims to introduce you to the basic meaning of ethics. It focuses on
the meaning of ethics, its areas, and clarifications of ethical terms, as well as to discuss
the relevance of ethics in our daily lives, especially in this COVID-19 pandemic crisis. In
this module, you are expected to define ethics and its basic concepts and connect or
relate them into the present situations as student or human being belongs to the
community. Your task is not only to remember ethical concepts, but to apply them into
your own life.

Lesson: Ethics: Basic Concepts

Ethics and Philosophy

Ethics is a branch of philosophy, it is also called moral philosophy. Philosophy

is a field of study that deals with the fundamental questions of human existence. It
originated from two Greek words “philo” (love) and “sophia” (wisdom). Philosophy
means love of wisdom, and a philosopher is a lovers of wisdom.

Plato and Aristotle asserted that philosophy begins with wonder. To wonder is to ask
profound questions such as who am I, what is the nature of the universe, etc:

The task of philosophy is to make that wonder work in everyday life. What strikes
us in doing philosophy is the claim that to apprehend the reality of things, one
has to start from the point of view of wonder [ CITATION Oca18 \l 1033 ].

Ethics as a discipline that study morality. It deals with the wrongness and
correctness of our actions. It evaluates whether a particular action is good or bad, right
or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable. The word ethics comes from the Greek word
“ethos” meaning “use, custom, way of behaving, character” and correspond to the Latin
word “moralitas” or morality. Ethics has four main areas:

 Normative ethics: Ethics is descriptive when we study a person, people, or

society’s moral beliefs or what they think about right and wrong. A historian or
 sociologist who tries to study the morality of Filipinos is a good example of
descriptive studies.

 Normative Ethics: a normative study of morality asks with a question, “How

should I live? Normative ethics provides guidelines, norms, and principles that we
follow to act morally and acceptably. What we “ought” to do or not?

 Metaethics: metaethics is not concern whether our actions are good or bad (as
normative ethics) but it focuses on dealing with the nature and meaning of ethical
terms. Before we know if death penalty is morally bad, then we need to know first
what we mean by morally bad or good.

 Applied Ethics: If normative ethics provides us with norms, applied ethics is an

application of these norms into specific issues and cases. How can we apply
ethics into issues such as abortion, death penalty, euthanasia or mercy killing?
Ethics can be also applied in a particular field such as business, environment,
etc.

Clarifications of Ethical Terms

Ethics and Morals

In terms of ethics and morality, this video from unwrapped ethics will give you a
glimpse of the differences/relationships between these two terms. The short video
asserted that though ethics and morals may differ, they are also related and can be
used interchangeably, and that is what we intended for this course:
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/ethics

Descriptive and Normative

Ethics is not a descriptive but a normative study. It does not only describe
(Descriptive) people’s morality but see this morality conform to ethical standards
(Normative). In the book, Ethics, Foundation of Moral Valuation, Dr. Calano and his
colleagues claimed that “a philosophical discussion of ethics goes beyond recognizing
the characteristics of some descriptive theory; also, it does not simply accept as correct
any normative theory. A philosophical discussion of ethics engages in a critical
consideration of normative theory the strengths and weaknesses of these
theories.”[ CITATION Cal18 \l 1033 ]

Moral Valuations in Ethics

What valuation or situation belongs to ethical discussion? Does calling a movie

bad and good needs moral judgment? Can we say that someone is immoral if he/she
closed the door impolitely? Valuations or values that belongs to Aesthetics (personal
preferences or taste), Technique (good or bad in baking), and Etiquette (cultural
understanding of right or wrong) are not considered in the discussion of ethics. What
belongs in the ethical discussions are issues that are severe with intensity, questions on
matter of life and death, and issues/ concerns that effects the well-being of people.
Issues such as corruption, war, capital punishment, poverty, and killing are moral issues
that greatly affect human life. However, the question of how we measure the graveness
of a problem is not always clearly define? Can we say that wearing clothes is a matter
of personal preference or taste or it calls for moral judgment? Can we judge a person’s
actions as immoral when he/she wears shorts or sandos during church services? Or
can we say that not wearing masks and not following government protocols during the
COVID-19 pandemic are just bad manners or is there a need for moral evaluation?

Issue, Decision, Judgment, and Dilemma

In any situation, it is vital to recognize the existence of an ethical issue.

According to Calano et al (2018), “a moral issue refers to those particular situations that
are often the source of considerable and inconclusive debate”. Personal and communal
issues on abortion, divorce, capital punishment, etc. are examples of moral issues. In
this video from unwrapped ethics, the idea of Moral Myopia and ethics allows us to
understand the weaknesses and failures of recognizing ethical issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8KpQatf3mw

A person who is confronted with an issue that needs an action to perform is

called to make a moral decision. But we need to ask, who decides whether our action is
good or bad. In this matter, when a person is an observer who assesses the actions or
behaviors of someone, she is making a moral judgment.” A dilemma is a situation
where one is forced to choose between two or more conflicting options, either of which
is acceptable.” [ CITATION Cal18 \l 1033 ] Moral dilemma has three (3) conditions: “(1) the
person or the agent of moral actions obliged to make a decision about which course of
action is best. (2) There must be different courses of action to choose from. (3) No
matter what course of action is taken, some moral principles are always compromised.”
[ CITATION Kar \l 1033 ]

Ethics and Reasoning

How do we know if our decision is morally right or wrong? By making a decision
based solely on our emotions may lead into error or erroneous judgment. We will only
know certainly what is right and wrong if we use reasoning. Reasoning is an important
tool for studying ethics. But “what kind of reasoning are we talking about?’
Ethical or moral reasoning is about informed-decision making that is not based
on reward and punishment. If we do not cheat because we are afraid to be caught or we
are helping someone so that people praise our good works, then it is a shallow
reasoning. For our reasoning to be powerful, we need to ask the question “ why”. Why
cheating is bad or why should I help people in need? This question reveals its purpose.
Asking “why” will lead us beyond reward and punishment. Our judgment will be
based on principles, defined as “rationally established grounds by which one justifies
and maintains her moral decisions and judgments” [ CITATION Cal18 \l 1033 ] Why should I
care for others and not cheat during exams? We do not only follow a particular principle,
but we also explain its reasons, that cheating is bad since it is against the idea of fair
play and exam validity, nor I helped others out of duty. But how do we arrive into a
moral claim?
This is where moral theory enters. Moral theory “is a systematic attempt to
establish the validity of maintaining certain moral principles.” A moral theory is s system
of ideas but also called a framework. A framework is a “theory of interconnected ideas,
and at the same time, a structure through which we can evaluate our reasons for
valuing a certain decision or judgment” [ CITATION Cal18 \l 1033 ] . As result, throughout this
course, we will tackle and use moral theories in evaluating ethical issues. We will study
moral theories such as Utilitarianism, natural law, deontology, virtue ethics, and John
Rawl’s theory of justice. We will also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each
theory but most importantly apply them into our daily lives, particularly in this time of the
Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

Conclusion

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies our morality. Our task is to ask
questions about the morality of our existence, to examine and evaluate whether our
actions and conducts are based on ethical standards. You will also evaluate ethical
issues. We do not just sit and relax, we do ethics guided by our reasoning since it is our
main role.

References

 Vaughn, Lewis. 2016. Doing ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues 4 th
Edition. New York: W. W.Norton & Company Inc.: 3-12.

 Evangelista, Francis Julius N. & Mabaquiao Jr., Napoleon M. 2020. Ethics: Theories
and Applications. Mandaluyong City: Anvil Publishing, Inc. P 1-19.

 Ocampo, Ph.D, Ma. Liza A. 2018. Ethics Primer: A Young Person’s Guide to Mora
Reasoning. Quezon City: Vibal Group Inc.: 1-10.

 Calano, Mark Joseph, Oscar G. Bulaong Jr., Albert M. Lagliva, Michael Ner E.
Mariano and Jesus Deogracias Z. Principe. 2018. Ethics: Foundations of Moral
Valuation, 1st ed. Manila: Rex Bookstore: 1-5.

 https://philonotes.com/index.php/2018/06/10/moral-dilemmas/
 https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/ethics-
articles/What_Is_an_Ethical_Dilemma%3F