GE 10

ETHICS

0 | Page
1 | Page| Module 1: Understanding the Morality and Moral Standards
 Module 1: UNDERSTANDING MORALITY AND
Module No. & Title
MORAL STANDARDS
Hooray to a new academic year! The journey in this
pandemic has been tough yet you made it. New normal has
come, but the learning must continue. This would be pretty
exciting! As we start digging through this course pack, you
Module Overview
will start on a bird’s eye view of this subject Ethics. This
module focuses mainly on understanding morality and moral
standards. There will be activities that would really test your
knowledge.

At the end of the module, you are expected:

❖ Distinguish between moral and non-moral standards
❖ Explain moral dilemma as a moral dilemma as a moral
experience
Module ❖ Distinguish between a moral dilemma and a false dilemma
Objectives/Outcomes
❖ Illustrate the three levels of moral dilemma
❖ Explain why only human beings can be ethical
❖ Analyze crucial qualities of the Filipino moral identity
❖ Evaluate elements of the Filipino character

This module will tackle the following topics:

Lesson 1: Moral and Non-Moral Standards
Lesson 2: Moral Dilemmas
Lessons in the
Lesson 3: The Three Levels of Moral Dilemmas
module
Lesson 4: Freedom as the Foundation for Moral Acts
Lesson 5: The Filipino Character

2 | Page| Module 1: Understanding the Morality and Moral Standards

 `

Module No. and Tittle Module 1:Understanding Morality and Moral Standards

Lesson No. and Topic Lesson 2: Moral Dilemmas

Learning Outcomes At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

a. Explain moral dilemma as a moral dilemma as a

moral experience; and
b. Distinguish between a moral dilemma and a false
dilemma.

Time Frame Week 4

Introduction After learning moral and non-moral standards, you must now
have an idea of what a moral experience is. When you find
yourself in a moral dilemma, you are in for a moral
experience. What is a moral dilemma? This is the main focus
of this Lesson.

Activity Read The Pregnant Lady and the Dynamite,

A pregnant woman leading a group of five people out of a

cave on a coast is stuck in the mouth of that cave. In a short
time, high tide will be upon them and unless she is unstuck,
they will all be drowned except the woman whose head is out
of the cave. Fortunately, (or unfortunately), someone has
with him a stick of dynamite. There seems no way to get the
pregnant woman loose without using the dynamite which will
inevitably kill her; but if they do not use it everyone else will
drown. What should they do?
(http://psychopixi.com/author/pixil)

Analysis Hello student! How was your experience with the

activity? Are you having fun? If so, that is great. Right
now, let us wrap up your experience.
Based from the situation above, answer the following
questions.

1. What would you do if you were one of the men?

Explain why you decided to act that way?
2. The situation or the experience you went through is a
moral dilemma. What then is a moral dilemma?
3. Is finding yourself in a moral dilemma, a moral

3 | Page| Module 1: Understanding the Morality and Moral Standards

 experience? Why or Why not?

4.

Abstraction Meaning of Moral Dilemma

A moral dilemma is a problem in the decision-making

between two possible options, neither of which is absolutely
acceptable from an ethical perspective. It is also referred to
as ethical dilemma. The Oxford Dictionary defines 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." (Oxford
Dictionary)
Based on these definitions, moral dilemmas have the
following in common:
1) "the agent is required to do each of two (or more)
actions which are morally unacceptable;
2) the agent can do each of the actions;
3) but the agent cannot do both (or all) of the actions.
The agent thus seems condemned to moral failure; no matter
what she does, she will do something wrong (or fail to do
something that she ought to do).

This means that moral dilemmas are situations

where two or more moral values or duties make demands on
the decision-maker, who can only honor one of them, and
thus will violate at least one important moral concern, no
matter what he or she decides to do. Moral dilemmas present
situations where there is tension between moral values and
duties that are more or less on equal footing. The decision-
maker has to choose between a wrong and another wrong.
The decision-maker is a deadlock.

In the case of The Pregnant Lady and the Dynamite,

there were two options - use the dynamite and kill the
pregnant woman but save the other 5 or don't use the
dynamite and all the 5 will get drowned except the pregnant
woman whose head is out.

To have a genuine dilemma, one of the conflicting

solutions should not override the other. For instance, "... the
requirement to protect others from serious harm overrides
the requirement to repay one's debts by returning a borrowed

4 | Page| Module 1: Understanding the Morality and Moral Standards

 item when its owner so demands." Hence, "in addition to the
features mentioned above, in order to have a genuine moral
dilemma it must also be true that neither of the conflicting
requirements is overridden" (McConnell, T. 2019). This
means that none of the conflicting requirements is solved by
the other. The persons involved in the dilemma are in a
deadlock. They find themselves in a "damn-if-you-do and
damn-if you-don't" situation.

Another example of a moral dilemma is the story from

the Bible about King Herod. On his birthday, his
stepdaughter, Salome danced so well in front of him and the
guests at his party that he promised to give her anything she
wanted. Salome consulted her mother about what she should
wish for, and decided to ask for the head of John the Baptist
on a platter.
The king now had a choice between honoring the
promise to his stepdaughter, or honoring the life of John the
Baptist. And Herod chose to have John the Baptist
beheaded. The king had inadvertently designed a moral trap
for himself, a dilemma where whatever he decided to do
would be morally wrong.

Meaning of a False Dilemma

On the other hand, a false dilemma is a situation
where the decision maker has a moral duty to do one thing,
but is tempted or under pressure to do something else. A
false dilemma is a choice between a right and a wrong. For
example, a lawyer or an accountant can face an opportunity
to prioritize self-interest over the client's interest.

What to Do When Faced with a Moral Dilemma

Ultimately, dilemmas are conflicts in the application of
moral standards. The question is which moral standards
must be followed? In a state of emergency, necessity
demands no moral law. You have to decide based on your
best judgment or choose based on the principle of lesser evil
or greater good or urgency. There are 24 moral dilemmas
listed by Pixi's blog. Refer to 25 Moral Dilemmas, Pixi's Blog
(retrieved/http://psychopixi.com/author/pixil)

Application Are these cases examples of moral dilemma? Defend

your answer.

1. Anne is the project manager of a large industrial

5 | Page| Module 1: Understanding the Morality and Moral Standards

 project in a developing country, run by a Nordic
company. On a crucial day for the project, the electricity
is suddenly gone from the entire plant. Large quantities
of cement are about to congeal in the blenders, and it is
crucial to activate them again, quickly. More than a
thousand employees are unable to do their work. Anne
contacts the local authorities to solve the problem. A
bureaucrat turns up at the plant and explains that he can
get the electricity back on again very quickly, on the
condition that he can bring ten of the company's PCs
back to the town hall. There is a desperate shortage of
PCs there, and the bureaucrat and his colleagues are
therefore unable to do provide adequate service to the
local community. Thus, he suggests a trade-off: PCs for
electricity. In this manner, Anne and her company can
make a significant contribution to the society in which
they operate. of the essence, and Anne has little time to
dwell on the alternatives. There is time to contact top
management in her home country to get advice or
instructions about what to do. She this by herself. If the
cement congeals today, will mean a considerable delay
in the project. Several operations will have to be redone,
at a high cost, particularly compared to cost of losing ten
PCs that can be easily replaced. Anne also has
sympathy the local bureaucrats and the population they
are serving. They probably make very good use of the
PCs. On the other hand, if gives in to blackmail this time,
the same may happen again, at other crucial stages of
the project. Anne faces difficult choice. What should she
do? Anne wants to honor the moral value of finishing the
project on time and within budget, but also the moral
value of not giving in to blackmail or corruption. One of
these values will have to give way at expense of the
other. There is no harmonious way out, where Anne say
that she has done everything right.
2. The Deliberate Infection
Ken is a doctor. One of his patients, whom he has
diagnosed as HIV positive, is about to receive a blood
transfusion prior to being released from the hospital. He
has told Ken, in the confidence of their doctor-patient
relationship, that after he gets his transfusion, and his
medicine from Ken, he intends to infect as many people
as possible HIV starting that evening. Because Ken is
bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, there legal way to
stop this man from carrying out his plan. Even if warned
the police, they would not be able to arrest him, since his
medical information is protected. It occurs to Ken that he
could contaminate his medication by putting an
untraceable poison in it that will kill him before he gets a
chance to infect others. Should Ken poison this man in
order to prevent him from spreading HIV?

6 | Page| Module 1: Understanding the Morality and Moral Standards

 (Source: http://psychopixi.com/author/pixil)
3. Unfaithful Wife
You are an emergency worker that has just been
called to the of an accident. When you arrive you
see that the car belongs to wife. Fearing the worst
you rush over, only to see she is trapped car with
another man. He is obviously her lover, with whom
been having an affair.
You reel back in shock, devastated by what you
have just found you step back, the wreck in front of
you comes into focus. You see your wife is seriously
hurt and she needs attention straight away. Even if
she gets immediate attention there's a very high
chance she'll die. You look at the seat next to her
and see her lover. He's bleeding heavily from a
wound in the neck and you need to stem the flow of
blood immediately.
If you attend to your wife, her lover will bleed to
death, and you may not be able to save her anyway.
If you work on the lover, you can save his life, but
your wife will definitely die.
Who should you choose to work on? (Source:
http://psychopixi. com/author/pixil)

4. You are an English teacher at a high school. One of

your pupils is a very bright and gifted girl whom you
have always enjoyed teaching. She has always
achieved A grades throughout her school years, and
is now in her final year and getting ready to
graduate. Unfortunately, she has been very ill this
term, and missed several weeks of schooling. She
has just turned in a report which is worth 40% of her
final grade, but you realize that she did not write it
herself - she has copied a report found online and
tried to pass it off as her own work.
If you report her plagiarisation to the school
authorities, it will be entered on her permanent
record and she will no longer be eligible to attend
the prestigious university that she has dreamed of
attending all through high school. If you refuse to
accept the report, her final mark will be very poor
and may harm her chances of being chosen for this
university. If you mark the paper as though you
believed it was her own work, she will do very well,
and stand every chance of getting her desired
university place.
What should you do?

7 | Page| Module 1: Understanding the Morality and Moral Standards

 (Source: http://psychopixi.com/author/pixil)

5. Are these moral dilemmas?

● Taking credit for others' work in order to get
promoted
● Manufacturing and distributing fake drugs for
profit
● Offering a client, a worse product for bigger
profit
● Utilizing inside knowledge for your own
profit.
6. As a group compose your own moral dilemma

8 | Page| Module 1: Understanding the Morality and Moral Standards