The Scope and
and wrong which is Ethics. Any society
Meaning of Ethics
Module 2
A deeper understanding of Ethics
Ethics is a branch of Philosophy that
studies human acts and human
conduct. The term ethics derives from
the Greek word “ethiko”, which from
the word “ethos” or “habit” or
“custom”. Although there are subjects
that study human conduct such as
Psychology and Sociology. Ethics has
a deeper meaning in its standpoint by
further delving into the aspect of human
acts. They are more concerned with the
morality of human acts.
Noted definition of Ethics
1. Ethics is the practical science of the
morality of human actions.
2. Ethics is the scientific inquiry into the
principles of morality.
3. Ethics is the study of human conduct
from the standpoint of morality.
4. Ethics is the science of human acts
with reference of right and wrong.
Relation of Ethics with Other
Sciences
Ethics and Logic – Logic is the science
of right thinking and while Ethics is the
science of right living. Thinking and
Doing things go hand-in-hand, we
cannot move without thinking right the
same way every action is guided by
reason.
Ethics and Psychology – The two
subjects dealt with the study of man,
human nature and human behavior but
that is all their similarity ends.
Psychology only tell us the causes of
man’s actions that may be psychological
or physiological but ethics tell us how
man should react. Ethics is interested in
moral obligation while Psychology ends
there.
Ethics and Sociology – as we all
know, Sociology deals with the study of
society as well as the social order that
regulates the society as a whole. But
then what is the foundation of their
social order if there is no basis of right
is doomed to fail if devoid of correct
basis of thinking.
Ethics and Economics – Napoleon
once said that an army marches on its
stomach, in relation to economics man
has to fulfill is economic needs. The
need for material wealth is inherent in
man that there are instances that
economic topics needed ethical
principles such as capital-labor
relations, profit, interests, money et al.
The need to settle these conflicts must
have ethical basis to incur equitable
results.
Morality and Other Phases of Human
Life
Ethics and Education – Education
whether formal or informal is a never-
ending process and is the foundation of
man’s moral, intellectual and physical
capacities. But then again education is
illicit if it is not supported by ethics; they
say ethics is life the same way
education is intertwined with life.
Learning is good but learning supported
by ethics is better inasmuch as ethics is
living right.
Morality and Law – as mentioned in the
previous module, not everything moral is
legal and not everything legal is moral.
Meaning there are good things that do
not need legislation and immoral acts
that the State may approve. But to
further differentiate them laws only used
external acts while ethics cover man’s
“acts” that play in his mind that will not
incriminate him in any statute. For
example, a plan for a robbery if
discovered is not criminally liable in any
court of law but ethics said it is a fault
for such “act” is intrinsically evil.
Ethics and Politics - Man in his
constant search for happiness be it
temporal or eternal is never ending.
They say politics and ethics are poles
apart – in a certain point that is correct it
is the very reason why politics become
dirty for they deviate from ethics. Man’s
insatiable greed for wealth and power
thru politics means absence of ethics.
An ideal state should be an ethical state.
1 |CET_MODULE2
Ethics and Art – Ethics is about
positive morality while art is beauty. Any
work of art that is beautiful, will give a
positive outlook to the looker that will be
greatly appreciated. The purpose of art
is for appreciation that is contributory to
man’s ethics.
Religion and Ethics – Religion is ethics
and ethics is religion, they are
interchangeable for the any religious
belief tends to ethical standards in
relation to his most fundamental tenet.
What unites them all boiled down to
three things namely: a) belief in the
Supernatural, b) man’s beginning and
end and c) right living.
Importance of Ethics
Most of us would agree that it is ethics
in practice that makes sense; just
having it carefully re-drafted but being
re-drafted in books may not serve the
true purpose. Of course, all of us want
businesses to be fair, clean and
beneficial to society. For that to happen,
organizations need to abide by ethics or
rules of law, engage themselves in fair
practice and competition; all of which
will benefit the consumer, society and
organization.
Primarily it is the individual, the
consumer, the employee or the human
social unit of society who benefits from
ethics. In addition, ethics is important
because of the following:
1. It satisfies basic human needs:
Being fair, honest and ethical is
one of the basic human needs.
Every employee desires to be
such himself and to work for an
organization that is fair and
ethical in its practices.
2. It creates credibility: An
organization that is believed to be
driven by moral values is
respected in the society even by
those who may have no
information about the working
and the businesses or an
organization. Infosys, for example
is perceived as an organization
for good corporate governance
and social responsibility
initiatives. This perception is held
far and wide even by those who
do not even know what business
the organization is into.
3. It unites people and leaders:
An organization driven by values
is revered by its employees also.
It is the common thread that
brings the employees and the
decision makers on a common
platform. This goes a long way in
aligning behaviors within the
organization towards
achievement of one common
goal or mission
4. It improves decision-making: A
man's destiny is the sum total of
all the decisions that he takes in
the course of his life. The same
holds true for organizations.
Decisions are driven by values.
For example, an organization that
does not value competition will be
fierced in its operation aiming to
wipe out its competitors and
establish a monopoly in the
market.
5. It brings long term gains:
Organizations guided by ethics
and values are profitable in the
long run, though in the short run
they may seem to lose money.
The Tata group, one of the
largest business conglomerates
in India was seen on the verge of
decline at the beginning of
1990's, but which soon turned out
to be otherwise. The same
company's Tata NANO car was
predicted as a failure and fails to
do well but the same is picking up
fast now.
6. It secures the society: Often,
ethics succeeds because there is
a law in safeguarding the society.
The law machinery is often found
acting as a mute spectator,
unable to save society and the
environment. Technology is now
2 |CET_MODULE2
 growing at such fast pace that by
the time the law comes up with a
regulation, we already have a
newer technology with new
thrusts replacing the older one's.
Lawyers and public interest
litigations may not help a great
deal but ethics can.
Ethics tries to create a sense of right
and wrong in the organizations and
often when the law fails, it is ethics that
may stop the organization from harming
the society or environment.
The code of ethics leaders use
determines discipline procedures and
the acceptable behaviour for all
workers in an organization. When
leaders have high ethical standards,
they encourage workers in the
organization to meet that same level.
Ethical leadership also enhances the
company's reputation in the financial
market and community. A solid
reputation for ethics and integrity in the
community may improve the company's
business.
Employee Ethics
Ethical behavior among workers in an
organization ensures that employees
complete work with honesty and
integrity. Employees’ who use ethics to
guide their behavior adhere to
employee policies and rules while
striving to meet the goals of their
organization. Ethical employees also
meet standards for quality in their work,
which can enhance the company
reputation for quality products and
services.
Ethical Organizational Culture
Leaders and employees adhering to a
code of ethics create an ethical
organizational culture. The leaders of
business organizations may create an
ethical culture by exhibiting the type of
behavior they would like to see their
employees. The organization can
reinforce ethical behavior by rewarding
employees who exhibit the values and
integrity that coincides with the
company's code of ethics and discipline
those who make the wrong choices.
Benefits of Ethics to the
Organization
A positive and healthy corporate culture
improves the morale of workers in the
organization, which may increase
productivity and employee retention;
this, in tum, has financial benefits for the
organization. Higher levels of
productivity improve the efficiency in the
company, while increasing employee
retention reduces the cost of replacing
employees.
Roslyn Frenz (2017) believed that ethics
is important because it helps people
make good choices. Different ethical
codes provide various standards for
sorting through and settling moral
questions. Ethical ideas can come from
ancient philosophers, religious figures,
modern scholars and philosophers and
personal beliefs. Though different in
each specific philosophy, each type of
ethical code contains important core
values.
Ethics and morals direct decision-
making and regulate how people should
behave in a given culture. Everyone has
a slightly different personal ethical code,
derived from spiritual and historical
sources and from individual experience.
People rely on ethical standards to
guide them through both routine and
unusual situations. Ethical rules and
virtuous business practices rely on
moral standards as their bases. Ethics
and morals help keep governments and
cultures from descending into anarchy.
Why Should Students Study Ethics?
Christopher Panza and Adam Potthast
gave reasons why students should
study Ethics.
1. Ethics allows you to live an
authentic and meaningful life.
An authentic and meaningful life
requires you to live with a sense
of integrity. Integrity refers to
3 |CET_MODULE2
 commitment by sticking to the
rules of law through thick and
thin- no matter how difficult the
laws are. Having a firm character
or set of principles to guide your
life and the choices you make are
what ethics is all about.
2. Ethics makes you more
successful, you may think that
ethics can hold you back in all
kinds of ways, but the truth is -it
is the opposite. Ethical people
embody traits that unethical
people have to work at to fake.
Ethical people are honest,
trustworthy, loyal, and caring. As
a result, ethical people are
perfectly suited not only for
interpersonal relationships but
also more on the kinds of
interactions that make for thriving
business Unethical people
generally don't do there well on
these things.
3. Ethics allows you to cultivate
inner peace. Lives that are lived
ethically tend to be calmer, more
focused, and more productive
than those that are lived
unethically. Most people can't
turn off their sympathy for other
human beings. Hurting people
leaves scars on both the giver
and the receiver. As a result,
unethical people have stormier
internal lives because they have
to work to suppress their
conscience and Sympathy to deal
with the ways they treat others.
When they fail to properly
suppress their sympathies, the
guilt feelings and shame that
come with harming or
disrespecting their fellow human
beings take deep root within
them.
4. Ethics provides for a stable
society. When people live on
ethical lives they tell the truth,
avoid harming others, and are
very generous. Working with
such people is easy. On the other
hand, callous and insensitive
people are distrusted, so it's
difficult for them to be integrated
well into social arrangements. A
stable society requires a lot of
ethical people working together in
highly coordinated ways. If
society were mostly composed of
unethical people, it would quickly
crumble or disintegrate
5. Ethics may help out in the
afterlife. Some religious
traditions believe that ethics is
the key to something even
greater than personal success
and social stability: eternal life.
No one can be sure about an
eternal life, but people of faith
from many different religions
believe that good behaviour in
this planet life leads to rewards in
the next life.
Meaning and Importance of Rules
Rules are defined in several ways:
1. Rules are instructions that tell
you what you are allowed to do
and what you are not allowed to
do.
Examples:
a. Raise your hand
when you want to ask
questions.
b. You are not allowed
to go to the canteen
while classes are
going on.
2. A rule is a statement telling
people what they should do in
order to achieve success or a
benefit of some kind.
Examples:
a. Eat nutritious food to
maintain a healthy
life.
b. Study your lesson
well in order to get
high grades in this
Ethics class.
4 |CET_MODULE2
3. Rules are statement that
describes the way things usually
happen in a particular situation.
Examples: Importance of Rules
a. In English, adjectives
generally precede the There are several importance of rules.
noun they modify. These are:
b. In science, all objects
thrown up go down.
4. Rule tells you the normal state of
affairs.
Examples:
a. Schools are
established for the
education of the
individuals
b. Policemen have the
duties to maintain
peace and order
5. Rules influence or restrict
actions in a way that is not good
for a person.
Examples:
a. It has been found that
fear can ruin our lives
and make us ill.
b. Unauthorized
persons are not
allowed to enter this
room.
6. Rules tell us something that is
true or should happen and then
the authority has officially
decided that it is true.
Examples:
a. The court has
decided that the
respondent is liable
for civil damages.
b. The judge has finally
decided that the
protest is in favor of
the complainant.
7. Rules are principles or
regulations governing conduct,
action procedure, arrangement,
etc.
Examples:
a. Fall in line when
entering the
classroom
b. Knock before you
enter
1. Prudent laws are the foundations
of a nation because they define
the parameters of civil society. If
laws become elastic, the
boundaries become
dysfunctional
2. Laws organize our lives. We are
able to deal and live together
because of rules and laws.
3. Rules help us get along together
and show respect to each other.
If there are no rules to follow,
everyone is free to do whatever
he wants.
4. Most things we do are governed
by rules. Imagine if a student
ignores the rule against talking in
class, the teacher will not be
able to achieve her goal and
other students cannot
concentrate. Drivers who
disobey traffic rules can cause
serious accidents.
5. Rules organize the relations
between individuals and
between societies to make it
clear to them what is right and
wrong. They are designed to
ensure fairness, safety, and
respect for each other's rights.
6. Rules make the world a peaceful
place to live.
7. Rules are needed in our
community because they serve
as balances between laws and
rights. If there are more laws
than rights, there is more chance
that people will revolt because of
the lack of their rights. On the
other hand, if there are more
rights than laws, the people will
go out of control and become
abusive. Thus, laws are needed
for regulation between laws and
rights.
5 |CET_MODULE2
 Basic Concepts in
Philosophy
Chapter 1
Meaning of Philosophy
Philosophy may be
defined in two ways: nominal
(etymological1) and real.
Etymological definition
The term philosophy is
derived from two Greek words
"philos" or "philein" (to love, to
desire) and "sophia" (wisdom).
Putting them together, we have
"philo" +" sophia" (love of
wisdom). Thus, a philosopher is a
"lover of wisdom". Wisdom, in this
broadest sense, connotes
knowledge – knowledge directed
to the fundamental and pervasive
concerns of existence. Wisdom is
not the wisdom of book learning,
fact acquiring and being a dean's
lister or a topnotcher in the
licensure examinations or a
technical skill of professional
people. Wisdom is all-
encompassing. It
understanding on how we ought
to live. It is how you
systematically organize, structure
and relate all available data and
experiences. Wisdom
philosophy consists
participation in life - the way you
change things, to solve human
problems or how you discover the
meaning of life. In short, the
wisdom in philosophy is in how
you help yourself think more
clearly, precisely, and
systematically.
Real definition
Since philosophy is too
comprehensive and to various,
authors define philosophy
1
Relating to the origin and historical
development of words and their meanings.
according to what they think,
what they believe, and what they
ought to be done in the subject.
Here are some of the definitions
of various authors:
1. Philosophy is a rational critical
thinking of a more or less systematic
kind about the conduct of life, the
general nature of the world, and the
justification of belief (Encyclopedia
Americana, 2003).
2. Philosophy is the love or pursuit of
wisdom; the search for basic
principles (The New Websters
Dictionary of the English
Language, 1995).
3. Philosophy is the sum of all man's
beliefs and views about the world
which guide his actions (Ariola,
1989).
4. Philosophy is the science of the
things by their ultimate principles
and causes, as known by natural
reason alone (Piñon, 1995).
5. Philosophy is a human search for
meaning; an intellectual quest that
goes beyond the boundaries of
concrete knowledge, towards the
realm of the abstract where the
is inquisitive mind finds some
satisfaction and wonder (Gualdo,
2000).
6. Philosophy is the never-ending
search for the total human meaning
in of our experiences. It is a discipline
of that attempts to look for answers to
man's inquisitive mind that begins in
wonder and ends in awe (Bauzon,
2002).
7. Philosophy is an attempt to see the
wonders at our existence and at our
place in the scheme of things
(Melchert, 1999).
8. Philosophy is a systematic,
reflective, critical, primarily reason-
bound inquiring into the basic
assumptions and guiding beliefs that
people use to make sense of any
dimension of their live
(Christensen, 1999).
9. Philosophy is a process by which
men ponder, discuss or argue over
6 |C E T _ M O D U L E 1
 the use, application, limits or opinions and beliefs. He thinks,
meaning of important ideas evaluates and decides what
(Bresman and Gould, 1977). could be "better" or best" for him.
10. Philosophy is the art of questioning 3. Philosophy helps the student to
everything; the goal of philosophy is be resilient and philosophically
wisdom and wisdom requires calm in the face of disorder and
questioning what is questionable doubts, uncertainty,
(Kolak and Martin, 1990). indefiniteness and chaos.
11. Philosophy focuses on conceptual 4. Philosophy deepens the student's
clarity and understanding, from self-awareness.
ignorance to knowledge (Earle, 5. In relation to deepening of self-
1992). awareness, philosophy also
12. Philosophy is asking the right increases the student's self-
question that initiates philosophical awareness and awareness of the
thinking and direction (Barry, 1983). world.
6. Philosophy helps student to be
Thus, philosophy may be viewed as creative.
an activity undertaken by men who are 7. Philosophy helps the student to
deeply concerned about who they are be imaginative.
and what everything is all about in this 8. Philosophy provides the student
world. The essence of philosophy is with better intellectual
asking the right question that gives the perspective and outlook.
right direction. In asking the right 9. Philosophy gives the student
question, philosophical thinking and personal freedom - the freedom
imagination play a significant part. In from biases, prejudices and
philosophy, the person does not only conviction, and tyranny of
accept unquestioningly the apparent customs that have grown up in
order of things in the material world. his mind.
Instead, he wonders about them, deals 10. Philosophy helps the student to
creatively with the goes beyond to see refine his power of analysis-the
what is not readily apparent, then power to think critically, reason,
conceive of possibilities and alternatives evaluate, theorize and justify.
in approaching them. In the process, he
formulates questions about it to serve as
his direction. Philosophy answers
questions through intensive application
of reason. Division Focus Questions
Metaphysics Study of 1. Why am I
Importance of Philosophy existence: here?
the 2. Where
will I go
1. Philosophy as a subject enables fundamenta
later in
the student to study, learn, and l questions
life?
master the various branches and of reality
divisions of philosophy and the Epistemology Study of 1. How do I
theories and beliefs of knowledge: know that
philosophers. Philosophy as an how we I know?
activity enables the student to know about 2. Why do I
think, conceptualize, analyze, reality and know
compare, evaluate, and existence about it?
understand things.
Logic Study of 1. Why is it
2. Philosophy helps the student to
reasoning valid?
develop the ability to form and

7 |C E T _ M O D U L E 1
 argument 2. How do 3. Applied ethics, concerning what a
you person is obligated (or permitted)
argue too do in a special situation or a
correctly particular domain of action. It seeks
? to apply philosophical tools to
Ethic/ Study of 1. How examine specific controversial
Moral action should issues and provide practical
philosophy you act? solutions to moral problems.
2. Is it
morally Applied Ethics answers the
right? question: should we lie to help a
Aesthetics/ Study of art 1. What is friend or co-worker?
Axiology and beauty beauty?

Moral Philosophy
Moral philosophy is the branch of is right
and philosophy that contemplates what
wrong. It explores the nature of morality
and examines how people should live
their lives in relation to others.
Branches of Moral Philosophy (Areas of
Study in Ethics)
1. Meta-ethics, concerning the
theoretical meaning and reference
of moral propositions, and how their
truth values (if any) can be
determined. It investigates where
our moral values, language, and
principles come from and what they
mean.

Meta-ethics answers the questions:

What is morality? What is justice? Is
there truth? How can I justify my
belief as better than the beliefs held
by others?

2. Normative ethics, concerning the

practical means of determining a
moral course of action. It
investigates the moral standards
that regulate right and wrong
conduct. Theories within normative
ethics include utilitarianism,
consequentialism, contractualism,
virtue ethics, and more.

Normative Ethics answers the

question: What we ought to do?

8 |C E T _ M O D U L E 1