ETH 101 SERIES:

BASIC THEORIES
AS FRAMEWORK IN
ETHICS
 ✓ Develop a deeper understanding of the
framework of ethics.

✓ Learn the requirements of the branch of

ethics that deals with the nature of
morality.
✓ Understand how moral judgments can
OBJECTIVES
also be a personal proposition and are
mere expressions of our emotions and
feelings.
✓ Understand the branch of ethics that is
an actual guideline about what is right,
worthwhile, virtuous, or just.
✓ To acknowledge moral responsibility as
one learns of the foundational nature of
man’s duties and obligations.
• Defined as a basic structure
underlying a system or concept.

• Refers to a set of assumptions,

concept, values, and practices that
constitutes a way of viewing reality.

• Dictates one’s moral disposition or

the way a person resolves moral
dilemmas.
 NORMA
THREE TIVE
GENERAL ETHICS
SUBJECT
AREAS OF
ETHICS

META-
ETHICS APPLIED
ETHICS
 • The branch of ethics that studies the
nature of morality;

• It also explains what goodness and

wickedness mean
META-
ETHICS • It talks about the meaning,
reference, and truth values of moral
judgments.

• Based on the ideas of right and

wrong.
 CLASSIFIC
ATION OF
META-
ETHICS
THEORIES

COGNITIVI NON-
SM COGNITIVI
SM
 COGNITIVISM
• Cognitivism states that moral judgments
convey propositions, that is, they are ‘truth
bearers’ or they are either true or false.

COGNITIVI
• The most famous forms of cognitive ethics are
SM the moral realism and the ethical subjectivism.
 COGNITIVI
SM

ETHICAL
MORAL REALISM
SUBJECTIVISM
which claims that the existence of moral facts
which holds that the truth (or falsity)
and the truth (or falsity) of moral judgments
of ethical propositions are dependent
are independent of people’s thoughts and
on the attitudes or standards of a
perceptions.
person or group of persons
 MORAL REALISM

which claims that the existence of moral facts

and the truth (or falsity) of moral judgments are
independent of people’s thoughts and
perceptions.
 ETHICAL
SUBJECTIVISM

• Holds that the truth (or falsity) of ethical propositions are

dependent on the attitudes or standards of a person or
group of persons.

• Contrary to moral realism

 NON-
COGNITIVI
SM

• It denies that moral judgments are either true or false. It

claims that ethical sentences do not convey authentic
propositions, hence are neither true nor false.
 NON-
COGNITIVI
SM

EMOTI Submits that moral judgments are

mere expressions of emotions and
VISM feelings.
 CLASSIFIC
ATION OF
META-
ETHICS
THEORIES

MORAL MORAL
UNIVERSA RELATIVISM
LISM
 MORAL
UNIVERSALISM

• Theorizes that moral facts and principles apply to

everybody in all places.

• Also known MORAL OBJECTIVISM

 MORAL
RELATIVISM
• Different moral facts and principles apply to different persons
or group of individuals

• Believing that various cultures have distinct standards of right

and wrong
 MORAL

C
EMPIRICISM
CLASSIFIC
ATION OF
META- MORAL
C
ETHICS
THEORIES RATIONALISM

MORAL

C INTUITIONISM
 MORAL
EMPIRICISM
• Is a meta-ethical stance which states that moral facts are known
through observation and experience.

• Is an extension of ‘empiricism’ in epistemology

 MORAL
RATIONALISM

• Contends that moral facts and principles are knowable a priori,

that is, by reason alone and without reference to experience

• Rationalism’ in epistemology claims that knowledge about

reality are gained through non-empirical deductive system
 MORAL
INTUITIONISM

• Submits that moral truths are knowable by

intuition, that is, by immediate instinctive
knowledge without reference to any
evidence.
 NORMA
THREE TIVE
GENERAL ETHICS
SUBJECT
AREAS OF
ETHICS

META-
ETHICS APPLIED
ETHICS
 • It is the branch of ethics that
studies how man ought to act,
morally speaking.
• Examines ethical norms, that is,
those guidelines about what is
right, worthwhile, virtuous, or
NORMA
just.
TIVE
• This branch evaluates standards
ETHICS
for the rightness and wrongness
of actions and determines a
moral course of action
• Normative ethical theories are
generally categorized into three
kinds:
 TELEOL
OGY

NORMA
TIVE
ETHICS

DEONT
OLOGY VIRTUE
ETHICS
 DEONTOLOGY

• It is an ethical system that bases morality on

independent moral rules or duties.
• From the greek word ‘deon’

• Also called, non-consequentialism

 TELEOLOGY
• It refers to moral system that determines the moral
value of actions by their outcomes or results.

• From the Greek word ‘telos’ which means ‘end’

teleology takes into account the end result of the action
as the exclusive consideration of its morality.
 VIRTUE ETHICS

• As a moral system, places emphasis on developing

good habits of character, like kindness and
generosity, and avoiding bad character traits, or
vices, such as greed or hatred.
• Virtue-based theories give importance to moral
education
• Focusing on the character of the agent, virtue ethics
 NORMA
THREE TIVE
GENERAL ETHICS
SUBJECT
AREAS OF
ETHICS

META-
ETHICS APPLIED
ETHICS
 APPLIED ETHICS

• Philosophically, it examines specific, controversial moral

issues. Using philosophical methods, this area of
concern in ethics attempts to determine the ethically
correct course of action in specific realms of human
action.
• Classified in various subfields
 e. a.
Social Bioethi
ethics cs
APPLIED
ETHICS

b.
d. Environ
Sexual mental
Ethics Ethics
c.
Business
ethics
 BIOETHICS
Concerns ethical issues pertaining to:
• Life, biomedical researches
• Medicine, health care, and medical profession.
• Controversies like those about surrogate mothering, generic
manipulation of fetuses,, stem cell research, using human embryos in
research, in-vitro fertilization, abortion, euthanasia, suicide, patient’s
rights, confidentiality of patient’s record, physician’s responsibilities,
and mandatory medical screening.
ENVIRONMENTAL
ETHICS
Deals with moral issues concerning:
• Nature, ecosystem, and its nonhuman
contents
• Animal rights, animal experimentation
• Endangered species preservation
• Pollution control, and sustainable
development.
 BUSINESS
ETHICS
Examines moral principles concerning business environment
• about corporate practices, policies,
business behaviors
• Conducts and relationships of individuals
in the organizations
• Social responsibility of businesses, employee rights,
harassment, labor unions, misleading advertising, job
discrimination, and whistle blowing.
 SEXUAL
ETHICS
Moral issues about sexuality and human sexual behavior:
• Homosexuality, lesbianism, and polygamy

• Premarital sex, marital fidelity, extra-

marital sex, non-marital procreation,
loveless sexual relations, safe sex, and
contraceptive use.
SOCIAL ETHICS
Deals with what is right for a society to do and how it should act
as whole
• Racial discrimination,
• Death penalty, nuclear weapon
production
• Gun control, drug use for fun, and welfare rights.