UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines

(MIDTERM MODULE IN ETHICS)

MIDTERM COVERAGE

LESSON 4: THE ACT

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:

1. Internalize the distinction between good and bad; to avoid what is bad and do what
is good.
2. Explain the ethical requirements of a good action.
3. Apply the ideally good actions as paragon to the community.

Learning Activities:

ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS
A. Reason and impartiality
Relationship:
- Reason is a requirement for impartiality.
- Reason clarifies the judgment of impartiality to be logically objective on the
criteria of judgment without any biases.

B. What is reason?
- It is the capacity of consciously making sense of things, establishing and
verifying facts, applying logic, and adapting or justifying practices,
institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information.
- It is man's tool of understanding.

C. Impartiality
- It is called as evenhandedness or fair-mindedness.
- It is a principle of justice holding that decisions should 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.

D. Ethics and feelings

- Emotions – that is to say feelings and intuitions – play a major role in
most of the ethical decisions people make.
Ethics and feelings
- Most people do not realize how much their emotions direct their moral choices. I
- Most often, it is impossible to make any important moral judgments without
emotions.
- Inner-directed negative emotions like guilt, embarrassment, and shame often
motivate people to act ethically.
Example:
A boy sitting on an LRT saw an old woman standing (feels guilt and shame)
offers his seat to the old woman.

1
- Outer-directed negative emotions, on the other hand, aim to discipline or
punish.
Example:
People often direct anger, disgust, or contempt at those who have acted
unethically. This discourages others from behaving the same way.
- Positive emotions like gratitude and admiration, which people may feel when
they see another acting with compassion or kindness, can prompt people to help
others.
Example:
When a man saw a woman helping a group of children, he feels admiration for
the compassion and kindness shown by the woman. Thus, he also wants
to help the children.

- Emotions evoked by suffering, such as sympathy and empathy, often lead

people to act ethically toward others.
Example:
When a person sees an old weak man, he feels empathy. Thus, he
decides to help the old man.

E. Steps in reasoning model

1. Gather the facts
2. Define the ethical issues
3. Identify the affected parties (stakeholders)
4. Identify the consequences
5. Identify the obligations (principles, rights, justice).
6. Consider your character and integrity
7. Think creatively about potential actions
8. Check your gut
9. Decide on the proper ethical action and be prepared to deal with opposing
arguments.

F. The difference between reason and will

Reason
- In philosophy, it is the faculty or process of drawing logical inferences.
- It is the method of thinking in an organized, clear way to achieve knowledge and
understanding.
Will
- In philosophy, it is the volitional faculty, it is an appetite for the good; that is, it is
naturally drawn to goodness.
- It commands the body to move or the intellect to consider something.

Resources:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTMNaUeV2MI
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bIys6JoEDw
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjC3Zn8XC0

2
Assessment Strategies:

Activity I

Essay

1. How critical and essential is the role of reason in impartiality?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. Do you think it is wise to make a decision under the influence of an emotion? What do
you think are the consequences?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. How do reason, will, impartiality and emotions influence the person to make a good
action?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

LESSON 5: THE EARLY PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR WORKS

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:

1. Decide reasonably well through ethical enlightenment reflected from the concepts of
Ethics.
2. Articulate the importance of these great thinkers in enlightening learners about the true
meaning of happiness.
3. Act prudently in everyday life towards the highest good.

Learning Activities:

THE EARLY PHILOSOPHERS

A. Aristotle on Ethics
- Eudaimonia- the ultimate good as an end for man. Happiness.
- Ethical life is living a virtuous life
- Virtuous life- habits, doing what is good, doing what is due to others

B. St. Thomas Aquinas on Virtue

- Aquinas follows Aristotle in thinking that an act is good or bad depending
on whether it contributes to or deters us from our proper human end.
- the ”telos” or final goal/end at which all human actions aim (means).
- For him, final happiness consists in beatitude, or supernatural union with
God.
- Such an end lies far beyond what we through our natural human capacities
can attain.
- Achieving happiness, however, requires a range of intellectual and moral
virtues that enable us to understand the nature of happiness and motivate
us to seek it in a reliable and consistent way.

C. Kant on Good Will

- Kant means that a good will is "good without qualification" as such an
absolute good
3
 in-itself, universally good in every instance and never merely
as good to some yet further end.
- The only thing that is good in and of itself is the Good Will. The Good
Will freely chooses to do its moral duty.
- Kant's point is that to be universally and absolutely good, something
must be good in every instance of its occurrence.
- According to Kant, the overarching principle of all morality is what
everyone simply calls the “categorical imperative.”
- Deontological Ethics

D. Kant on Rights
- rights, like individual freedom, are not ahistorical, universal standards
of political justice but the historical outcome of the long process of
enlightenment.

E. Nature of Rights
- a moral or legal entitlement to have or obtain something or to act in a
certain way.

F. Kinds of Rights
- The right to due process
- The right to freedom of speech
- The right to freedom of religion
- The right to privacy
- The right to interstate and intrastate travel
- The right to equality
- The right to assemble
- The right to bear arms

G. Distinction between moral rights and legal rights

Legal Rights
- are rights that people have under some legal system, granted by a duly authorized
legal authority or government.
- basically those codified rights which are given by a legal system of a country and
it can be modified, repealed, and restrained by legal body (authority).
Moral Rights
- are rights accorded under some system of ethics. These might be grounded in
mere humanity they might be rights that all people deserve just because they are
humans, or because they are rational beings, or whatever.
are those universal rights which are not given by any government authority
and law.

Resources:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrvtOWEXDIQ
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSLsUO6uK4M
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj1yMfkurEw
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmmR1v0IJck
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K7aBIM1t24
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyZcKdei5zw

4
Assessment Strategies:

Activity 1

Enumerate different examples of the following:

1. 5 Examples of Legal Rights
2. 5 Examples of Moral Rights
3. Give an example of a Hypothetical Imperative
4. Give an example of a Categorical Imperative

Activity 2
Answer the question in essay form:
“Do you think to be with God is the moral responsibility of man? Explain.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

LESSON 6: FRAMEWORK AND PRINCIPLES

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:

1. Become eager to reinforce the lack of ethical framework in the lives of others.
2. Articulate how to face and act on the ethical challenges they encounter.
3. Promote the principles of ethics.

Learning Activities:

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND EQUALITY

A. Justice and fairness

Justice
- In its broadest context, includes both the attainment of that which is just and the
philosophical discussion of that which is just.
- It is the morally fair and right state of everything. To have justice as a person's
character trait means that they are just and treat everyone the same, or how they
would like to be treated.

B. Fairness
- It is the impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or
discrimination.
- It is defined as just and reasonable treatment in accordance with accepted rules or
principles. Treating all people equally and applying reasonable punishments only
when rules are broken is an example of fairness.

C. Principles of fairness
- The principle of fairness establishes moral standards for decisions that affect
others. Fair decisions are made in an appropriate manner based on appropriate
criteria.

D. Principles of justice
- The principle of justice could be described as the moral obligation to act on the
basis of fair adjudication between competing claims.

5
E. Different kinds of justice
1. Commutative - based on the principle of equality.
2. Distributive - guarantees the common welfare by sharing what God has
created.
3. Legal - the obligations of the government to its citizens and society.
4. Social - everyone has a right to a fair say in society.

Resources:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfumE83oIQg
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0CTHVCkm90

Assessment Strategies:

Activity 1
Instruction: Give a scenario that demonstrates of the following:
1. Commutative justice
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
2. Distributive justice
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
3. Legal justice
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
4. Social justice
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

Activity 2
Answer the statement in an essay form:
“Do you think that the principle of fairness is a prerequisite to the principle of justice? Or
is it the other way around? Explain.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

6
7