GEED08: ETHICS
LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
A NARRATIVE TO BEGIN WITH
• August 2007 when Cris Mendez of
UP
passed away – allegedly due to “hazing”
• What is the value of one’s life?
• Is there any good to fraternities?
• Questions such as these – i.e.,
concerning good and bad, or right
and wrong – are questions about
value.
ETHICS: A DEFINITION
• Ethics – concerning the value
of human actions or life itself
• About matters such as
the good thing that
we should pursue and
the bad thing that we should avoid;
the right ways in which we could or
should act and the wrong ways of
acting.
• About what is acceptable and
unacceptable in human behavior.
CLARIFICATIONS AND TERMINOLOGY:
KINDS OF VALUATION
• Making value judgments that are
not considered part of ethics:
• 1) aesthetics – derived from
the Greek word aesthesis (“sense” or
“feeling”) and refers to the
judgments of personal approval or
disapproval that we make about
what we see, hear, smell, or taste.
• Most evident in our use of the word
“taste” to denote the personal
aesthetic preferences – e.g. “I like his
taste in music” or “her taste in food”
• 2) etiquette – concerned with right
and wrong actions but are not quite
grave enough to belong to a
discussion on ethics.
• e.g., “right” to knock politely on
someone’s door, while it is “wrong”
to barge into one’s office.
• e.g., displeased seeing a healthy
young man refuse to offer his seat
on the bus to an elderly lady but
more displeased if I were to see a
man deliberately push another one
out of a moving bus.
• 3) technical (technique) – derived
from the Greek word techne; used to
refer to a proper way (or right way)
of doing things
• e.g., baking – mixing the dry
ingredients first before bringing in
any liquids
• e.g., playing basketball – traveling or
walking more than two steps
without dribbling the ball
• What then is included in the
discussion of ethics?
• Valuations that we make in a sphere
of human actions, are characterized
by certain gravity and concern the
well-being of human life itself.
• e.g., matters that concern life and
death –
• i.e., war, capital punishment,
abortion
• e.g., matters that concern human
well-being – i.e., poverty, inequality,
or sexual identity
• Moral vs. Ethics
• Morals – may be used to refer to
specific beliefs or attitudes that
people have or to describe acts that
people perform. i.e., an individual’s
conduct is referred to as his morals
so much so that if he falls short of
behaving properly, this can be
described as immoral. e.g., “moral
judgment” or “moral reasoning”
• Ethics – can be used to refer to as the
discipline of studying and
understanding ideal human
behavior and ideal ways of thinking.
Hence, ethics is acknowledged as an
intellectual discipline belonging to
philosophy.
• i.e., acceptable and unacceptable
behaviors are also generally
described as ethical and unethical,
respectively
• Further, acceptable and
unacceptable ways of behaving in a
given field, we use the term
ISSUE, DECISION, JUDGMENT, AND
“professional ethics” – e.g., legal
DILEMMA
ethics for lawyers; medical ethics for
doctors and nurses; and media
ethics for writers and reporters)
• Since there is no consensus as to
how to make the proper distinction
between the terms “moral” and
“ethics”, we will be using the terms
“ethical” and “moral”
interchangeably
STUDY OF ETHICS: DESCRIPTIVE
AND NORMATIVE
• 1) Descriptive study of ethics =
reports how people, particularly
groups, make their moral valuations
without making any judgment either
for or against these valuations.
• work of social scientist – either a
historian (studying different moral
standards over time) or a sociologist
or an anthropologist (studying
different moral standards across
cultures)
• 2) Normative study of ethics =
often done in philosophy or moral
theology, engages the question:
What could or should be considered
as the right way of acting?
• Concerned on what we ought to
maintain as our standards or bases
for moral valuation
• e.g., noting how filial piety and
obedience are pervasive
characteristics of Chinese culture vs.
studying how Confucian ethics
enjoins us to obey our parents and to
show filial piety
• Moral Valuation – decision or
judgment
• Moral decision – when one is placed
in a situation and confronted by the
choice of what act to perform
• Moral judgment – when one is an
observer who makes an assessment
 on the actions or behavior of • But fear of punishment and desire for
someone. reward cannot give us the reason
why cheating is in itself wrong or
• Moral Issue – a situation that calls
bad.
for moral valuation – e.g., abortion,
death penalty • Moral theory – a systematic
attempt to establish the validity of
• e.g., a situation wherein an
maintaining certain moral
individual is to choose whether to
principles.
steal or not – most especially when
the opportunity presents itself • Insofar as a theory, it can also be
referred to as a framework – i.e. a
• Such an example is a matter of ethics
theory of interconnected ideas and a
insofar as it involves the question of
structure through which we can
respect for one’s property
evaluate our reasons for valuing a
• Moral issue – used to refer to certain decision or judgment.
particular situations which are often
• Before delving into the four (4)
the source of considerable and
major ethical theories, a discussion
inconclusive debate – e.g.,
on the commonly maintained
euthanasia
notions of ethics – some of which are
• Moral Dilemma – when one is torn taken as basis for one’s moral
between choosing one of two goods or valuation.
choosing between the lesser of two evils
– when an individual can choose
only one and that there are ethical SOURCES OF AUTHORITY
reasons for the various choices – e.g.,
• Severalcommon ways of thinking
a mother who has the sole
about ethics are based on the
responsibility of feeding her child –
idea that the standards of valuation
may be inclined to steal.
are imposed by a higher authority
that commands our obedience.

REASONING • 1) the authority of the Law

• Why do we suppose that a certain • 2) the authority of one’s Religion

way of acting is right and its
• 3) the authority of one’s own
opposite wrong?
Culture
• What reasons do we give to decide
or to judge that a certain way of
acting is either right or wrong? THE AUTHORITY OF LAW
• A person’s fear of punishment or LAW
desire for reward can provide him a
• It is supposed that the law is one’s
reason for acting in a certain way.
guide to ethical behavior. In the
• e.g., not cheating for the fear of Philippines, Filipinos are
getting caught (fear of punishment) constrained to obey the laws of the
 land as stated in the country’s  i.e.
criminal and civil codes.  aesthetic differences –
Japanese art vs. Indian
• Making this even more particular,
 art religious differences –
here in Metro Manila, residents are
Buddhism vs. Christianity
constrained to follow any city laws
 etiquette differences –
and ordinances. One can easily
conflicting behaviors
imagine this becoming even more
regarding dining practices
localized to the barangay or village
 differences in values –
level, where local or municipal
nudity can be tabooer in one
layers of obligation are there for
culture vs. others
residents to follow.
• From the reality of diversity, it is
• The term positive law refers to the
possible for someone to jump to the
different rules and regulations that
further claim that the sheer variety
are posited or put forward by an
at work in the different ways of
authority figure that require
valuation means there is no single
compliance.
universal standard for such
valuations, and that this holds true
as well in the realm of ethics.
RELIGION
• Therefore, what is ethically
• “Love the Lord, Your God,
acceptable or unacceptable is relative
therefore, and always heed his
to, or that is to say, dependent on
charge: his statutes, decrees, and
one’s culture.
commandments.” (New American
Bible, book of Deuteronomy, Ch. 11,  Such a position is called
first line) cultural relativism

• Such a statement expresses a claim

that many people of a religious
sensibility find appealing and
immediately valid: the idea that one
is obliged to obey his God in all
things. As a foundation for ethical
values, this is referred to as the
divine command theory.
CULTURE
 Our exposure to different societies
and their cultures makes us aware
that there are ways of thinking and
valuing that are different from our
own – that there is in fact a wide
diversity of how different people
believe it is proper to act.
Culture Relativism (CR) appears to be a
basis of morality, but could it really be?
1. CR seems to conform to what
we experience, which is the reality
of the differences in how
cultures make their ethical
valuations
2. By taking one’s culture as the
standard, we are provided a basis
for our valuations.
3. This teaches us to be tolerant of
others from different cultures, as we
 realize that we are in no position to
judge whether the ethical thought or
practice of another culture is
acceptable or unacceptable.
1. In turn, our own culture’s
moral code is neither
superior to nor inferior to
any other, but they would
provide us the standards that
are appropriate and
applicable to us

CULTURE AND CRITICAL THOUGHT

• James Rachels, “The Challenge of
Cultural Relativism”, The Elements
of Moral Philosophy, 6th ed., New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2006, 14-31.

• We can conclude this criticism of

cultural relativism by pointing out
how it is a problem in our study of
ethics because it tends to deprive us
of our use of critical thought.

• CR can promote a sense of humility

– i.e., respecting other cultures – but
such humility should go hand in
hand with a capacity for a rational,
critical discernment that is truly
appreciative of human values.

• CR keeps us from exploring whether

there are values that are shared
between cultures; it keeps us from
comparing and judging—either
positively or negatively– the
valuations that are made by
different cultures.