FOUNDATION OF

ETHICS
PRESENTED BY: IVY D. LISING
Branches of Ethics

• DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS
• NORMATIVE ETHICS
• META-ETHICS
• APPLIED ETHICS
 DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS

• refers to what individuals accept to be right or

wrong and is about various moral standards
utilized over a wide span of time.
• also called comparative ethics because it
compares the ethics of past and present;
ethics of one society and other.
 NORMATIVE ETHICS

• deals with “norms” or set of considerations how

one should act.
• it’s a study of “ethical action” and sets out the
rightness or wrongness of the actions.
• It is also called prescriptive ethics because it
rests on the principles which determine whether
an action is right or wrong.
• The Golden rule of normative ethics is “doing to
other as we want them to do to us.”
 3 THEORIES OF
NORMATIVE ETHICS
• VIRTUE ETHICS
• DEONTOLOGY
- Categorical Imperative
- Moral Absolutism
- Divine Command Theory
• CONSEQUENTIALISM
 Virtue Ethics
NORMATIVE ETHICS THEORIES

• focuses on one’s character and the virtues for

determining or evaluating ethical behavior.
• major advocates: Plato, Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas
• Plato gave a scheme of four cardinal virtues (prudence,
justice, temperance and fortitude).
• Aristotle categorized the virtues as moral and
intellectual. He identified some of the moral virtues
including “wisdom.”
 Virtue Ethics
NORMATIVE ETHICS THEORIES

• PRUDENCE - acting with or showing care for the future

• JUSTICE - just behavior or treatment.
• TEMPERANCE - moderates our attraction of pleasures and
provides balance in the use of things of this world
• FORTITUDE - courage in pain or adversity
• WISDOM - quality of having experience, knowledge, and good
judgment
 Deontology
NORMATIVE ETHICS THEORIES

• also called duty ethics.

• focuses on the rightness and wrongness of the
actions rather than the consequences of those
actions.
• There are different deontological theories
such as categorical imperative, moral
absolutism, divine command theory etc.
 Deontology
IMMANUEL KANT’S CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE OR KANTIANISM

• human beings occupy special place in creation and there is an

ultimate commandment from which all duties & obligations derive.
• The moral rules should follow two principles: universality and
principle of reciprocity.
• By universality, he meant that a moral action must be possible to
apply it to all people.
• By principle of reciprocity, he meant said “do as you would be
done by. Such premise of morality is found in all religious systems
(Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism etc.)
 Deontology
MORAL ABSOLUTISM
• believes that there are absolute standards against which
moral questions can be judged.
• Against these standards, certain actions are right while
others are wrong regardless of the context of the act.
• For example, theft is wrong, regardless of context in
which theft was carried out.
• It ignores that sometimes wrong act is done to reach out
to right consequence.
 Deontology
DIVINE COMMAND THEORY

• an action is right if God has decreed it to be right.

• the rightness of any action depends upon that
action being performed because it is a duty, not
because of any good consequences arising from
that action.
 Consequentialism
NORMATIVE ETHICS THEORIES

• also called teleological ethics.

• an ethical theory that judges whether or not something is
right by what its consequences are.
• The core idea of consequentialism is that “the ends justify
the means.” An action that might not be right in the light
of moral absolutism may be a right action under teleology.
• For instance, most people would agree that lying is wrong.
But if telling a lie would help save a person's life,
consequentialism says it's the right thing to do.
 Consequentialism
NORMATIVE ETHICS THEORIES

Based on the outcome, there are several theories such as:

1. UTILITARIANISM - right action leads to most happiness
of greatest number of people.
2. HEDONISM - anything that maximizes pleasure is right.
3. EGOISM - anything that maximizes the good for self is right.
4. ASCETICISM - abstinence from egoistic pleasures to
achieve spiritual goals is right action.
5. ALTRUISM - to live for others and not caring for self is
right action.
4 PRINCIPLES OF NORMATIVE ETHICS

1. RESPECT TO AUTONOMY – every person has the right to make

choices to hold views and to act based on one’s value and beliefs.
2. BENEFICENCE – the promotion of doing as much goodness as
possible refers to the acts of kindness, compassion and generosity.
3. JUSTICE – the avoidance of any unjustifiable and unnecessary harm.
decision makers should focus on actions that are fair to those
involved.
4. NON-MALEFICENCE – there is an obligation not to inflict harm on
others.
 META ETHICS

• also known as “analytical ethics” deals with

the origin of the ethical concepts themselves.
• It does not consider whether an action is good
or bad, right or wrong.
• it questions what goodness or rightness or
morality itself is? It is basically a highly abstract
way of thinking about ethics.
 APPLIED ETHICS

• deals with the rightness or wrongness of social, economic,

cultural, & religious issues.
• Ex. euthanasia, child labor, abortion…
• most important for professionals in different walks of life.
 APPLIED ETHICS

• SIX KEY DOMAINS OF APPLIED ETHICS:

1. DECISION ETHICS (ethical decision making process)
2. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS (for good professionalism)
3. CLINICAL ETHICS (good clinical practices)
4. BUSINESS ETHICS (good business practices)
5. ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS (ethics within & among organizations)
6. SOCIAL ETHICS (social structures, systems, issues, and communities)
QUIZ
 Thank you &
God bless!

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