OSIAS COLLEGES, INC.

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SUBJECT: GOOD GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

TOPIC: Nature of Morality
MODULE: 2
OBJECTIVES:
Discuss and Analyze Relativism, Egoism and Utilitarianism.

LESSON PROPER:

I. READ

RELATIVISM – the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or
historical context, and are not absolute.
VARIETIES OF RELATIVISM:
1. Cultural Relativism – the idea that a person’s beliefs, values and practices should be
understood based on that person’s own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of
another.
2. Conceptual Relativism – ethical norms is relativized to conceptual schemes, scientific
paradigms or categorical frameworks.
3. Relativism about truth or alethic relativism- the claim that what is true for one individual or
social group may not be true for another.
4. Epistemic Relativism- knowledge is valid only relatively to a specific context, society, culture
or individual.
ETHICAL EGOISM – is an ethical position declaring that moral agents ought to do what is in their own
self-interest. And this is not a choice, it is a compulsion- it is a moral duty. “The rough idea behind
ethical egoism is that the right thing to do is to look out for your own self-interest. We are morally
required only to make ourselves as happy a possible. We have no moral obligations to others.” In
other words, the pursuit of one’s happiness is the ultimate moral goal and purpose of one’s
existence- that each man lives and dies for his sake alone. Every man for himself.
THREE TYPES OF ETHICAL EGOISM:
1. Personal Ethical Egoism – maintain that they are going to act in their own self-interest and
that anything else is irrelevant to them. They have no interest in telling other people how to
act at all. They are simply saying “This is how I am going to act.”
2. Individual Ethical Egoism- claim that “I ought to act in my own self-interest, and everyone
else should act in my self-interest”.
3. Universal Ethical Egoism – think that each individual ought to act in his or her own self-
interest. Each person ought to be out for himself or herself.
UTILITARIANISM- an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes. It
holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest
number.
PRINCIPLES OF UTILITARIANISM:
1. Pleasure or Happiness is the only thing that truly has intrinsic value.
2. Actions are right insofar as they promote happiness, wrong insofar as they produce
unhappiness.
3. Everyone’s happiness counts equally.
TYPES OF UTILITARIANISM:
1. Act Utilitarianism- sates that a person’s act is morally right if and only if it produces the best
possible results in that specific situation.
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2. Rule Utilitarianism- it says that an action is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the
greatest good, or that “the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the
correctness of the rule of which is an instance”.

REFERENCE: Luna, Aldren Reuben “Social Responsibility and Good Governance”

I. REFLECT

Based from the lesson, can you discuss and analyze relativism, egoism and utilitarianism?

II. RESPOND

Accomplish the Learning Activity Sheets (LAS) provided for this lesson