ETHICS knowing what is right and wrong
and good and bad actions.
LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION
Ethics – from a Greek word “ethos”
which means custom or a manner of
acting and behaving.
Morality – from a root word “mores”
that means custom or practice.
 Ethics is more focused on the general
principles, rules, and theories on
determining what is right or wrong.
 Morality is the praxis, the application of
those principles (Fernandez, 2012)
 Human conduct or human act is the
material object of Ethics.
 The morality of human act or human
conduct is its formal object.
Morality – a system of beliefs about
what is right behavior and wrong
behavior (Rubin, 2015)
- It deals with how a person related
with others and with the world to
promote what is good (Thiroux and
Krasemann, 2009)
- Dr. James Rachels, in his book,
Elements of Moral Philosophy
asserted that at the very least
morality is the effort to guide one’s
conduct by reason – to act based
on the best reasons for doing – while
giving equal weight to the interests
of each individual affected by
one’s decision.
TWO DIVISIONS OF ETHICS
1. General Ethics – morality of human act
focuses on the basic concepts.
2. Applied or Special Ethics – second
division refers to the application of the
moral principles, standards, and norms
in various specific areas of human life
and activity.
 Ethics is both a theory and a
practice. One has to know the
theories or ethical principles of
However, one has to translate these
theories into actions.
 Knowing what is right without
changing the way one’s behave
morally is a useless knowledge
(Fernandez, 2012)
MORAL PRINCIPLES CHARACTERISTICS
1. Prescriptivity – refers to the action-
guiding nature of morality. The
principles should intend to guide and
direct people what to do or should not
do.
2. Impartiality – means that moral rule
should be neutral; applied to anyone
regardless of status or situation.
3. Overridingness – means that moral
principles should tower over all the
other norms or standards of evaluation;
must have hegenomic (over and
above) authority.
4. Autonomous from Arbitrary Authority –
moral standards should be
independent, hence be able to stand
on its own; act should be based on the
ethical principles and not on what men
say.
5. Publicity – since moral standards guide
people what to do, they should be
made public. Reasons dictate that
rules are made and promulgated to
advice, as well as, praise or blame
certain actions.
6. Practicability – moral standards exist in
which human beings are capable of
doing.
TWO KINDS OF MORAL ACT
1. Act of Man – refers to those acts of
which man has no control
Ex: emotions, breathing
2. Human Act – actions which are within
the control of man
Ex: walking, talking
THREE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF ACT OF MAN
AND HUMAN ACT
1. Knowledge – the doer is aware of what
he/she is doing
o One cannot hold a person fully
responsible for something that
he or she is not aware of.
o The action has been acted
upon within the level of the
person’s awareness, thus, what
he does is a human act which
can either be moral or immoral.
o Otherwise, the act is just an act
of man.
2. Freedom – the act is not done by force.
o A state of being unrestricted
from pressure
o A person is free when he can
exercise control over himself
and over his action.
o A human act is a free act.
o Without freedom, there can be
no responsibility.
3. Will – the does have given his or her
consent to do the act.
o Unless the act is done with
consent, no action can be
considered a human act.
o Consent relates to the
acquiescence or approval of
the doer for his action.
o A person may be free to do it or
not but if he does not allow his
will to approve or disapprove an
act, his moral responsibility is
diminished.
o The approval or disapproval can
make an act a human act.
Otherwise, it is simply an act of
man.
o Voluntariness – very much a like to
consent.
- From a Latin word “voluntas”, refers
to the act of the will.
- Without the action of the will, an act
is considered involuntary, hence the
doer cannot be held liable for his
action.
- Only a voluntary act is a human act.
FOUR KINDS OF VOLUNTARINESS
1. Perfect voluntariness – all elements
of human act are present; man is
fully accountable of the act.
2. Imperfect voluntariness –
knowledge is absent; being not
aware of the act cannot hold you
responsible.
3. Simple voluntariness – simply doing
or not doing the act since one
cannot do anything about it; either
positive or negative.
4. Conditional voluntariness – the
person is forced to do an act in
which in normal condition it should
not be done.
o Morality of an act can either be moral,
immoral, or amoral.
o Moral – good act
o Immoral – bad act
o Amoral – neither; depends on
the motive or intention of the
doer.
DETERMINANTS OF MORALITY
1. The Object of Act itself – refers to the
deed done by the doer of the action;
either good or bad
Ex: act of giving or act of killing
2. Motive or Intent – purpose of doing the
act
Ex: revenge
3. Circumstances – involves situations that
surrounds the commission of the act;
practical answers to particular
questions.
a. Who – the persons involved in the act
committed; doer and receiver
b. Why – reason or motive of doing the
act
c. By What means – The end does not
justify the means
d. Where – setting of the action
e. When – time of the commission of the
act
f. How – how the act is done
 with fear. Therefore, voluntary
and accountable of the act.
o Circumstances could be aggravating,
o Acts done because of fear or an
justifying, mitigating or exempting. The
instinct for self-preservation is not
act of self-defense is justifying since the
liable.
person is doing the act has no intention
4. Violence – happens when physical
of killing at all.
force is exerted to a person by another
o Man is an organism that does not act in
for the purpose of compelling or forcing
a vacuum. He responds and reacts to
the person to act against his will.
stimulus.
5. Habits – repeated acts; may be bad or
o The accountability of the commission
good
of an act can be modified. The liability
o Habits are becoming involuntary
can be greater, less, lesser, or none at
since they assume the role of a
all.
second nature.
MODIFIERS OF LIABILITY

1. Ignorance – absence of knowledge

 Moral norm – used to measure whether
a. Vincible ignorance – lack of
an act done is good or bad, right or
knowledge can easily be
wrong, moral or immoral.
rectified/corrected.
b. Invincible ignorance – difficult to TWO TYPES OF MORAL NORM
rectify; no way of knowing
1. Eternal divine law – objective and is the
o When a person is vincible ignorant and
ultimate and absolute norm of morality;
no effort on his/her part to repair the
governed by Divine Reason that
loss for the reason of escaping one’s
reveals the necessary relations
responsibility has greater liability.
between the creator and the
o Vincible ignorance becomes affected
creatures.
ignorance. The same with pretended
o Eternal law – made known to
ignorance, professing of not knowing
man through his reason and
when one really knows in order to flee
conscience known as the
from being blamed.
natural law (lex naturalis).
2. Concupiscence or passion – refers to
o Moral law – ordinance of reason
emotions whether negative or positive
promulgated by those who
desire; neither moral nor immoral
have the authority and care of
o Man has control or regulate his
the community for promotion of
emotions and must be submitted to the
the common good.
control of reason.
o Human law – enacted by men;
o Passion can either be antecedent or
includes precepts not only in the
consequent.
government but also in private
o The former tend to weaken the will of
agencies as, in the churches.
power of the person and so interfere
o The churches help in
with the freedom of the will. The later is
promoting the eternal
intentionally aroused and kept where
law and in real sense
the doer willfully plays his emotions.
should not come up with
3. Fear – disturbance of the mind when a
their own set of doctrines
person is confronted by danger or
since everything about
harm to oneself or loved ones.
divine law is already
o Also a form of emotion
found in the Holy
o Car racing, sky diving, class
Scriptures.
reporting are activities done
 o The difference with the
moral law and human
law is that former covers
both the external and
internal actions of man.
While, the later only
covers the externals.
2. Human Reason – related to person’s
conscience which is proximate norm of
morality telling a person internally what
to do and should not do.
o The norm is subjective since it is
found in the subject itself. It has
to require proper formation and
education on our part to attain
a level of true and correct
conscience.
o According to the harmony or
disharmony with the objective
truth, conscience can either be
correct or true, or erroneous or
false.
o Having a correct conscience
must be always obeyed.
o Erroneous conscience can be:
a.) Invincibly erroneous
conscience – mistake
cannot be avoided
regardless of the effort or
attempt exerted to correct
such
b.) Vincibly erroneous
conscience – person is
immoral accountable since
the error could have been
avoided with ordinary
diligence on his/her part
c.) Perplexed conscience –
happens when a person has
two alternative options but
fears that bad
consequences is present in
both choices that either way
he/she feels doomed, the
person must postpone
making a choice
d.) Pharisaical conscience –
person magnifies small
offenses as grave and serious
ones as little.
o Conscience is either:
a.) Certain conscience –
judgment is sure that the
action is morally good or bad
b.) Doubtful conscience –
person hesitates in making a
particular judgment since
he/she is not certain or
unsure whether something is
good or bad, moral or
immoral. If a person has this
kind of conscience, he/she
must never act.
c.) Scrupulous conscience –
described as very cautious or
extremely fearful that the
person involved do not want
to make any action in a
given situation. As a result,
the individual tends to judge
something as right or wrong
when in fact there is none
d.) Lax conscience – person
takes serious bad act very
lightly and considers as
morally acceptable. If a
person has lax conscience,
he/she must reform his state
of mind.
TWO TYPES OF NORM
1. Formal – refers to “what we ought to
be” like we should be sensitive, giving,
and obedient.
2. Material – refers to “what ought to be
done” like do not lie, do good, and do
not be selfish.
 It is worthy to not that whenever there
is a conflict between the civil authority
and the divine law (moral natural law),
the person has “to obey God rather
than men”.
LESSON 1: WHY DO YOU NEED TO STUDY
ETHICS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF RULES
 A moral experience is any encounter
wherein a person understands that the
values he or she believes to be
important are either realized or
thwarted (Hunt and Carnevale, 2011).
 This concept of moral experience,
however, asserts that the encounter is
limited to situations fraught with ethical
questions, but that moral experience
happens even in mundane everyday
settings wherein you take action based
on your moral standards. For instance,
when you decide to give a poor person
some money because you feel that it is
the right thing to do, is a moral
experience.
THE NEED TO STUDY ETHICS
 According to CHED, ethics deals with
the principles of ethical behavior in
modern society at the level of the
person, society, and in interaction with
the environment and other shared
resources.
 Understanding your moral compass in
order to develop better judgment is the
aim for studying ethics.
 College students already have
developed a set of moral standards by
which they use to understand the world
and a moral compass to navigate in it
(Billett, 2006; Campbell, 2009)
 The end goal of studying ethics is for the
students to become a person who
makes sound judgments, sensitive to
the common good.
RELEVANCE OF STUDYING ETHICS IN YOUR
CHOSEN PROFESSION
 Ethics ensure a generally agreed
standard of work-related behavior that
empowers professionals to foster moral
values through their work.
 Ethics gives a sense of justification in
one’s judgment, and helps ensure that
decisions at work are not made based
on purely subjective factors.
 Without the study of ethics, the
practice of one’s profession will fall prey
to vastly conflicting individual
interpretations.
IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO SOCIAL BEINGS
 Humans do not live in isolation. An
individual is a member of a community
of people whose common goal is to
survive and thrive.
 Humans have better chances of
surviving if they work together. Working
together is more effective when there is
a system in place; “rules”
 Rule is defined as a statement that tells
you what is or is not allowed in a
particular situation.
 These rules and its system of
implementation allow people to
productively function in the community
despite the existence of conflict with its
members.
 Rules are in place to manage harmful
behaviors, hopes to prevent chaos,
and aims to encourage stability.
LESSON 2: MORAL VS NON-MORAL
STANDARDS
 Moral standard is a code of what is right
or wrong without reference to specific
behaviors or beliefs
 Moral standards deal with matters that
the person thinks have serious
consequence. However, these
standards are not hinged on external
 authority or rules, but based on good
reason and impartial considerations
overriding self-interest.
CHARACTERISTIS OF MORAL STANDARDS
1. Moral standards involve behaviors that
seriously affect other people’s well-
being
- Profoundly injure or benefit a person
Ex: Lying, stealing, and killing = hurt people
Treating people with respect = uplifts
people
2. Moral standards take a more important
consideration than other standards
including self-interest
EX: Refusing to expose your friend’s secret
even though she offended you
3. Moral standards do not depend on any
external authority but in how the person
perceives the reasonableness of the
action
Ex: You will not copy your classmate’s answers
during the exam not because your teacher
will fail you if you do, but because you
personally believe cheating is wrong.
4. Moral standards are believed to be
universal
- When you truly believe an act is
wrong you will also not agree when
other people commit a wrongful
act, and vice versa.
5. Moral standards are based on
objectivity
- What you consider as right or wrong
does not depend on whether the
action advances the interest of a
particular person or group, but your
action depends on a universal
standpoint where everyone’s
interest is counted as equal.
6. Moral standards are associated with
vocabulary that depicts
Ex: When you go against your moral standards
you will say you feel guilty, remorseful,
ashamed.
MORAL VS NON-MORAL STANDARDS
 When judgment is founded on the
rightness or wrongness of an action the
criteria is based on one’s moral
standards
 Non-moral standards can be
considered as relative standards by
which something or someone is judged
as either good or bad.
 The rules of non-moral standards vary
because these rules depend on the
guidelines agreed by a particular
group.
ETIQUETTE, POLICY, LAW AND
COMMANDMENT
 Etiquette is a set of rules on how an
individual should responsibly behave in
the society.
Ex: Table manners
 Policy is a clear, simple, statement of
how an organization plans to handle its
services, actions, or business.
Ex: NO ID NO ENTRY
 Law is a rule created and enforced by
the government and its agencies to
maintain order, resolve disputes, and
protect a person’s liberty and rights.
Ex: Laws in PH
 Commandment is a rule that is to be
strictly observed because it was said to
be set by a divine entity
Ex: 10 Commandments
What is the advantage of owning moral
standards over merely abiding by moral
standards?
 Ethics are presumed as moral rules on
how a person should act.
 “Every person is obligated to do the
greatest good for the most number of
people”
“Everyone is obligated to act in ways that
upholds the human dignity for all people.”
LESSON 3: MORAL DILEMMA
 Dilemma is a situation in which a
difficult choice has to be made
between two or more alternatives,
especially undesirable ones.
 When you find yourself facing a
problem but the solutions available to
you will only create another problem,
then you are in a dilemma.
A moral dilemma is a situation where:
a. There are two or more actions
that you can possible do
b. There is a moral reason for doing
such actions
c. You cannot do all the possible
actions presented to you. You
need to choose one.
THREE LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMA
1. Personal Moral Dilemma – when your
decision in a situation where there is
moral conflicts is the cause of either
your own; that of another person; or a
group of people’s potential harm.
2. Organizational Dilemma – when a
member of the organization is in a
situation where there is a moral conflict,
and the decision will potentially harm
either some members of the group or
the entire organization itself.
Ex: Factory is not hitting its target profit. Should
they need to lay off the people who work for
them to save a factory? Or keep the people..?
3. Structural Moral Dilemma – when a
person or group of persons who holds
high-level positions in the society faces
a morally conflicting situation wherein
the entire social system is affected.
Ex: Controversy in the SSS 2016
LESSON 4: FREEDOM
WHY ONLY HUMAN BEINGS CAN BE ETHICAL?
 According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the
fundamental difference between
animal ethics and human ethics is that
animals behave instinctively while
human behavior is rational.
 Instinctive behavior is hard-wired,
inborn, characteristic response to
specific environmental stimuli; an
example is the altruistic behavior of
social animals.
 Researchers found that the animal’s
intent of self-sacrifice is more on
ensuring reproductive success (kin
selection) rather than out of true selfless
motive.
Ex: Suicide attacks of working honeybees in
defense of their colony against intruders
 Rational behavior is a decision-making
process where the person acts in ways
that best achieve his or her needs in
accordance with his or her set
preferences, priorities, and principles.
 Rational behavior is tied to moral
standards. Additionally, the human
person in his decision-making process is
free to decide what to do and free to
act on his decisions.
 Only humans can be ethical because
only humans have the capacity for free
moral judgment.
THE FOUNDATION OF MORALITY
 Morality in relation to self, to others, and
your ultimate end. However, there is
one crucial difference between a ship
and a person. A shop is under the
command of a captain, while a person
is someone who is free to decide his or
her course.
WHY IS FREEDOM CRUCIAL IN YOUR ABILITY TO
MAKE MORAL DECISIONS?
 The personal aspect of morality is about
developing virtue so that thinking
morally, performing moral acts, and
choosing to do what is good becomes
a habit.
 Virtue is your thought or behavior
guided by, and displays, high moral
standards. Virtues are developed
through learning and practice. Once
you have it, your virtues become your
characteristic.
“An efficiently run ship is like a virtuous person;
both have internalized the practices that
make them weather storms. However, a ship is
under the control of a captain while a virtuous
person is free to cultivate his or her values. At
the same time, he or she is free to abandon it”
 Freedom, then, is the foundation of
moral acts. For a person to be virtuous,
he or she must also be free.
 When talking about the interpersonal
aspect of morality, the discussion turns
to following the rules.
- In following the rules, freedom is still
essential.
- It makes a person recognize that
apart from personal rights, other
people’s rights are equally
important.
WHY ARE YOU HERE? WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?
 The human person’s final end is always
a debatable topic. But, this does not
negate the fact that freedom remains
essential with one’s view of his or her
ultimate purpose.
 The human person’s freedom is so
precious that God will not take over
and take control of the person’s life,
even when that person badly misuses
his or her freedom (Lord Acton, 1967)
 Whatever influences the person’s view
of his ultimate end, only a free person
can understand his or her ultimate end.
“Enlightenment cannot be force.”
THE HUMAN PERSON AS A FREE BEING
 In Philosophy, a human being is more
than its biological components. The
human being is a person endowed with
characteristics that are material,
spiritual, rational, and free.
 A human person is a being with inborn
properties that he or she uses to direct
his or her own development toward
self-fulfillment. One of this properties is
freedom.
PHILOSOPHICAL INSIGHTS ON FREEDOM
1. Freedom is a gift
o Freedom is the ability to act
significantly.
2. Freedom is complementary to reason
o The human person as a moral
agent must exercise practical
rationality in order to determine
how to pursue his or her ultimate
end.
o Self-direction, rather than bare
spontaneity, is the crucial
characteristic of the free person.
3. Freedom is absolute
o Human person is “absolutely
free”
o Freedom sets the human person
apart from other creatures.
o Animals are free but this kind of
freedom is called freedom from
restrictions. While humans have
a higher kind of freedom. It is
beyond restrictions.
o Humans can make free choices,
decide, and use this freedom to
attain goals.
 FREEDOM DEMANDS RESPONSIBILTY

 He believed a person always has a

choice. Thus, we must choose.
 Jean-Paul Sartre said that freedom is
the capacity to choose, that even not
choosing is a choice.
 These choices have consequences to
it. These are something that the person
must endure.

“Responsibility follows freedom.”

 Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu,

advocated that a person can and
should choose to act, but his or her
actions should be that which would
result in harmony.

 His idea was that in society, the

exercise of one’s freedom is not
absolute. The person is free to do
anything; but it is not without
consequences of one’s action.

 Responsibility, as a moral quality,

serves as a voluntary check and
balance of one’s freedom.

“Without proper balance, limitless freedom is

as dangerous as an extremely controlling
social group. Great social injustices have
resulted from such radical mindsets.”