ETHICS to understand the world and their moral compass to
navigate in it.
Ethics is the branch of philosophy that studies morality
or the rightness or wrongness of human conduct. It
stands to query about what there is reason to do. It deals
with human actions and reasons for the actions and is
mainly concerned with the person’s character. Ethics and
morality carry the concept, values, principles, and
standards. Because it is concerned with norms of human
conduct, ethics is considered a normative study of human
actions.
LECTURE 1:
WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY ETHICS AND THE
IMPORTANCE OF RULESWHAT ARE RULES?
● Rules refer to explicit or understood regulations
or principles governing conduct within a specific
activity or sphere.
● Rules are usually coupled with means to impose
consequences on those who violate them.
● Rules are considered essential for a healthy
economic system.
● Rules produce a sense of justice among social
beings
Some questions that are ethical in nature are:
○ What is the good?
○ Who is a moral person?
○ What are the virtues of a human being?
○ What makes an act right?
○ What duties do we have to each other?
Also called moral philosophy, ethics evaluates
moral concepts, values, principles, and standards.
Because it is concerned with norms of human conduct,
ethics is considered a normative study of human actions.
Understanding your moral compass in order to develop
better judgment is the aim of studying Ethics. Upon
entering college, students are not blank sheets, devoid of
pre-existing beliefs and values. College students already
have developed a set of moral standards by which they use
This reality makes it important for students to
study, explore, understand, and critically reflect on their
personal value systems. The end goal of studying ethics is
for the student to become a person who makes sound
judgments, sensitive to the common good. Ethics ensure a
generally agreed standard 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. Ethics and
morality necessarily carry the concepts of moral
standards or rules with regard to behavior. So as a way of
introducing moral rules, let us discuss why rules are
important to social beings.
IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO SOCIAL BEINGS:
Humans in general, do not live in isolation.
Instead, an individual is a member of a community of
people whose common goal is to survive and thrive. As
human societies evolved, they found that human
communities have better chances to survive if they work
together; and that working together is more effective
when there is a system in place. One of the systems that
humans developed is standards that guide human
activities, or simply, “rules”.
RULES BENEFIT SOCIAL BEINGS IN VARIOUS MANNERS:
● Rules protect social beings by regulating
behavior.
● Rules build boundaries and place limits on
behavior.
● Rules are usually coupled with means to impose
consequences on those who violate them. One of
the reasons people follow accepted rules is to
avoid negative consequences.
● Rules help to guarantee each person certain
rights and freedom. Rules form frameworks for
society. Nations are generally nations of laws
and the governing principles are outlined in what
 is called constitution. Because the majority has
agreed to follow and consent to be governed by
such a constitution, the freedom outlined exists.
One of the advantages of such a system is that
each person is guaranteed certain rights as the
government is limited in its power to ensure
that it does not become powerful enough to
suppress liberty
● Rules produce a sense of justice among social
beings. Rules are needed in order to keep the
strong from dominating the weak, that is, to
prevent exploitation and domination. Without
rules, schemes in which those with the power
control the system, would take over. In effect,
rules generate a stable system that provides
justice, in which even the richest and most
powerful have limitations on what they can do. If
they transgress rules such as laws and
ordinances and take advantage of people, there
are consequences both socially and criminally
● Rules are essential for a healthy economic
system. Without rules regulating business, power
would centralize around monopolies and threaten
the strength and competitiveness of the system.
● Rules are needed to ensure product safety,
employee safety, and product quality.
Copyrights and patents help protect people’s
intellectual property. Rules and regulations also
keep the banking system stable so as to avoid
depression and the like

In short, society could not soundly function without rules

and regulations. Rules are necessary to protect the
greater good. Even the freest societies ought to have
rules in order to avoid exploitation and tyranny while
upholding the common welfare