The challenge of ethics.

Patricia Debeljuh

Chapter 1

Introduction to philosophical ethics

Ethical issues concern each person in an intimate way. No one can avoid facing ethical dilemmas in
everyday life. Such problems affect all people because they concern their behavior and the way
they relate to others.

Faced with certain ethical questions, it is clear that the person needs to adjust his actions to
certain parameters.

This first section analyzes the nature of ethics. What is ethics and what is its object of study are
defined, and after considering its method, the relationship of this knowledge with other sciences is
explained.

All men throughout the generations have questioned the presence of good and evil in the world.
They have always done so based on the analysis of human actions. In any dimension of life, it is
possible to reflect on a good, virtuous way of behaving or, conversely, on a dishonest and vicious
way of acting. In short, to play a good or a bad role in each of the performances. Reality is
constantly being assessed. Through ethical judgments we compare what happens with what
should happen. Ultimately, this question of good and evil is intimately related to human action. It
can be said that a person is what his moral behavior is and that is why ethics is so important that it
does not leave people indifferent.

People began to ask themselves these questions when they became aware that the exercise of
their free action did not simply mean a choice about things external to them. This is the most
immediate and obvious dimension of freedom, but not the only one. By opting for this or that
thing, you know that you are deciding about yourself, you are choosing a type of person you want
to be. It is the subject himself who, as a consequence of his decisions, will achieve happiness or
frustration. Therefore, by becoming aware of his freedom and exercising it, man is confronted
with the question of his responsibility.

Each person is the protagonist of his own life and therefore of his moral existence. Taking into
account a set of ideas, values and criteria, he/she makes certain decisions and judges the behavior
of others. Starting from this spontaneous moral knowledge, man is capable of rationally
investigating the foundations of the morality of his actions. Ethics aims to clarify philosophically
the essence of moral life, with the purpose of formulating norms and criteria of judgment that
may constitute a valid orientation in the responsible exercise of personal freedom.

Ethics is the part of philosophy that studies the moral life of man. It focuses on a particular
dimension within the human reality: the free behavior of the person and therefore, his responsible
conduct. Ethics reflects on the ultimate and profound meaning of moral life and asks about the
end that man pursues in his life, in order to determine, based on that goal, those behaviors

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through which he will be able to achieve happiness. From these considerations, it follows that
ethics is at the service of man to help him live better in a more human sense.

The etymological origin of the term "ethics" can clarify the nature of this science. Ethics is a very
ancient term used frequently in the Greek world. It comes from the word éthos and is translated
as science of customs. The same applies to the term "moral" which derives from the Latin mos,
meaning custom. However, if we want to further clarify the meaning of the word ethics, we must
go back to two interpretations. In its origin there are two Greek terms that have the same
semantic root: ethos (with epsilon) and ethos (with etha) the original seems to be ethos which
means custom and refers to the uses and principles that govern in a community and guide the life
of the polis. It should not be forgotten that this was a cultural era in which the individual was
considered a member of a social group and therefore should be governed by those principles that
favored coexistence. In this sense, ethics evokes social conduct rather than the evaluation of
actions originating in one's own individual conscience.
The term ethos (with eta) as used by Aristotle, refers to the character or habitual way of being.
This meaning has more individual than social connotations as it refers to personality. It refers to
the set of qualities that distinguish a person in his or her actions. When we speak of character or
way of being, we are not referring to the temperament or the innate psychobiological constitution
of a person, but to the way of being that he acquires for himself throughout his life, related to the
habit that is good if he perfects it (virtue) or bad if he perverts it (vice).

Ethics comprises the dispositions of man, his character and his habits, which constitute a way of
being, a way of life that is acquired day by day throughout life. In short, ethics refers
etymologically to customs and "character" or "way of being".

Man is constantly building his own life, and through his actions, he is called to project his future.
Therefore, ethics considers human actions in their relation to the way of being that the person
acquires through them, taking into account the end that he or she intends to achieve. Ethics
studies voluntary human conduct including all actions and omissions over which human beings
exercise personal control because they desire and understand those acts in relation to an end they
have in view.

By way of conclusion, ethics can be defined as that part of philosophy that studies human actions
considered in relation to their ultimate end, trying to obtain, by means of an adequate method
and supported by principles of universal validity, a certain and asystematic knowledge of the due
ordering of human conduct.

1.1- The object of ethics

Whenever man rises above purely empirical knowledge and tries to reach the cause of what he
knows, the reason for the phenomenon, he reaches the scientific level. A knowledge of things by
their causes is what is traditionally called science. Ethics is science precisely because it explains
reality by its causes. It is a rational discipline that starts from human acts and transcends them to
arrive at its principles. It is not a matter of issuing an opinion about good or bad, but of

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formulating judgments about the goodness or badness of something, but always giving the cause
or reason for such judgment. For example, ethics not only commands "do not steal" but also
explains that it is wrong to do so because it is contrary to justice.

Every science has a reality that is its object of study. It defines each scientific discipline,
differentiating it from the others and giving unity to all the knowledge it comprises. The sphere of
reality studied by ethics is constituted by the human person, considered not in his physical or
psychological condition, but in the being and in the good (virtuous) or bad (vicious) configuration
that he gives himself through his actions. From this will follow the classical distinction between
material and formal object of all scientific knowledge.

1.1.1- The material object

The material object of a science is the set of realities studied by that discipline. As we have already
seen, ethics is concerned with the human actions that shape a person's way of being. Everything
that man does or voluntarily fails to do has relevance for ethics: indeed, it constitutes its object of
study. Therefore, human actions are the material object of ethics.

Traditionally, a distinction has been made in philosophy between human acts and acts of man. The
latter are those performed by the person without voluntary rational control over them. These are
processes over which man has no direct control. They lack, therefore, freedom of the subject and
therefore have no ethical connotation.

Free actions are "human" and consequently have relevance for ethics. The person is the owner of
every free act. Acts of which man is not the owner are not "human" actions, even though they may
be performed by him. Free means with conscience and will. A person is the owner of an act when
he/she knows what he/she did and why, and to that extent he/she can give answers for his/her
action; he/she is responsible for it and its consequences. Human acts are those of which man is
the owner and as such he can do them in one way or another or omit them. They proceed from
rational deliberation and will; they emanate from his freedom and therefore the person is
responsible for them.

What distinguishes these two types of acts is whether or not they are proper to man as man, and
this is given not by the mode of acting (i.e. the way in which the action proceeds from the person).
Only actions freely performed are human. Only actions of which the subject is duel and, therefore,
those that proceed from deliberate will are human, since the person exercises dominion over his
acts through reason and will, of which freedom is proper to him.

Man's ethical experience is closely linked to the experience of his freedom, which places him
before the commitment to build his personal existence through his actions. He himself, in
exercising his freedom, must adjust his actions, must choose the kind of person he wants to be. It
is man who gives meaning to his own life, assuming it, because he is endowed with a freedom that
allows him to decide about himself. Therefore, it is only through human conduct that a person
"leads" himself to the end he has freely chosen: by making use of his knowledge of reality.

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Human actions are the result of a person's decision. Only she can give a reason why she made
them, and this is inseparably linked to a moral responsibility. The subject can answer for those
actions and only for those actions that he has projected and organized by himself, that is to say, he
can only answer for those actions of which he is truly the author, cause and principle.

1.1.2- The formal object

The formal object of a science is understood as that aspect or property of the realities it studies,
that which directly interests it. Ethics does not stop at the facticity of human acts, but studies
them precisely insofar as they are ordered to the ultimate end that is proper to man as such. It is
this aspect that constitutes the formal object of ethics. In other words, what configures ethics as
such is its consideration of human acts as good or bad. This is why ethics is classically called the
science of good and evil. The goodness or badness of human actions is generically called morality.
It is said, therefore, that the formal object of ethics is the morality of human acts.

Other sciences also deal with human actions; psychology, sociology, history. The purpose of these
sciences, their formal object, is not how a person should act, but how he acts. They do not stop to
consider the goodness or badness of human behavior. This is the proper optic of ethics: it studies
man as a being in growth and in project, capable of developing through actions, and of giving a
meaning to his life, specifying what this orientation should be for the best future of man. It does
not matter that several fields of knowledge deal with human actions; each one analyzes them from
a different point of view. Therefore, ethics coincides with other sciences in its material object -
human acts - but differs in the aspect according to which it studies them: their morality.

The same man can behave well as a technician or craftsman and badly as a person. It is necessary
to warn that the goodness proper to human acts as humans should not be confused with the
goodness proper to them as entities. This leads to distinguish in human acts a triple goodness -
and respectively evil - entitative, technical and moral. When speaking of the goodness of human
acts, reference can be made to three different senses:

- Entitative or natural goodness. That which every human act, like any entity, has. In this sense
every entity is good.

- Technical goodness: it is attributed to some restricted purpose. The act is good insofar as it has a
purely technical value.

-Moral goodness: that which is absolutely appropriate as a human act. In this sense, the act is
good in itself because it is ordered to the good.

What contributes to ethics as such is its consideration of human acts as good or evil, that is, taking
into account their ordination to good or evil. Ethics is concerned with the goodness or badness
that human acts carry with them, not insofar as they possess a certain entity (entitative goodness)
or a certain technical perfection (technical goodness) but insofar as they possess a perfection
(moral goodness) that suits man as man, not partially but absolutely, insofar as it leads the person,
or not, to realize his ultimate end.

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Having made the distinction between material and formal object, it is convenient to specify that
ethics is not only concerned with understanding the goodness or badness of actions, but aims to
help man to act morally well. This is especially evident when analyzing the characteristics of this
science.

1.2- Ethics as a speculative, practical and normative knowledge.

When we speak of ethics as the science of customs, we do not mean that it is limited to recording,
ordering and classifying the habits or ways of acting of man or of a given social group. Ethics goes
beyond the mere description of customs: it is concerned with the good or evil that is intrinsically
linked to every human action and to the purpose of every existence.

Morality is an operable and effective reality only if it is acted upon by man; that is why it is said
that it is an object of realization and not simply of contemplation. Ethics refers to it (morality) as
something that must be put into practice. When he studies what is the moral act, what is the end
of actions, what is the meaning of life, he makes theoretical statements, but not to remain in
them, but to make them the starting point for acting according to those principles. Ethics
formulates and philosophically bases value judgments and norms of behavior of absolute validity,
with the intention of guiding the exercise of personal freedom towards the good of the human
person as such. Therefore, ethics is not a purely speculative knowledge, but, by reason of its object
- which is operable, that is, something that man has to realize and that reason has to direct - it is
also a practical science.

Philosophical ethics is a practical knowledge not only because it refers to actions, but also because
it is a knowledge that accompanies and directs action, guiding the right use of freedom: it is a
directive knowledge of human conduct. Its main purpose lies in the realization of this knowledge.

The practical character of moral knowledge not only does not preclude a theoretical foundation,
but demands it. Ethics is a speculative-practical science and not simply a practical one. If ethical
norms are to be rational and philosophically grounded, they must be based on the truth about the
good and evil of the person and his or her essential requirements.

Ethics is also a normative science, because it establishes laws or norms so that man knows how to
choose the good. It is the normative knowledge of human activity: it does not simply contemplate
what is, but what is to be and must be. Ethics is concerned with what man must do in order to live
and how he must live in order to be what he must become, in order to reach his ultimate end, that
for which he exists and towards which he moves in every free decision.

While it is not the only science that establishes rules of conduct, it does so in a different way. The
other sciences are, in a certain sense, subordinate to ethics because the latter deals with the end
and the value that transcend and judge all other values and other ends. Therefore, it can set
standards of absolute and unconditional content and thus establish guidelines that constitute
points of reference for other disciplines. Ethics is the most accurate scientific consideration of

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human activity. From ethics we can see, better than from psychology or sociology, economics or
biology, the nature of human dynamism, of human behavior.

2. Ethics as a philosophical discipline

It has already been said that ethics is a part of philosophy, because it studies the meaning of
human acts: their goodness, their essential relation to the good. It is time to analyze the starting
point of ethical reflection and how, from it, one arrives at a rational ethical knowledge.

2.1 . The starting point of ethical reflection: moral experience.

Ethical experience is a radical dimension of human experience. The person is constantly

confronted with moral issues in his or her own life. Language is full of expressions that presuppose
an ethical evaluation: good, evil, just, unjust, right, etc.

Like all human knowledge, moral ethics is based on reality, on the person's contact with himself
and his relations with others. The existence of ethics belongs to that experience of man who finds
in himself the reason for his own actions. Each person feels that he is the judge of his actions and
knows what purpose he pursued in each of them. In this sense, acting ethically is not something
added to the action, but the very existence that the person lives as a free and responsible being.
The moral phenomenon, before being the object of philosophical reflection, is a reality consciously
lived by man. It is presented to consciousness before any philosophical elaboration or justification.
This moral sense that qualifies human acts is proper to every subject and is usually called
spontaneous moral knowledge. Ethics takes this moral experience, indissolubly linked to every
action, as the starting point and source of its acts.

When evaluating an action, the person relies on his ethical convictions, his knowledge about
virtues, etc. All this constitutes the moral experience on the basis of which philosophical ethics
reflects. However, spontaneous knowledge is often inaccurate. It is undoubtedly subject to the
influence of ideologies and cultural environment. Therefore, the historical, social, educational and
philosophical conditions surrounding the person influence his appreciation to such an extent that
they can deform the content and meaning of his actions, but never in themselves annul the moral
act.

The facts of experience that constitute the starting point of ethics can be of two kinds: those of
external experience (sensory facts), grasped by sensitive perception, and those of internal
experience (facts of consciousness) which are intuitions that impose themselves on reason. The
latter are of great interest for ethics. They are more general and immediately intuitive truths: "we
must avoid evil and do good". The intuition of these truths imposes itself on the consciousness as
a fact of inner experience. Such truths are the fruit of habitual knowledge, that is, they are
possessed by the habit of first moral principles, commonly called synderesis.

Synderesis is a property of the spirit and consists in knowing in an evident way the first principles
of action. It is important to note that these basic moral convictions are not innate, but acquired
through experience.

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Everything that man knows naturally he learns by means of sensible experience. Through it he
discovers the meaning of elementary ethical truths.

Once again, the influence that education has on the formation of the moral conscience is evident.

2.2. The compositional method.

Intelligence proceeds in two ways for the elaboration of scientific knowledge: by induction and by
deduction. In induction one goes from the particular to the universal, from particular cases to a
universal principle or law. One comes to know a truth after repeated experiences of self-evident
realities. In deduction, we start from a principle or law to explain something particular. The
method used by ethics cannot be exclusively inductive or deductive. Ethics knows reality but does
not exhaust itself in it. The philosopher's judgment is to determine how actions should be but after
having seen how they are, i.e., it is a matter of putting acts in relation to principles.

Ethics must recognize the data of the moral conscience in order to try to interpret them, and by
discovering their ultimate significance, arrive at the principles that make deduction possible. It is
therefore necessary to start from the moral fact, in order to arrive at the ultimate basis of its
significance and value. Thomas Aquinas calls this method compositive. It consists of understanding
the ethical significance of an action in the light of first moral principles through philosophical
induction.

In synthesis, ethics, taking life experience as its source and starting point and using the
compositional method, has as its task the philosophical elaboration of the rationality contained in
moral acts: it interprets and grounds the contents of the ethical order and the very meaning of its
moral experience. All this must be done without forgetting that it is addressed to free men, who
must not only know what good is, but also want to do it. This is the challenge facing ethics: to
teach the good and persuade the person to want to do it.

3. The relationship of ethics with other fields of knowledge

Ethics is a science and, as such, must enter into relationship with other knowledge that studies
reality; specifically, human conduct with all its implications, since moral realization cannot do
without factual existence. Ethics is first of all related to all sciences whose object of study is man:
psychology, sociology, anthropology, law, economics.

All these scientific disciplines deal with the person, but focus on a partial aspect. What is called
ethics refers to the more general aspects of this "living well" that is so difficult to specify.

3.1. Ethics and psychology

There is an intimate connection between these two areas of knowledge. Psychology studies the
human faculties and their concrete way of acting. It establishes the facts but does not judge that
performance. Such is the mission of ethics as a science that regulates behavior. The contribution of

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psychology to the ethical assessment of moral acts is incalculable. Every human action has a
psychic aspect.

However, ethics and psychology have different formal objects. To the extent that human acts are
considered as the subject or matter of morality, ethics studies them in a different way from that of
psychology. The latter is concerned only with their facticity, while ethics examines them as
something susceptible of a right moral orientation. Psychology is a descriptive science: it
establishes facts and explains them. Ethics, on the other hand, is a normative science whose
purpose is to determine how human acts should be, i.e., it directs human activity towards the
good.

3.2 Ethics and sociology

Since man is a naturally sociable being, the intimate relationship between ethics and sociology is
evident. Sociology is a descriptive science that studies the phenomena that occur in life in society;
it does not consider the rules that should govern it. This is a mere finding of fact, unrelated to
ethical requirements. It is also dedicated to the social influences that act on the personal behavior
of each individual.

Ethics and sociology in their material object, but they do not share the same formal aspect. While
both fields of knowledge deal with human actions, sociology describes, classifies and measures
social facts using empirical methods to understand the social dimensions of human behavior. But
it is not for him to establish what men should do. This is the task of ethics.

3.3 Ethics and law

It could be said that law is, in a sense, a set of rules governing human conduct and this is similar to
ethics. The difference is that the latter basically refers to natural norms while law is constituted by
positive norms. Moral laws are inscribed in the very nature of things; man does not invent them
but discovers them. On the other hand, positive laws are man-made. Therefore, both sciences are
normative and study duty, but while law deals with external facts insofar as they are susceptible to
legal ordination and requirement, ethics studies the internal facts of the will and insofar as they
are enforceable by one's own conscience.

The law only deals with certain external conduct in accordance with a positive law. But ethics is
broader: it refers not only to the laws passed and promulgated by certain institutions, but is
concerned with all external conduct and not only with its relation to the legislation in force.

3.4. Ethics and economics

The economy is presented as an essential dimension of human activity. It is part of man's way of
being and a clear manifestation of his sociability. Behind any mode of economic organization is
present a conception of man. Therefore, when economics proposes rules of action, they are not

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independent of ethics. Morality should also guide economic behavior. If this is not the case, the
aims of the economy may be diverted and its objectives subordinated to other interests.

3.5. Ethics and metaphysics

An ethical system will respond to the metaphysical conception of its proponent. Ethics and
metaphysics are closely related. The latter studies the being as such and the former, by dealing
with human acts, studies a kind of being. Therefore, it necessarily relies on metaphysical concepts.

Ethics is the science of the good and evil of human acts. Metaphysics, where ethics has its
presuppositions, clarifies the ultimate end of man, God, to whose eternal law the free human will
must adapt itself.

3.6. Ethics and anthropology

Anthropology is a speculative science, while ethics is also practical. While anthropology studies the
totality of human beings, ethics focuses on the analysis of their behavior.

4. The ethical background of professional work

Today's society is characterized by the prominence acquired by work, the true driving force of
personal and social life. In order to understand the ethical background that underlies all
professional activities, it is useful to first analyze what is meant by profession.

Profession is any personal, stable and honorable activity placed at the service of others and for the
benefit of oneself, at the impulse of one's own vocation and with the dignity that corresponds to
the human person, in order to contribute to the common good.

Through the individual's work, the mastery of nature, the transformation of the world, is achieved.
Work and profession are also human actions, and therefore have a subjective dimension consisting
of man's mastery over himself. The two dimensions of the work are technical and ethical. Through
the first, man dominates nature; with the second, he achieves mastery over himself.

The need to incorporate ethics into professional activities is a personal and social requirement.

It is about working well not as a mere end in itself, but as a means to be a better person. A
professional must have both technical and human qualities. There is no true professional
excellence in someone lacking moral virtues.

Deontology is translated as the science of duty, it studies the morality of human conduct in the
field of professional practice. It is concerned with determining those ethical obligations and
responsibilities that arise in the practice or exercise of a profession. This discipline also establishes
in each specialty what are the rights of man as a professional, what moral conditions are required

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of him as a person and in what ethical approach should be given to the new situations in which he
finds himself at different moments of his work.

Every university must prepare its students for this upright practice of the profession. In many
educational centers, emphasis is placed on technical or scientific knowledge, but the ethical
dimension of the future professional is neglected. It is essential that the university takes care to
provide its students with an integral formation in three aspects: personal, solidarity and
professional. We need professionals who, in addition to knowing "technically", are concerned
about their authentic improvement as persons; professionals who know how to put all their
scientific knowledge at the service of the person and the common good of society.

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