ETHICS
ETHICS
 From the Greek word ethos, meaning
“customs” or “ behaviors”
 The term ethos in Latin is “morals”.
 Is a mental-set, disposition or values.
ETHICS IS DEFINED AS:
- As a science, it deals with the
morality (rightness or
wrongness) of the human act.
- As a discipline, it is meant for the
exercise of a human conduct,
both ethical and unethical.
- As a philosophical study, it
guides the intellect in discerning
concrete human conduct.
IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS
 It plays a critical role in shaping the
individuals behaviors within a
society.
 Act as a self governing system to
keep human self-interest and the
good of society at equilibrium
because the eyes of the law are not
always available.
 Society might fall into chaos if we
accept that each of us could pick and
choose what the right thing to do is.
-Ethics is the guiding stick whether what is
right and what is wrong.
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS IN
THE HUMAN ACT
- Human act is a conscious and
free exercise of one’s faculties,
therefore, conscious and free.
- Act of man is an act beyond the
control of one’s will.
- Morality or ethics is more
concerned with human acts rather
than acts of man.
CONSTITUENTS OF HUMAN ACT:
 KNOWLEDGE – resides in the
intellect and is the mindfulness of
what the moral agent is doing.
 FREEDOM – quality of the
freewill by which one is able to
choose between one or more
alternatives.
 VOLUNTARINESS – quality of
the human act whereby any
commission or omission of an act
is a result of the knowledge
which an agent has of the end.
SOURCES/DETERMINANT OF
MORALITY
 THE OBJECT OF THE ACT
 The very substance of the act
 “What was performed by the
agent?”
 MOTIVE OF THE AGENT
 Purpose for which the d=human
agent does the action.
 “What was the agent want?”
 THE CIRCUMSTANCES
 WHAT – the intended object of
the act.
 WHY – personal intention of the
agent.
 BY WHAT MEANS – tools or
procedures used
 HOW – modes of doing the act
 WHEN – the time the act was
performed.
 WHERE – the spatial setting
where the act is done.
 WHO – the person who
does/receive
STANDARDS/NORM of MORALITY
 Natural Law and Conscience
 “An ordinance of reason
promulgated by a duly constituted
authority for the common good or
the society.”
 Kind of Law (Natural Law/Divine
Law/Human Positive Law)
 “The law is important for us to
regulate our actions.”
NATURAL LAW
 A system of law that is
purportedly determined by
nature, and thus universal.
 The pattern of behavior of
animals, plants, or minerals
follow such actions or
movements in accordance with
the will of the Divine Mind.
 “Our universe is composed of an
infinite variety of beautifully
arranged things. Indeed nature
shows a constant order which is
the result of a universal plan and
of immutable laws.” (Panizo,
1964).
CONSCIENCE
 The practical judgment that
determines that an act is good,
therefore to be done, and evil,
therefore to be avoided.
 Considered as subjective because
it is borne out of the mental
process of man.
 Man has to follow his
conscience.
a. Follow the law
b. Follow one’s culture
beliefs
c. Follow one’s feelings
d. Follow one’s religious
beliefs.
KOHLBERG’S STAGES OF MORAL
DEVELOPMENT
PRE-CONVENTIONAL
STAGE
 Usually common among children  World has differing
 Judge morality of action based on opinions, rights and
direct consequences values
 Stage 1 (Obedience vs  Stage 6 (universal ethical
punishment) principles driven
 An action is perceive as  Based on abstract
wrong because the reasoning
perpetrator is punished
 Egocentric
 Stage 2(self-interest
driven)
 What’s in store for me

CONVENTIONAL STAGE
 Usually common among
adolescents
 Judge morality of action based on
societal views and expectations
 Stage 3 (good intentions
as determined by social
consensus)
 Live to expectations by
being good boy/girl
 Stage 4 (authority and
social order)
 Important to obey rules to
uphold social order.

POST-CONVENTIONAL
STAGE
 Known as principled level;
marked by a growing realization
of individual perspective may
differ from society.
 Live principles universally,
especially human rights
 Stage 5 (social contract
driven)
“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed
upon this world.” (Camus)
Ethics is a study of what are good and bad
ends to pursue in life and what it is right and
wrong to do in the conduct of life. It is
therefore, above all, a practical discipline. Its
primary aim is to determine how one ought
to live and what actions one ought to do in
the conduct of one’s life.” (John Deigh)
MORALITY – “ standards of right and wise
conduct whose authority in practical thought
is determined by reason rather than custom.”
(John Deigh)
ETHICS IS A NORMATIVE DISCIPLINE
Because ethics is concerned with
prescribing action (not describing action) it
is said to concerned with the normative
realm.
In contrast anthropology is said
to be descriptive rather than
normative.
Anthropologists do now
prescribe action.
META-ETHICS
 Concerned with the nature of
ethical statements.
MORAL SUBJECTIVISM – moral
judgements reflect personal
preferences/opinions/attitudes.
 Involves an individual
imagining what they
would do in another's
shoes, if they believed
what that other person
imagines to be true.
MORAL REALISM – moral judgements
can be true or false, and are made so by
objective features of the world.
THE IS-OUGHT PROBLEM
 David Humes’s famous
exposition of the problem is
known as Hume’s Law.
 The “ is-ought problem”
concerns whether one can derive
a statement of what ought to be
the case from descriptive
statements about the world.
“In every system of morality, which I have
hitherto met with, I have always remarked,
that the author proceeds for some time in the
ordinary ways of reasoning, and establishes
the being of a God, or makes observations
concerning human affairs; when all od a
sudden I am surprised to find, that instead of
the usual copulations of propositions, is, and
is mot, I meet with no proposition that is not
connected with an ought, or an ought not…
For as this that it should be observed and
explained; and at the same time that a reason
should be given; for what seems altogether
inconceivable, how this new relation can be
a deduction from others, which are entirely
different from it.” (David Hume)
 Hume is commonly interpreted as
being of the belief that one cannot
logically derive an “ought” from an
“is”
Descriptive statement: There exists great
disparity of wealth in certain areas of the
world.
Normative Statement: We ought to equalize
wealth through redistribution/We ought to
abstain from redistributing wealth.
TEOLOGICAL VS. DEONTOLOGICAL
THEORIES OF ETHICS
“The first kind of theory asserts that the
morality, or the immorality, of an act (and
hence the rightness or wrongness of an act)
is a function solely of the consequences of
the act and the natural tendency of those
consequences to produce pleasure or pain, or
goodness, or happiness, in some degree and
in some way. Any such theory we call a
consequentialist or a teleological theory. The
second kind of theory asserts that the
morality or the immorality of an act has
basically nothing to do with the
consequences of the act. This latter kind of
theory we call deontological.” (Robert
Almeder)
TEOLOGICAL THEORIES
TELOS – Greek word for end or purpose
- Actions are evaluated as moral or
immoral depending on whether
they help or hinder in the
achievement of the chosen end.
Example of TT
- Egoism (happiness or pleasure)
- Eudaimonism (well being)
- Utilitarianism(general good, or
welfare of humankind)
DEONTOLOGICAL THEORIES
Deon – Greek word for duty.
- The morality of an action id
grounded by some form of
authority independent of the
consequences that such actions
generate.
- Original source of deontological
theories are the Judaic and
Christian conceptions of divine
law. (inspirations)
Can Philosophical Ethics Help Create Good
Individuals?
(Kant) “ The point is not always to
speculate, but also ultimately to think about
applying our knowledge. Today, however,
he who lives in conformity with what he
teaches is taken for a dreamer.”
(Schopenhauer)”Virtue cannot be taught, no
more than genius… We would thus be just
as foolish to expect that our moral systems
and ethics might awaken the virtuous, noble,
and saintly as that our aesthetics might
awaken poets, sculptors, and musicians.”
“The question “what is good?” is certainly
the most important question you can ask…
For it comes to this: each of us has one life
to live, and that life can be, as it commonly
is, wasted in the pursuit of specious goals,
things that turn out worthless the moment
they are possessed, or it can be made a
deliberate and thoughtful art, wherein what
was sought and, let us hope, in some
measure gained, was something all the while
worth striving for. Or we can put it this way:
there will come a way for each of us to die,
and on that day, if we have failed, we shall
have failed irrevocably.” (Richard Taylor)
Other term of ethics is moral philosophy.
Ethics? Ethics is a practical science of the
morality of human conduct.(Paul glenn)
- Ethics is a science because it
collects date that are known to be
true.
- Ethics is a practical science
because the date presented is
directly implied and have
indicative directions for the
human conduct.
- Ethics is the morality of the
human conduct.
- Ethics is the science morality of
the human conduct.
- Ethos, a way od acting life.
OBJECTS OF ETHICS
MATERIAL OBJECT
- If the MO of science are the
things – to which it deals, then
the MO of ethics is the human
conduct.
FORMAL OBJECT
- If the FO of science is the way it
deals with the MO, ie, the
studying, then the FO of ethics
deals with the human conducts to
determine or realize whether or
not agree with the dictate of
reason. In other words a certain
action of an agent (with
advertence) must be under
investigation whether the act
agrees according to what is
necessary.
FUNCTIONS OF ETHICS:
LOGIC AND ETHICS
- Logic is a branch of philosophy
that deals with the art of critical
thinking or acquiring of right
thinking. This would mean that
actions can only be right if and
only if an agent aims at right
doing before right thinking. In
other words, one cannot act
without aiming at rectitude.
PSYCHOLOGY AND THICS
- Psychology concerns with the
soul about man, human nature
and behavior but not with the
morality. Ethics is concerned
with the obligations of man
rather than the behavior. Ought
to somethings is the focus of
ethics since the aim of the agent
is to rectify what needs to be
rectified.
ETHICS TO SOCIOLOGY
- Is related for the purpose that
harmony and order in the society
must be established. Thus, a
society is in chaos without
valuing the purpose of peace and
justice.
ECONOMICS AND ETHICS
- Ethics has a large contribution to
making man for a living. It
functions as the bread in which
man should not dwell on
injustices but to live according to
what is necessary economically.
Thus business is formulated due
to the relation between the
employee or employer that
concerns labor, wages, etc.

IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS
- It is useful in our day to day
living.
(Jeff Lander and Joseph Rowlands) Ethics is
a requirement for human life.

Actions are aimless and senseless without it

one course of action needs to have a critical
analysis before stepping into the realm of
judgement that is the value of what is right
or wrong and good or evil. Thus, actions
without thinking are meaningless. One
cannot achieve his or her goal if he or she
does not foresee any consequences of such
actions.

SCOPE OF ETHICS
- METAETHICS
- NORMATIVE ETHICS