Tarlac State University
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Center of Development in Teacher Education
Reaccredited Level IV by the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and
Universities of the Philippines
ETHICS
MODULE 1:
Ethics, and Its Key Concepts
DEFINITIONS OF ETHICS
The book of Montemayor (1994) provides the
following definitions of Ethics:
1. Practical science of the morality of human
actions.
2. The science of human acts with reference to
right and wrong
3. The scientific inquiry into the principles of
morality.
4. The study of the rectitude of human
conduct
5. The human conduct from the standpoint of
morality.
6. The science which lays down the principles
of right living
7. The practical science that guides us in our
actions that we may live rightly and well.
8. Ethics is normative and practical science,
based on reason, which studies human
conduct and provides norm for its natural
integrity and honesty.
“Ethics is the investigation of life.”
- SOCRATES
The important terms that can be seen in
them are:
 SCIENCE-SYSTEMATIC STUDY or a
system of scientific conclusions clearly
demonstrated, derived from clearly
established principles and duly coordinated
 MORALITY – the quality of human acts as
right, wrong or indifferent, moral immoral
or amoral.
 HUMAN ACTS –acts done with knowledge,
freedom and free will or consent
MORAL STANDARDS AND THEIR
CHARACTERISTICS
MORAL STANDARDS
 are norms that individuals or groups have
about the kinds of actions believed to be
morally right or wrong
 normally promote “the good”, that is, the
welfare and well-being of humans as well as
animals and the environment
Moral standards have the following
characteristics, namely:
 Deal with matters we think can seriously
injure or benefit humans, animals, and the
environment, such as child abuse, rape, and
murder.
 Are not established or changed by the
decisions of authoritative individuals or
bodies.
 Are overriding, that is, they take
precedence over other standards and
considerations, especially of self-interest.
 Are based on impartial considerations.
Hence, moral standards are fair and just.
 Are associated with special emotions (such
as guilt and shame) and vocabulary (such
as right, wrong, good, and bad).
NON-MORAL STANDARDS
 Refer to standards by which we judge what
ETHICS NOTES – Prepared by: BERMUDEZ, JERICO
is good or bad and right or wrong in a non-
moral way.
Examples of non-moral standards are:
 standards of etiquette by which we
judge manners as good or bad,
 standards we call the law by which we
judge something as legal or illegal,
 Standards of aesthetics by which we
judge art as good or rubbish.
1|Page
DILEMMA AND MORAL DILEMMA
DILEMMA
Refers to a situation in which a tough
decision has to be made between two or
more options, especially more or less
equally undesirable ones.
MORAL DILEMMAS
Are situation in which a difficult choice has
to be made between two courses of action,
either of which entails transgressing a moral
principle.
Key features of a moral dilemma are these:
A. the agent is required to do each of two (or
more) actions;
B. the agent can do each of the actions;
THREE LEVELS OF MORAL
DILEMMA
1. PERSONAL DILEMMAS are those
experienced and resolved on the personal
level
2. ORGANIZATIONAL MORAL DILEMMAS
refer to ethical cases encountered and
resolves by social organization.
3. STRUCTURAL MORAL DILEMMAS refer
to cases involving network of institutions
and operative theoretical paradigms.
MODULE 2:
Culture in Moral Behavior and
Developing Virtue as a Habit
CULTURE IN MORAL BEHAVIOR
The following are other definitions of the
term culture:
 Refers to the cumulative deposit of
knowledge, experience, beliefs, values,
attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, and
religions, notion of time, roles, spatial
relations, and concepts of the universe.
 consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of
and for behavior acquired and transmitted
by symbols, constituting the distinctive
achievement of human groups, including
their embodiments in artefacts
 the sum total of the learned behaviour of a
group of people that are generally
considered to be the tradition of that people
and are transmitted from generation to
generation.
 Is the totality of a person’s learned,
accumulated experience which is socially
transmitted, or more briefly, behaviour
through social learning.
 symbolic communication. Some of its
symbols include a group’s skills, knowledge,
attitudes, values, and motives.
Symbols
Are learned and deliberately perpetuated in
a society through its institution.
CULTURE RELATIVISM IN ETHICS
CULTURAL RELATIVISM - is the most famous
and dominant form of moral relativism.
 Defines ‘moral’ as what is ‘socially
approved’ by the majority in a particular
culture. It maintains that an act is ethical in
a culture that approves of it, but immoral in
one that disapproves of it.
MORAL RELATIVISM
 Fundamentally believes that no act is good
or bad objectively.
 It also submits that different moral
principles apply to different persons or
group of individuals.
Cultural relativists claim the following:
1. Different societies have different moral
ETHICS NOTES – Prepared by: BERMUDEZ, JERICO
codes.
2. The moral code of a society determines
what is right or wrong within that society.
3. There are no moral truths that hold for
all people at all times.
4. The moral code of our own society has
no special status; it is but one among many.
5. It is arrogant for us to judge other
cultures. We should always be tolerant of
them.
Cultural differences argument, this counter-
argument could be submitted:
 People in some societies (e.g. Primitive
Tribes) believe that the Earth is flat,
2|Page
 whereas Europeans hold that truth that the
Earth is spherical.
ESKIMOS
 Are popular for killing normal infants,
especially girls.
Filipino Moral Character: Strength
and Weakness:
SIX BASIC FILIPINO VALUES
1. PAKIKISAMA- is having and maintaining
good public relation.
2. HIYA - is described as a feeling of
lowliness, shame or embarrassment, and
inhibition of shyness which is experienced
as somewhat distressing.
3. AMOR PROPIO - has been characterized
as the high degree of sensitivity that makes
a person intolerant to criticism and causes
him to have an easily wounded pride.
4. UTANG NA LOOB - is likewise a
fundamental aspects of upholding group
harmony and relationships that demand the
balancing of obligation and depts.
5. FILIPINO HOSPITALITY - refers to the
innate ability and trait of Filipinos to be
courteous and entertaining to their guest.
6. RESPECTS FOR ELDERS - Filipinos are
not only respectful to elders, but also have
unique ways of expressing this respect.
UNIVERSAL VALUES
 We mean those values generally shared by
cultures.
DEVELOPING VIRTUE AS A HABIT
1. Moral Character and Virtues
 The term “character” is derived
from the Greek word “charakter”,
which was initially used as a mark
impressed upon a coin.
 It means a distinct mark or qualities
by which one thing was
distinguished from others.
Two distinct of human excellences:
1. Excellences of Thought
2. Excellences of Character
Moral character
 Refers to the existence or lack of
virtues such as integrity, courage,
fortitude, honesty, and loyalty.
Six Stages of Moral Development :
Level 1 – Pre-Conventional Morality
 Stage 1. Obedience and Punishment
Orientation
 Stage 2. Individualism and Exchange
Level 2 – Conventional Morality
 Stage 3. Good Interpersonal
Relationships
 Stage 4. Maintaining the Social
Order
Level 3 – Post- Conventional Morality
 Stage 5. Social Contract and
Individual Rights
 Stage 6. Universal Principles
MODULE 3: The Human Act
By human act acts in ethics, we
mean:
ETHICS NOTES – Prepared by: BERMUDEZ, JERICO
• The free voluntary acts of man
• The acts with knowledge and
consent
• Acts which are proper to man as
man; because, of all animals, he
alone has knowledge and freedom of
will.
• Acts which, we are conscious are
under our control and for which we
are responsible.
• Human acts are those which man is
master, which he has the power of
doing or doing as he pleases.
3|Page
PAUL GLENN ENUMERATED
THE FOLLOWING ELICITED MODULE 4: The Human Act as
ACTS: Knowingly Done

WISH Acts as knowingly done

 is the tendency of the will towards It means that you should be sure that you
something, whether this this be realizable or know what you are doing.
not.
INTENTION Ignorance
 is the tendency of the will towards attainable is the absence of knowledge which a person
but without necessarily committing oneself ought to posses.
to attain it.

CONSENT INVICBLE IGNORANCE

 is the acceptance of the will of those needed
to carry out the intention.
ELECTION
 is the selection of the will of those means
effective enough to carry out the intention.
FRUITION
 is the enjoyment of the will derives from the
attainment of the thing he had desired
earlier
Commanded acts are those done either
by:
 man‘s mental or bodily powers under the
command of the will.
 either internal or external actions
Examples of INTERNAL ACTIONS are:
- conscious reasoning
- recalling something
- encouraging oneself
- controlling aroused emotions
Renders an involuntary, A person cannot be
held morally liable if he is not aware of his
state of ignorance.
- e.g: A waiter who is not aware that
the food he is serving has been
poisoned cannot be held for murder
VINCIBLE IGNORANCE
does not destroy but lessens the
voluntariness and the corresponding
accountability over the act.
- e.g: A waiter who suspects that the
food he is serving has been laced
with poison has the moral obligation
to ascertain the fact or at least
forewarn the guests about the
suspicion.
AFFECTED IGNORANCE
though it decreases voluntariness, increases
the accountability over the resultant act.
- E.g: the malice is greater when
ignorance is used as an excuse for
not doing the right thing. Thus a
ETHICS NOTES – Prepared by: BERMUDEZ, JERICO

Examples of EXTERNAL ACTIONS are:

- walking child who refuses to be guided by
- eating his parents has only himself to
- dancing blame for his wrongdoing.
- laughing
- listening
- reading

COMBINATIONS OF INTERNAL AND

EXTERNAL ACTIONS SUCH AS:
- listening
- Studying
- Reading
- driving a car
- writing a letter or playing chess
-

4|Page