ETHICS NOTES
2/8/2024
• Philosophy does not explain life
but is hence constituted.
• Life is about our everyday
mundane experiences.
• Philosophy helps you live your
life.
• Primary Reflection dissolves the
unity of experience by analyzing
the parts. Characteristics that
apply to other people.
• Secondary Reflection puts
together what has been broken
apart; locates it in the bigger
scheme of things. Only in relation
do I in fact that I exist.
Discoverable only as it
communes with other people. It
continues to learn and change
over time. I is a mystery.
• Moments of strong sense of self
• Existence is an exclamatory
awareness. Made possible
because of other people.
• When you reflect, it is the only
way you can really prosper.
Thrive because you reflect.
2/12/2024
Ethics
- it is important to emphasize and
talk about ethics because
everyone has different opinions,
perspectives, and experiences,
making decisions, especially in
group settings, difficult.
- Ethics makes it easier in case a
person is facing an ethical
decision or dilemma that will help
the person make the right
choices.
- It describes the investigation and
analysis of moral principles and
dilemmas.
- Rules or guidelines that establish
what conduct is right and wrong
for individuals and for groups.
- Traditionally, philosophers and
scholars study ethics.
New Approach in Ethics
- Behavioral Ethics
- Applied Ethics
Moral Philosophy
- Branch of philosophy that
contemplates what is right and
wrong.
- It explores the nature of morality
and examines how people should
live their lives in relation to
others.
- It can provide the tools we need
to examine and live an ethical life.
Three Branches of Moral Philosophy
1. Meta-Ethics – investigates big
picture questions such as “what is
morality?”, “what is justice?”, “is
there truth?”, and “how can I
justify my beliefs as better than
conflicting beliefs held by
others?”.
2. Normative Ethics – answers
question of what we ought to do.
It focuses on providing a practical
framework (deontology,
Values
utilitarianism, virtue ethics) for
deciding what is right and wrong.
3. Applied Ethics – It addresses
specific, practical
issues/dilemmas of moral
importance such as war and
capital punishment. It also tackles
specific moral challenges that
people face daily, such as
whether they should lie to help a
friend or co-worker.
Morals
- Prevailing standards of behavior
that enable people to live
cooperatively in groups and
society uses it to judge right and
wrong.
- It refers to what societies
sanction as right and acceptable.
- Morality often requires that
people sacrifice their own short-
term interests for the benefit of
society.
- People that are indifferent to right
and wrong are considered
amoral, while those who do evil
acts are considered immoral.
- Morality is not fixed. It describes
the particular values of a specific
group at a specific point in time.
- Morals are the principles that
guide individual conduct within
society.
- Individual beliefs that motivate
people to act one way or another.
- They serve as a guide for human
behavior.
- People are predisposed to adopt
the values that they are raised
with. They believe that those
values are right since they are the
values of their particular culture.
- Driving force in ethical decision-
making.
Ethical Decision-Making
- Involves weighing values against
each other and choosing which
values to elevate.
Intrinsic Worth Values
- Love
- Truth
- Freedom
• Other values such as ambition,
courage, and responsibility,
describe traits or behaviors that
are instrumental as means to an
end.
• Sacred values will seldom be
compromised because they are
perceived as duties rather than
as factors to be weighed in
decision-making.
Moral Agent
- It has the ability to discern right
from wrong and to be held
accountable for his/her own
actions.
- They have a moral responsibility
not to cause unjustified harm.
- Moral Agency is assigned only to
those who can be held
responsible for their actions.
• Children and adults with certain
mental disabilities may have little
or no capacity to be moral
agents.
• Adults with full mental capacity
relinquish their moral agency only
in extreme situations, like being
held hostage.
Subject of Moral Worth
- People are always considered
subjects of moral worth.
- It can also include beings such as
animals, or objects such as art,
that are vulnerable to harm and
have importance to the moral
community (all people include
birth to death).
Moral Community
- All people include birth to death
- Every person in the moral
community has equal, natural
rights to moral protection.
• According to Deni Elliot et al, all
members of the moral community
are subjects of moral worth;
however, not all subjects of moral
worth are part of the moral
community.
• While moral protection is given to
all subjects of moral worth, the
rights of members of the moral
community are most important.