PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS, AND MORAL STANDARDS

Q&A

1. What is Philosophy, in your own understanding?

Philosophy pertains to the questions that people ask to arrive at the truth. It is
mainly focused on asking the right questions to attain right and relevant answers. This
area of science involves doubt and wander, as stated by Socrates. Doubt leads us to
asking questions and wander makes us think how things work. And with all of these,
we can acquire wisdom and have a broader understanding of how our world works.

2. What is Ethics and the different types of ethical inquiry?

Ethics is a part of philosophy that focuses on knowing the standards of human
behavior. It is more on building a foundation on what people should consider right and
wrong, as well as other things that are needed to be standardized. It is also about
analyzing, and understanding the human minds. There are two types of ethical inquiry:
normative, and descriptive. Normative is a philosophical ethical inquiry that aims to
impose values and behaviors of humans. On the other hand, descriptive ethical inquiry
is a scientific approach to describe a phenomenon.

3. Explain how one’s judgement can be influenced?

There are moral and non-moral standards that controls the decision of people. A
person may base their decision on which standard fits the situation the most. In fact,
there are other influences on a person’s moral judgment. These are emotions,
education, society, culture, and religion which are what we called biases.

4. What do you think is the most common bias in our judgement? Why?
For me, people tend to follow their emotions and feelings the most when it comes
to judgments. People are naturally empathetic so they lean more on their emotions.
Furthermore, there is a very common saying “follow your heart” wherein people
eventually live with that quote as their motto.

5. What is the difference between Moral Standards to Non-Moral Standards?

Moral standards are the things which most of the people believe and follow.
Certain things are believed to be right or wrong and majority agrees to that judgement.
People know what it means morally. Meanwhile, non-moral standards are opinions of
individuals about a certain situation. It is where a person’s preference is observed. It
may mean that not all of the population agrees to a person’s judgements.