GED 107 :

ETHICS

Prepared by: Ms. Christle P. Maala

CHAPTER 1:
VIRTUAL
ETHICS BY
ARISTOTLE

GED 107
 Excess (vice) Mean (virtue) Deficiency (vice)
Rashness Courage Cowardice
Self-indulgence Moderation Insensibility
Prodigality Liberality Meanness
Vulgarity Magnificience Paltriness
Vanity Proper Pride Smallness of Soul
Ambitiousness Proper Ambition Lack of Ambition
Irascibility Good Temper Lack of Spirit
Boastfulness Truthfulness Self-depreciation
Buffoonery Wittiness Boorishness
Obsequiosness Friendliness Surliness
Bashfulness Modesty Shamelessness
Envy Proper Indignation Malice
CHAPTER III

IMMANUEL KANT
CHAPTER 4

UTILITARIANISM
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ASIAN ETHICAL TRADITION

Manuel B. Dy who identify the six common themes:

-Religious thought is intertwined with philosophical and ethical thinking.

-Love and compassion

-Connectedness of personal cultivation and social responsibility.

-Enlightenment

-Harmony with oneself, others, nature, transcendent

What is VEDAS?

-oldest philosophical writings in the world.

What is RITA?

-is the foundational principle of all things. It is also

the right order of the universe.
Upanishads writers seek to
understands the fullness of human
becoming by realizing the deepest
insight about the true nature of the
universe.
SAMSARA or REINCARNATION

- all human being re born repeatedly in

different forms of life. It is not a process of
repetition but one of purification.

BRAHMAN

- God or the Creator

ATMAN

- is the self that underlies all being.

BUDDHISM

- was born from the enlightenment of

Gautama Buddha who lived between 6th
and 4th BCE.
Four Truths Called Chatvari-Arya-
Satyani:

1.Life is suffering or Dukkha

2.Action or Karma is the cause of

suffering

3.There is an end in suffering

4.Human beings ought to live a life free

from suffering by following the "Eight
Fold Path or Astangika-marga":
- Correct View
- Correct Intention
- Correct Speech
- Correct Action
- Correct Livelihood
- Correct Effort
- Correct Mindfulness
- Correct Concentration
CONFUCIANISM

– CONFUCIANISM RI means
– Benevolence
– - a system of thought attributed to teacher – Kindness
Kongqui known in the West as Confucius.
– Human heartedness

– -made up of two characters: ren (human – Humanity

being)& erh(two)

– - is translated into:
CHAPTER 6

DISCOURSE ETHICS
Most people assume that they know what
is right and wrong. People can easily
judge based on their common sense.

Often, people do not think about moral

issues as problematic because they have
an ethical framework from which to
interpret actions. This is something they
do not usually construct with awareness
but accept form their cultures and
societies.
However, not everyone looks at things in
the same way . One has a way of
understanding reality depending on one’s
social status ,ethnicity, generation,
historical situation and gender.

There are many ways of understanding

and articulating the good. There is no
faithful or unfaithful interpretation of the
good. Neither is the good necessarily
relative, depending on one’s perspective
and needs.
In pre-modern times , it was easier to
have a shared conception of the good .
People believed that the god s or the
cosmos imposed a natural law and the
good was based on transcendent order.

Free human beings only had to

understand how human actions were
defined by that order and all would be
well .

Western world began to emphasize the

autonomy of the human being from the
will and intelligence .
DISCOURSE THEORY
– The primary task of western men
was to find the basis of the
conception of the good that did not
rely on transcendent order.
– They realized that human person
was an autonomous being who had
reason and using this reason could
legislate the good for himself.
– A theory that shows rational people
how to arrive at a shared conception
on the good using reason alone.
– It sought to articulate the basic
principles for arriving at a
consensual understanding of the
good so that people in a shared
worlds could live with each other.
– One of the most important
philosophers of discourse theory is
Jurgen Habermas.
Jurgen Habermas

– Habermas was born in Germany in 1929 and was formed as a thinker during the
post-World War II reconstruction.
– He was greatly influenced by the so called Frank Furt School of Thinkers who
were influenced by Marxian thought and were deeply interested in social
critique of the emerging modernity.
– One of his most important contributions to philosophy is the analysis of the
emergence of the public sphere and civil society , as well as his articulation of
discourse theory and discourse processes.
Competing Conceptions of the
Good
– Societies today are no longer homogeneous and people have different forms of
reason , including moral reasoning.

– Injustice is a particular danger in multicultural societies. Any society needs

dominant system to guide free and autonomous people regarding what is
acceptable behavior.
Dominant System

– determines what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, what can be expected and what
duties persons have to each other and to society.
– Many rules that govern people makes sense while the conditions that make them useful exist.
But if conditions change, then sometimes the rules become oppressive .

– Dominant systems are generally useful guides for human behavior, especially in a community.

– We see such problems in Asia and Africa, in many of these countries, civil wars and terrorism
as well as corruption and failed governance, persist because the majority of their populations
still refuse to accept the dominant system as defining the good for them.
DISCOURSE ETHICS

– Discourse Theory was conceived

to provide a way of creating as
system of shared conceptions of the
good in societies where there are
competing conceptions of the good.
It is helpful because it can provide
human beings with a basis for
accepting the laws and ethical
systems as valid for autonomous,
rational beings.
Legislating “ for
Autonomous Rational
Beings”
Reasons why certain actions makes sense to people

– Practicality - one should do something because the outcome is beneficial to

him/her.
– One acts because he/she is fearful of or desires avoid negative consequences.
– People also act bases on authority.. They do things because they respect or
recognize as the bearers of the community.
How the do people proceed to
articulate norms of human behavior?
– Firstly, they must understand that they need a process of justification through which they
can explain to one another the basis for their norms.

– Secondly, they need to accept that this is the process of consensus building. It is what we
can call a process of opinion and will formation.
– What Habermas seeks to articulate is how human beings can come to a shared
understanding of the good to which the community can subscribe.

– Kant formulated this categorial imperative on which to base the legislation of one’s duty.
– This is the most precise formulation for how autonomous individuals
decide what to do in a concrete situation, but concretely it gives
formula for articulating fundamental maxims on which people can
base the ought.

Practical Discourse
– a “cooperative process of argumentation” “Act only according to the maxim
by which you can at the same time
– This means that for a society to be able to articulate and to be bound by will that it should become a
universalizable norms, there must exist processes where people can freely universal law’
justify to each other why they believe the norms of their actions are valid for
all persons who are bound and affected by it .
 SHARED OPINION AND WILL
FORMATION
• The process of cooperative discourse creates a
certain process where people gain what we can
call borrowing from Habermas , a we-
perspective.
• A shared we-perspective is a community’s shared
horizon of understanding that is born from the
free and fair engagement of persons who bear
different frames for understanding the good.
• Shared opinion on the good is the product of fair
process here even people whose positions are not
taken can accept the dominant position because it
is the most reasonable and makes most sense.
– It is important for people of goodwill to engage in a
process of mutual justification and clarification , as much
as they work for mutual understanding and respect.
– Consensus building is different from making
compromises. Making compromises entails accepting the
positions of others because of practical needs, coercion,
acquiescence, or the simple recognition of the power
persons have over one’s self.
– The intention of consensus is different. Consensus is
born out of the mutual recognition that the position
arrived at is the best that all participants can agree on
given what they know and can know at the moment.
Basic Principles to Ensure Fairness

– First, all affected must be part of the process of deliberation

– Second, the process must be fair such that all external influence like power and
money are suspended and only the force of better argument has influence over
the participants.

– Third, all decisions or agreements have a “for now” characteristics.

CONCLUSION

– Habermas provides an ideal discourse situation for people to build norms of

behavior consensually . But whether this is ideal or possible in the world of praxis,
Habermas provides us with reasonable norms which can guide humanity’s quest
to arrive at universalizable norms in a multiverse of rationality.

– Discourse theory has been applied to studies for understanding democratic

institutions and their reform, building just societies and even assessing institutions
for peace building.Even those who do not agree that consensus building is possible
or ideal in the world agree that it is important to build institutions of discourse that
are fair and discursive.
CHAPTER 7

ENVIRONMETNAL ETHICS
CHAPTER 8

BUSINESS ETHICS
CHAPTER 9

THE QUESTION OF A WOMAN

AND EMANCIPATION
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BIOMEDICAL ETHICS
INTRODUCTION

 Jean Vanier – reported in his 2008 book Living Gently in a Violent World that
people with Down syndrome might not be born because they would have been
aborted.
 National health services of European nations recommend Chorionic villus
sampling (a sampling of placental tissue, chorionic villus, that allows the
detection of birth defects, genetic diseases, and the other disorders in the fetus.
 In 2014, 693 abortions was carried out in the United Kingdom.
 Ethics can hardly keep up with the fast and confusing advancement in the fields
of genetics, medicine and pharmacology.
PERSONALIST BIOMEDICAL
CARE
 At the turn of the 2oth century, personalist theories emerged as a reaction to
perceived depersonalization caused by the advent of science, technology, and
totalistic systems in philosophy.
 Personalism posits the value of personhood as a center of life, experience,
decisions and actions.
 Biomedical ethics has a stable grounding if it holds the inviolable, inherent, and
intrinsic value of the person, as well as his/her relational and communitarian
realities.
ETHICS OF PRENATAL
PERSONHOOD

“When does human personhood begin?”

Dr. Bu C. Castro and Dr. Oscar Tinio assume
that the human person exists at the point of
fertilization/conception.
The culture supports that pregnant woman is
also said to be nagdadalangtao or child bearing
(literally humanbearing).
If conception is considered a process, there
has to be a point of readiness for the body to
be able to support the reality of the self as a
person.
The fertilized ovum or fetus ought to be
treated as a human person.
ECTOPIC PREGNANCY AND THE
PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT
 Abortion is an intrinsic evil act that is unacceptable in any direct and intended
form as a human action.
 The case then of ectopic pregnancy occasions the principle of double effect.
 The principle of double effect is applied in the case of an action that is seen to
have two results: one is known as good and hence that which can be only
intend; another simultaneous effect is bad, however, but since we do not
intentionally do it for that purpose, this can be considered as a mere by-product
of the action.
The originating act ought to be deemed
good or at the very least morally neutral. For
example, in ectopic pregnancy, it is
unacceptable that the medical professional
directly aborts the fetus, but if his/her action
is surgically cutting the fallopian tube that is
clogged then it is more tolerable option.
If personalist ethics is applied to biomedical
issues, the option that upholds the value of
the fetus as that who “ought to be treated as
a person” should be maintained.
It may be considered that imputing
aggression albeit materially (without
intention) to a fetus is indicative of an
objectification of one who is deserving of
better consideration.
CHILD-BEARING ENHANCEMENTS, SELF-
IMPROVEMENT, AND GENERAL WELL-BEING

 The applications in the field of medicine have put forward wonders in the area
of enhancement of human beings.
 The Human Genome Project has promised personally designed drugs that can
better improve one’s health or recovery from sickness.
 Given the advancement of human genetic mapping, predispositions to
particular sicknesses and syndrome can be detected the earliest.
 The present state of childbearing enhancements has to do with the so-called
“spares.” The 100% success of a single implantation is not yet reached so a
number of fertilized eggs or embryos are frozen as “spares.”
Maintaining the principle that the fetus
“ought to be treated as human person,” a
careful monitoring of the “spares” is in order.
The absence of laws defining “spares” as
deserving of treatment as human persons
simply mean that the “spares” are not out of
reach of unconscientious therapists.
Personal improvements such as the intake of
glutathione for aesthetic improvements can
hardly be branded as evil or bad, ethicists warn
of the objectification that is peddled by such
“self-actualization” products.
Other products or techniques (including
surgery) that sell self-enhancements should be
countered or balanced with an appeal to
personal growth that it is not only physical.
 End of life care ought to be improved to ensure the dignified dying
that is worthy of human persons.
 Extraordinary means are additional or artificial ways that extend the EXTRAORDINARY
life of a person, e.g., respirator. It simply allows the process of dying MEANS,
to take its course and its not passive euthanasia. EUTHANASIA, AND
 The writing of a living will is, therefore, relevant to give guidance to THE SIGNIFICANCE
loved ones in the remote possibility that an accident or sickness OF A LIVING WILL
renders someone “brain dead,” comatose, or in a persistent Euthanasia or mercy killing is the
vegetative state. direct murder of another human
being and is thus unacceptable at
 DNR (do not resuscitate) is the rescinding of CPR (cardiopulmonary
this point in the Philippines. The
resuscitation) or other means of resuscitations in the event of a fatal value given to persons is inherent
crash of the patient. It allows for a dignified death so it’s different and inviolable for personalist ethics
from euthanasia. that it excludes the direct intentional
killing of a non-aggressor.
CONCLUSION

 The current breakthroughs and craze in pushing new researches in medicine

and pharmacology may lead humanity to lose sight of what is of utmost
importance, i.e., the inherent, inviolable, and inalienable value of personhood.
 “Treating the embryo as a human person” not only ensures the dignity and
value of the fetal life that is being studies; the principle engages the medical
practitioners and researchers themselves.
 Using the advancements in medicine to improve the well-being of persons may
be attractive but also misleading if we treat physicality as an end it itself.
An actualized person includes his/her
entirety that is satisfaction not only
regarding his/her exteriority or
physicality but a deeper interior kind of
happiness too.
Death, being the very end of life for
the human person, is included in the
very reality of personhood that dignity
ought to be maintained until then.
THE END
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