THE RELATIONSHIP OF ETHICS

WITH OTHER SCIENCES AND CHAPTER 3

OTHER PHASES OF HUMAN LIFE

INTRODUCTION
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies the
nature and the morality of human conduct. To some
extent, Ethics is related to other sciences because it
also deals with investigation of the nature of man as
a rational being and a being in relation with other
beings. But unlike other sciences, the focus and the
locus of Ethics is to study man’s nature and his
behavior from the standpoint of morality. The
material object of Ethics is the human conduct and
the formal object is morality.
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the students are expected
to:
1. understand the scope of ethics as a science that
investigates the nature of the human conduct
2. distinguish ethics from other sciences that
study man’s nature and behavior
3. differentiate ethics from etiquette and the
professional codes of conduct
KEY TERMS:
Etiquette
Professional Codes of Conduct
Sociology
Economics
Law
Religion
Moral Theology
 1. RELATIONSHIP OF ETHICS
WITH OTHER SCIENCES
(cf. Felix M. Montemayor, 1994. Ethics the Philosophy
of Life. Mandaluyong City: National Book Store, Inc., pp.
8-12 and Ramon B. Agapay, 1991. Ethics and the Filipino.
Mandaluyong City: National Book Store, Inc. pp. 4-6.)
The following discussion is focused on how Ethics, as a
science which studies the nature of man and the human
conduct, is especially related to other sciences which
likewise deal with the study of human nature and human
conduct.
1. ETHICS AND LOGIC
Ethics is the study of correct action or doing,
while Logic studies the process of correct and
organized thinking. Doing follows thinking. Logic
therefore is aimed at the right thinking and Ethics is
aimed at the right acting or right doing and
behaviour.
 Based on perceiving information, Ethics focuses first
and foremost on the demands of the subjective human
world, or world of people and relationships. In
communication, ethics focuses and studies people’s
feelings and emotional states based on nonverbal
information and how things are said. Logic is focused on
the demands of the material, nonhuman world, or world
of “things” in one’s environment. In communication,
Logic focuses on the studies what is done and said, or
the content of one’s speech.
 On intellectual qualities, Ethics is people-oriented
while Logic is task-oriented. Ethics is focused on
enhancing relationships, modifying content and
forms of speech to match or contradict what others
expect to hear. Logic is focused on not misleading a
person and giving him correct information.
 Lastly, on behavioural relationships, Ethics shows
people’s feelings for their partners directly through
emotions; while Logic shows their feelings for their
partners by doing things for them.
 2. ETHICS AND PSYCHOLOGY
Both Ethics and Psychology deal with the study of
man and his behavior. However, Psychology studies
how man behaves, while Ethics how man ought to
behave. Psychology is not interested in the morality of
human behavior, while Ethics is concerned with man’s
moral obligation or the result of his behavior. Ethics is
the study of human behavior from the perspective of
morality. Psychology, on the other hand, is the scientific
study of mental and behavioral characteristics,
associated with a particular kind of behavior.
3. ETHICS AND SOCIOLOGY
Sociology deals with the study of the social order
while Ethics deals with the study of moral order in
the society. There is no social order if there is no
moral order. Therefore, the foundation of any
society depends on the moral values of people and
their perspective concept of what is good and bad in
human relationships.
 Society depends on Ethics for its underlying
principles. Sociology deals with human relations in
a society, but human relations are based on proper
order and proper order comes only with the proper
observance of moral laws and principles which
regulate the actions of men and women in a
community.
 4. ETHICS AND ECONOMICS
Man supports himself by earning a living. Earning a
living to support his expenses makes a man an economic
being. Economics as a science deals with the study of
wages, labor, production and distribution of wealth. The
study of these issues also involves relationships among
individuals. For example, wages: between employer and
employee; production: between seller and costumer.
These fiduciary relationships
must be governed by human values that can only be
understood in the light of moral principles and the
nature of values themselves.
At the heart of these relationships are moral
norms and moral rules that should guide people’s
behavior as they relate with others. Without these
moral norms and moral values, harmonious
relationships between and among parties cannot
exist.
 According to Charles K. Wilber(1986), there are
three ways in which Ethics enters economics. First,
economists have ethical values that help shape the
way they do economics. This builds into the core of
economic theory a particular view of how the
economy does work and how it should work.
Second, economic actors (consumers, workers,
business owners) have ethical values that shape
their behaviour.
 Third, economic institutions and policies impact
people differentially and thus, ethical evaluations, in
addition to economic evaluation, are important.
 2. RELATIONSHIP OF ETHICS WITH
OTHERS PHASES OF HUMAN LIFE
The study of Ethics crosses religious and cultural
boundaries and is directed at the question of how critical
decisions are to be made so that an organization may
work best together, to build a community and social
relationships in a positive and productive way. How we
live ethically becomes more important as we are
required to make complex decisions concerning
costumer relations, employer-employee relationships
and other business issues.
5. ETHICS AND LAW
Ethics and law are closely related. Ethics deals
with morality, and when we speak of morality, we
mean primarily the moral law. Law may be defined
crystallized ethics. Law and morality presuppose the
concepts of right or wrong, good and bad, even the
rules of conduct.
 However, there is a difference between what is
moral and what is legal. Laws are intended to
regulate the external actions of man while ethics
investigates and probes the internal disposition of
man, such as his motivations and his thoughts.
Though law often embodies ethical principles,
law and ethics are far from co-extensive. Many acts
that would be widely condemned as unethical are
not
prohibited by law - lying or betraying the confidence of
a friend, for example. A man can also commit a
thousand adulteries in his mind, yet that same person
cannot be legally or criminally be guilty because this
exercise is innate and private to the person himself.
Though he may not be legally or criminally liable for
entertaining adultery in his thoughts, that same person
can be morally responsible for entertaining adulterous
intent and motives in his thoughts.
 Law therefore is focused on external regulations
of man’s action while ethics is concerned with the
investigation of the internal disposition of man from
the moral perspective.
6. ETHICS AND RELIGION
Ethics is a discipline or set of moral principles
and values governing an individual or institutional
behavior. Religion generally refers to the service
and worship of God (or some other object) and is
typically expressed as a personal or institutional set
of beliefs, attitudes, and practices.
 Ethics evaluates the behavior of man against his
values regardless of the source of those values.
While religion certainly can create an impact on
individuals and may actually include mandates for
ethical behavior, it is a distinct concept from ethics.
It is however, in the practice of religion that ethics
and religion may overlap.
 Religion and ethics are two phases of human activity
which are closely related. Both ethics and religion are
based on the same postulates, e.g., they both suggest and
assume the existence of God who created everything,
man’s freewill and the immortality of the soul.
Moreover, ethics and religion have the same end or
purpose – that is, the attainment of man’s happiness in
this life and beyond. Lastly, ethics and religion prescribe
right living as the means of attaining the goal of man in
this world.
 Authentic ethics cannot be separated from the
existence of God. If there is morality, there must be
a moral law; and if there is a moral law, there must
be a lawgiver, and this ultimate lawgiver can only
be God Himself.
Ethics and religion likewise presuppose the
concept of immortality of man’s existence, e.g., that
there is life after death.
For the reason, we believe that the soul of the person
which continues to exist even after physical death, is a
soul that is immortal.
Lastly, ethics and religion both seek the absolute
truth. Ethics seeks the absolute truth by using human
reason alone, while religion tries to understand this same
absolute truth by virtue of one’s faith and his adherence
to divine revelation. In this case, faith is our response to
God’s disclosure to us.
7. ETHICS AND THE PROFESSIONAL
CODES OF CONDUCT
The era of globalization has created a need for
specialized skills and knowledge. This is brought
about by paradigm shifts in almost all facets of
human activities that have resulted into a more
complex society that we today. Full automation has
almost taken over a lot of jobs done by an unskilled
labor force that in turn, creates a demand for
workers with special skills.
The need for specialized skills and knowledge in
business has created a trend which prods people and
organizations to be identified with a particular
profession basically because it brings with it prestige,
a sense of respect, personal esteem and status symbol.
Based on Webster’s Dictionary, the meaning of
professional is relating to or characteristic of a
profession; engaged in one of the professions;
participating for gain in an activity not engaged in
by amateurs. Professionalism on the other hand is
the conduct that characterizes a profession or a
professional person; or it can also be the pursuit of a
profession for gain or livelihood, e.g., as a manager,
engineer or as a lawyer.
 The words “profession” and ‘‘professional’’ imply
public declaration with force of a promise. Professions
are group which declare in a public manner that their
members will act in certain ways according to their
profession and that the same group and in some instances,
the society may discipline those who fail to conform its
prescribed ways. The traditional professions include
medicine, law, education, and clergy.
 Carpenters, plumbers, barbers, athletes,
gardeners, beautician and even soldiers may be
considered professionals because they have
extensive knowledge and training of their crafts and
they are also paid for the practice of it. These
“professionals,” however, may undergo extensive
training but what they do can’t be classified as a
profession. Membership of a profession requires
sophisticated skills and extensive
 training as well as advanced education so that they
become competent in their line of work. The medical and
legal professions fit the description of the word profession
because the skills of lawyers and doctors cannot be
mechanized and require good judgement to apply the
appropriate treatment/advice to their patients/clients.
There is also the trust or secrecy that is shared by the
doctor/lawyer with their patients/clients that is not
observed with other professionals.
What makes the job of the medical and legal professions
important as they are expected to serve the good of the
public or society. This is also the main reason that
constitutes to their being in the group of professionals.
Members of the profession create their own set of rule; set
standards for practice of the profession, and at the same
time discipline their own members. This set of standards
of the profession is reflected in their own professional
codes of conduct.
 A professional code of ethics is a set of behavioral
guidelines that members of a profession are required
by their association to observe in the course of their
professional practice. These guidelines, in general
terms, prescribe responsibilities that members must
adhere to and questionable situations in which they
must not be involved.
 In some cases, some members must be sanctioned for
violation of the code. These sanctions may include the
following:
Payment of a fine;
Payment of the cost of any investigation;
Reprimand;
Imposition of conditions of membership;
Suspension from membership; and
Expulsion from membership.
8. ETHICS AND ETIQUETTE
The word etiquette came from a French word
which means ticket. During the medieval times ,
when people visit the palace of their king, they were
required to follow in-house instructions that were
posted (ticket) in the different areas of the palace.
Hence, the word etiquette practically means rules
and conduct of behavior that are supposed to be
followed in special situations and circumstances,
including one’s visit to
 the palace of the king. Today, the word etiquette
refers to a special code of behavior or courtesy, like
saying “thank you,” “you are welcome,” and saying
“congratulations” to the groom and “best wishes”
the bride, and the like.
Although the rules of etiquette are generally non-
moral in character, the violation of these rules of
etiquette however may have moral implications.
 For example, a boss and his secretary develop a
special friendship in the workplace and the boss,
because of this closeness to the secretary now fondly
calls the same secretary as “sweetheart.” This scenario
in the workplace may have tacit moral implications if,
for example, the wife of the boss may drop by one day at
her husband’s office and discovers that her husband calls
his secretary “sweetheart.” This definitely will create a
suspicion on the part of the wife.
 However, the scrupulous observance of the rules
of etiquette will not make a person moral. In fact, it
can even hide or camouflage important moral
issues. For instance the Civil Rights issue of racial
discrimination in the U.S. in the late 1950s and
1960s when the white Americans claimed
superiority over the African Americans and other
minorities. During this time, the Americans were
taught, as part of their etiquette, that
 when a white man enters a bus with no available
seat for him, it was imperative for the black person
or the minority to offer his seat to the white man
because people thought it was a proper thing to do
during those times. The black Americans and the
other minorities were made to believe it was the
proper etiquette. The real moral issue, however, was
racial discrimination.
9. ETHICS AND EDUCATION
Education is defined as an instruction or training
by which people learn to develop and use their
mental, moral and physical powers and abilities. It
is also one way of gaining experience about human
life. Since man however, is primarily a rational
moral being, the purpose of education is to perfect
the moral character in man.
 A great educator once said “education is
coextensive with life.” Hence, we can say that ethics
is life because it is the one that gives life its
direction, purpose, and meaning.
10. ETHICS AND ART
Art is concerned with the use of imagination to make
things of aesthetic significance. Ethics is aimed at
conforming to an accepted standard of good behavior.
Ethics also stands for moral goodness, art, and beauty.

It may be difficult to ascertain whether a piece of art

which is offensive to morals can be considered
beautiful.
 Both true art and true ethics have same aim: That
is, to arouse and to inspire the noble emotions of
man, thereby creating no conflict at all.
Consequently, an art which arouses the lower
impulses of man defeats the very purpose of art.