K EY CON CE P TS

IN
ETHI C S
WHAT IS ETHICS?

Ethics is the branch of

philosophy that studies
morality or the rightness or
wrongness of human conduct
WHAT IS MORALITY?

Morality speaks of a code or system

of behaviour in regards to standards
of right or wrong behaviour.
Some questions that are ethical
in nature are:
What is the good?
Who is a moral person?
What are the virtues of a human being?
What makes an act right? What duties
do we have to each other?
Clearly Ethics and morality necessarily
carry the concept of moral standards or
rules with regard to behaviour. So as a way
of introducing moral rules, let us discuss
why rules are important to social beings
 1. THE IMPORTANCE OF RULES
TO SOCIAL BEINGS
What is rules?
Rules refer to explicit or understood regulations or
principles governing conduct within a specific activity or
sphere.
Rules tell us what is or is not is allowed in a particular
context or situation.
In many ways, rules serve as a foundation for any healthy
society. Without rules, society would like fall into anarchy.
RULES BENEFIT SOCIAL BEINGS IN
VARIOUS MANNERS
a. Rules protect social beings by regulating behaviour.
b. Rules help to guarantee each person certain rights in freedom.
c. Rules produce a sense of justice among social beings.
d. Rules are essential for a healthy economic system.

In short, society could not soundly function without rules and

regulations. Rules are necessary to protect the greater good. Even the
freest societies ought to have rules in order to avoid exploitations and
tyranny while upholding the common welfare
2. MORAL VS NON-MORAL STANDARD

“Not all rules are moral rules.

That is, not all standards are
moral standards”
Morality may refer to the standards that a
person or a group has about what is right
and wrong, or good and evil.
Accordingly, moral standards are those
concerned with or relating to human
behaviour, especially the distinction
between good and bad(or right and wrong)
behaviour.
MORAL STANDARDS AND NON MORAL
STANDARDS DEFINED

Moral standards involve the rules about the kinds of actions they
believe are morally right and wrong, as well as the values they place
on the kinds of objects they believe are morally good and morally
bad.
Non-moral standards refer to rules that are unrelated to moral or
ethical considerations. Either these standards are not necessarily
linked to morality or by nature lack ethical sense.
 THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL
STANDARDS FURTHER DIFFERENTIATE THEM FROM
NON-MORAL STANDARDS

a. Moral standards involve serious wrongs or significant benefits.

b. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values.
c. Moral standards are not established by authority figures.
d. Moral standards have the trait of universalizability.
e. Moral standards are based on impartial considerations
f. Moral standards are associated with special emotions and
vocabulary.
 DILEMMA AND MORAL DILEMMA
The term dilemma refers to a situation in which a tough choice has to
be made between two or more options, especially more or less equally
desirable ones.

Moral dilemmas are situations in which a difficult choice has to be

made between two courses of action, either of which entails
transgressing a moral principle.
 THREE LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMA

a.Personal dilemmas
personal dilemmas are those experienced
and resolved on the personal level. Since many
ethical decisions are personally made, many, if
not most of, moral dilemmas fall under, or boil
down to, this level.
 THREE LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMA

b. Organizational Dilemmas.
Organizational moral dilemmas refer to ethical
cases encountered and resolved by social
organizations. This category includes moral
dilemmas in business, medical field, and public
sector.
 THREE LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMA

C. Structural Dilemmas.
Structural dilemmas refer to cases involving network of
institution and operative theoretical paradigms. As they
usually encompass multi-sectoral institutions and
organizations, they may be larger in scope and extent than
organizational dilemmas.
 ONLY HUMAN BEINGS
CAN BE ETHICAL
a. Only human beings are rational, autonomous, and
self-conscious
b. Only human beings can act morally or immorally.
c. Only human beings are part of the moral
community.
 FREEDOM AS FOUNDATION
OF MORALITY
Basically, morality is a question of choice. Morality,
practically, is choosing ethical codes, values, or standards
to guide us in our daily lives. Philosophically choosing is
impossible without freedom.
Morality requires and allows choice, which means the
right to choose to give to charities, donate time and money
to schools, mentor children, open businesses or protest
against animal cruelty.
 MINIMUM REQUIREMENT FOR
MORALITY : REASON AND IMPARTIALITY
Reason as a requirement for morality entails that human
feelings may be important in ethical decisions, but they
ought to be guided by reason. Sound reasoning helps us to
evaluate whether our feelings and institutions about moral
cases are correct and defensible.
Impartiality, on the other hand, involves the idea that
each individuals interests and point of view are equally
important.
T HE MORA L A G ENT

C U L T U R E I N M O R A L B E H AV I O R
 CULTURE : SOME
DEFINITIONS
It is commonly said that culture is all around us.
Practically, culture appears to be an actual part of
social life as well as our personality. For some,
culture is a quality that some people have more than
others.
 The term culture is so complex that it is not easy
to define. In one sense, culture is used to denote that
which is related to the arts and humanities. But in a
broader sense, culture denotes the practices, beliefs ,
and perception of a given society.
It is in this sense that culture is often opposed with
savagery,’ that is, being ‘cultured’ is seen as a
product of a certain evolvement from a natural state
 THE FOLLOWING ARE OTHER
DEFINITIONS OF THE TERM
CULTURE
a. Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of
knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes,
meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time,
roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe , and
material objects and possessions acquired by a group
of people in the course of generations through
individual and group striving.
b. Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of
and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievement of human
groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the
essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and
especially their attached values, culture systems may, on
the one hand be considered as products of action, on the
other hand, as conditioning influences upon further
action.
--------
 MORAL STANDARD AS SOCIAL CONVENTION
AND THE SOCIAL CONDITIONING THEORY

Theories explained.
The things we regard as moral laws(moral
standards or rules), some purport, are nothing but
just social convention. They mean those things
agreed upon by people, like through their
authorities.
 THEORIES ANALYZED
However, just because something is learned at
homes or school does not necessarily mean that it is
a social convention.
Mathematical operations, geographical facts, and
scientific laws are also taught in those institutions,
yet they are never considered as mere human
fabrications. Meaning, whether or not people know
and like them, they are as they are.
 THE PHILOSOPHER C.S LEWIS OFFERS TWO
REASONS FOR SAYING THAT MORALITY BELONGS TO
THE SAME CLASS AS MATHEMATICS

a. Although there are differences between the moral

ideas of one time or country and those of another, the
differences are not really very great.
b. We affirm that the morality of one people is better or
worse than that of another, which means that there is a
moral standard or rule by which we measure both
moralities and that standard for real.
 SOCIAL CONDITIONING THEORY

Concerning social conditioning theory,’ it can be

observed that when one says that a particular action
ought or ought not to be done, he/she is not simply
echoing social approval or disapproval.
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM IN ETHICS
Cultural relativism is perhaps the most famous form of
moral relativism, a theory in ethics which holds that
ethical judgments have their origins either in individual or
cultural standards.
Moral Relativism fundamentally believes that no act is
good or bad objectively, and there is no single objective
universal standard through which we can evaluate the truth
of moral judgments.
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM:
AN ANALYSIS
Valuable lessons from ethical relativism. In
proposing that there is no independent standard in
ethics, moral relativism does encourage tolerance.
Without a doubt, tolerance is necessary for people of
different cultural origins to co-exist and live
peacefully in society.
 THE THEORY’S ETHICAL FAULTS
Cultural relativism discourages analytical thinking and
independent decision making in Ethics as it requires
unsuspecting compliance and subscription to social norms.
Logically, cultural relativism is inconsistent in promoting
tolerance while teaching that no culture is morally superior
or more progressive than others.
 RACHELS’ EVALUATION OF
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
The Cultural Differences Argument.
He explains that the cultural relativists’ approach
is to argue from facts about the difference between
cultural outlooks to a conclusion about the status of
morality.
 RACHELS’ EVALUATION OF
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Different cultures have different moral codes.
Therefore, there is no “objective truth” in morality.
Right and wrong are only matters of opinion, and
opinions vary from culture to culture.
 THE BAD CONSEQUENCES OF
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
a. We could no longer say that the customs of other
societies are morally inferior to our own.
b. We could decide whether actions are right or
wrong just by consulting the standards of our
society.
c. The idea of moral progress is called into doubt.
 “ A SIA N M OR A L
U ND ERSTA ND ING T O
U NI VERSAL V A L U ES ”
 ASIAN MORAL UNDERSTANDING:
• Because culture has a major impact on morality, people from the different cultures appear to have seemingly, but not
essentially, different sets of ethics.
• This particularly apparent in ethics of groups of people from the Eastern or Asian culture as compared to those from the
Western culture.

• Some say that one of the differences between eastern(ASIAN)and western ethics is the fact that Western Ethics is
basically about finding truth, whereas Eastern Ethics is very much about the protocol and showing of respect. Asian ethics
is said to be much more about doing what is right in terms of what is expected to some by his family, society and culture.

– On the other hand, Western Ethics is claimed to have more of a stress on self of what is rationally or logically true. Moreover,
Western ethics is seen to place more emphasis on law and justice while Eastern Ethics seems to hold on must do what is right and
expected and him and the universe (or a metaphysical force)will take care of the rest.
 J I
T H I S TA B L E S U M M A R I Z E S W H AT A R E P E R C E I V E D A S
N J
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WESTERN ANTD ETHICS (“WESTERN AND I L
EASTERN ETHICS,”N.D.): J N
K
Western ethics Eastern Ethics M
4
Focus Finding truth Protocol and Respect
5 4
5 6
Basic Rational thought Religious Teachings

Emphasis Logic, Cause and effect Respect Towards Family

Roots Athens, Rome and Jude Christianity Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism

and Taoism
Approach Rational Holistic and Cultural

Conflict and Harmony Good must triumph over Evil Good and Bad, Light and Dark all
exist and equilibrium.
As indicated in the table, the basis of Asian or Eastern
Ethics is religion, specifically Easter religions or
philosophies. Confucianism, for instance, focuses on the
cultivation of virtue and maintenance of morality, the most
basic of which are ren ( an obligation of altruism and
humaneness for other individuals ), yi ( the upholding of
righteousness and the moral disposition to do good), and li
( a system of norms and propriety the determines how a
person should properly act in every life).
7.FILIPINO MORAL CHARACTER :STRENGTH AND
WEAKNESSES
• Filipino cultural morality, especially that which concern social ethics, center on ideally
having a ‘smooth interpersonal relationship ‘(SIR) with others. The definitional of
‘smooth interpersonal relationship’ in the Philippines culture is principally supported by an
anchored on at least six basic Filipino values: the concepts of,

1.PAKIKISAMA
2.HIYA
3.AMOR PROPIO
4.UTANG NA LOOB
5.FILIPINO HOSPITALITY and
6.RESPECT FOR ELDERS
 PAKIKISAMA
• Is having and maintaining ‘good public relations, 'This public usually being practiced to avoid
clash with other people or a certain group. It characterizes both a value and a goal that involves
keeping good feelings in all personal interactions and getting along with others, oftentimes, at
all costs.
• Just like other Filipino values, however, ‘PAKIKISAMA’ can work either positively or
destructively. To elude open displays of conflicts, clashes, and confrontations, Filipinos,
because of ‘pakikisama, ‘may submit to group opinion, overgenerous praise on one another,
using metaphorical language rather than candid terms, concealing negatives feelings or unhappy
spirits underneath a pleasant demeanor, smiling even when things go wrong, avoiding to say
‘no,’ and refraining from venting anger or losing temper. We Filipinos believe that attaining SIR
is much important we may give up clear but offending communications.
 HIYA
• Is described as a feeling of lowliness, shame or embarrassment, and inhibition
or shyness which is experienced as somewhat distressing. Integrally, ‘HIYA’ is
related to the concept of ‘face’ and a concern with how one appears in the eyes
of others.
• This unique Filipino concept ‘HIYA’ or ’fear of losing face’ encompasses being
afraid to do bad things as it may damages one’s reputation in the sight of other
people. A person’s capacity for proper behavior with authority figures is a
reflection of his or her family upbringing and this fear to losing face. Too much
‘HIYA,’ nonetheless, may lead to having inferiority complex and losing self-
confidence.
Like ‘HIYA,’ the Filipino Value(AMOR PROPIO)
 AMOR PROPIO
• Is derived from the concept of ‘face.’ Although commonly translated as ‘self-respect’ or ‘self-
esteem,’ ‘AMOR PROPIO’ has ‘been characterized as the high degree of sensitivity that’s makes
a person intolerant to criticism and causes him to have an easily wounded pride” (“amor
propio,”n.d.). Concerning this Filipino value, some observe that “Filipinos learn to withstand a
‘loss of face’ in some situations, particularly when they perceive themselves to be at fault, but it
is devastating to be publicity criticized, insulted, belittled, or humiliated, or to lose one’s self-
respect”(AMOR PROPIO,”n.d.).
• ‘Amor propio’ comes from the person’s tendency to protect his or her dignity and honor.
Because of pride or amor propio, for instance, a person may refuse offers even if he\she really
wants to accept them.
So they called.
 UTANG NA LOOB
• Is likewise a fundamental aspect of upholding group harmony
and relationships that demands the balancing of obligations and
debts. This involves the concepts ‘reciprocity’ or returning the
received favor. The inability to repay “utang na loob”(debt of
gratitude) usually makes a person “walang utang na loob” or
“walang hiya.” To avoid being dubbed as “walang utang na
loob,”some Filipinos sometimes do thing that may be bad(like
voting for unworthy candidate).
 FILIPINO HOSPITALITY
• Refers to the innate ability and trait of Filipinos to be
courteous and entertaining to their guests. Indeed,
generally speaking, Filipinos are hospitable as they
are internationally known to be warm, welcoming,
and accommodating. This trait, However, makes
Filipinos prone to being abused or maltreated.
Concerning.
 RESPECT TO ELDERS
• We, Filipinos, are not only respectful to elders, but also have unique ways to expressing this respect
to elders. These include the use of ‘opo’ when talking to elders and ‘pagmamano’ or the putting of the
elder’s hand on one’s forehead. When excessive, nonetheless, respect to elders make one dependent
or irrationally obedient to parents or elders. (for further discussion on Filipino moral character, you
may consult the Appendix J: “Sikolohiyang Pilipino” of this book.)

• These Filipino social values are important to maintain harmony in Filipino relationships in social
institutions such as Family, school, and community. The ‘smooth interpersonal relationship,’ together
with Filipino ‘pakikipagkapwa-tao,’ has been deemed as a central core or essential cultural traits that
from and define an almost stereotypic Filipino character and moral behavior. (More and detailed
discussion on the strength and weaknesses of the Filipino moral behavior can be read at the article “A
Moral Recovery Program: Building a People—Building a Nation by Patricia Licuanan”.The article
can be accessed through the search engine [upper right section] of www.OurHappySchool.com
 8.UNIVERSAL VALUES
• By universal values, we mean those values generally shared by cultures. The existence of the
so-called universal values is a strong proof that cultural relativism is wrong. If certain values
exist both in Western and Eastern cultures (including Filipino culture) despite the distance ,the
cultural relativism’s claim that cultures’ moralities radically differ from each other is mistaken.
• Going back to the contention that Eskimos are also protective of their children, Rachels
submits the following sound arguments(1999,p.29):

• Human infants are helpless and cannot survive if they are not given extensive care for a period
of years. Therefore, if the group did not car for its young, the young would not survive, and
the older members of the group would not be replaced after a while ,the group would die out
.Therefore any cultural group that continues to exist must care for its young. Infants that are
not cared for must be the exception rather than the rule.
The same form of argument could be used reasonably show that
other values must be generally shared by many cultures. Giving
value on (1)TRUTH TELLING, for instance is indispensable in
the existence of a society, for without it there would be no
reason to pay attention to what anyone communicates with
anyone. And because complex society cannot exist without
communication among their members, the very existence of this
societies proves that truthfulness is valued in those cultures.
The very few situations in which it is thought to be permissible
to lie are more of “exceptions to the rule”(1999,p.30).
The “general theoretical point” here, Rachels concludes, is that “there
are some moral rules that all societies will have in common, because
those rules are necessary for society to exist. Cultures may differ in
what they regard as legitimate exceptions to the rules, but this
disagreement exists against a background of agreement on the larger
issues’ Therefore , ‘it is a mistake to overestimate the amount of
difference between cultures’ (1999, p.30). In fact, not every moral
rule can vary from society to Society. This definitely files in the face
of Cultural Relativism.
Rachels also mentions of the case of (2) valuing or respecting
life which
Necessitates the prohibition on murder. In a society where no
one thought there
was anything wrong with killing others at will, everyone
would have to be constantly
on guard. Avoiding people would become a mechanism for
survival and large-scale
Societies would therefore be improbable.
6 FILIPINO VALUES
 J I
T H I S TA B L E S U M M A R I Z E S W H AT A R E P E R C E I V E D A S
N J
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WESTERN ANTD ETHICS (“WESTERN AND I L
EASTERN ETHICS,”N.D.): J N
K
Western ethics Eastern Ethics M
4
Focus Protocol and Respect
5 4
5 6
Rational thought Religious Teachings

Emphasis Respect Towards Family

Roots Athens, Rome and Judeo-Christianity

Rational Holistic and Cultural

Conflict and Harmony Good and Bad, Light and Dark all
exist and equilibrium.