Ethics

Why Study Ethics?

• Human existence is an incomprehensible contradiction.

• Life is a disturbing question rather than an answer in
itself.
• The search for the ultimate meaning of life is one of
our ceaseless activities. (Timbreza)
 Contradictories
• Lying is wrong – but what if you were lying to protect the
life of a loved one?
• Stealing is wrong – but what if you were stealing food for a
starving child?
• Killing is wrong – but what if you had to kill someone in
self-defense to protect your own life? (Andrew Ghillyer,
2014)
 What you will do?

One rainy day, you went to the CAS Library. You left your fibrella
umbrella outside the door. When you were about to leave , your
umbrella was gone. There were several other umbrellas outside the
door. You decided to take another brand-name umbrella.
Should you have taken it? Should you have taken a lesser-quality?
Should you just leave and get wet?
 What is Ethics?

• Ethics is a search for meaning - what is right

and good for human beings.
• What people ought to do or what goals they
should pursue. (Timbreza)
 What is Ethics?

• It attempts to resolve the questions: How can

one determine whether one is acting rightly or
wrongly? Is there a norm of good and evil?
(Timbreza)
 What is Ethics?

• Ethics studies are based on reason, insofar as

all proofs of ethical science must find their
source in the native power of reason alone.
(Timbreza)
 What is Ethics?

• Ethics deals with human acts insofar as they

are performed with intellectual deliberation
and freedom.
(Timbreza)
 What is Ethics?

• It is a practical and normative science which

studies human acts and provides norms for
their goodness or evilness. (Peschke, 1999)
 What is Ethics?

• As a practical science, it deals with a

systematized body of knowledge that can be
used, practiced, and applied to human action.
(Peschke, 1999)
 What is Ethics?

• It considers the usefulness, practicality and

application of human knowledge to one’s
experience. (Peschke, 1999)
 What is Ethics?

• As a normative science, it establishes norms or

standards for the direction and regulation of
human actions. (Peschke, 1999)
 Features of Ethics

1. The study of ethics seeks to understand how people make

the choices they make – how they develop their own set of
moral standards, how they live their lives on the basis of
those standards, and how they judge the behavior of
others in relation to those standards. (Andrew
Ghillyer, 2014)
 Features of Ethics

2. The study of ethics seeks to use that understanding to

develop a set of ideals or principles by which a group of
ethical individuals can combine as a community with a
common understanding of how they “ought” to behave.
(Andrew Ghillyer, 2014)
 What is Human Act?
• Human act is an act that proceeds from our
insight and free will.
• It refers to our action that is a result of our
informed judgment and independence.
(Peschke, 1999)
 What is Human Act?
• We have full knowledge of what we are doing. We
know our action as well as its consequences.
• We have our consent to perform such action. We have
done such act voluntarily.
• We have done such act independently. We have done
without anyone forcing us to perform such act. (Peschke, 1999)
 What is Act of Man?

• It refers to action that we have performed without

the intervention of intellect and will.
(Peschke, 1999)
 What is Forced Act?

• A forced act is a result of insight and intellect but is

carried out against the freedom and will of the
person.
(Peschke, 1999)
 Two Principles that
Constitute Human Act
Intellectual constituent:
• Knowledge of the object or goal of the action
• Awareness of the action that is being performed in order
to achieve the object or realize the goal
• Rational judgment of the person on the value of the act
(Peschke, 1999)
 Two Principles that
Constitute Human Act
Volitive constituent:
• The pursuit for what is good
• The choice of the means in order to achieve or realize the
good
(Peschke, 1999)
 Four Basic Categories
1. Simple Truth – right and wrong or good and bad.
2. A question of someone’s personal character – his or her
integrity.
3. Rules of appropriate individual behavior.
4. Rules of appropriate behavior for a community or society.
(Andrew Ghillyer, 2014)