What is

Philosophy and
Ethics?
Julius O. Basallo, MA

Key Concepts: Moral Standards, Moral

Dilemmas, Freedom, Reason
and
Impartiality
 Basic Consideration:
• The History of Ethics is the scientific
account of Man’s efforts to answer the
perennial question of life and his
constant and ceaseless search for
Happiness in answer to the Question:

• WHAT ULTIMATELY AM
I LIVING FOR?
Real Definition of Philosophy

“Philosophy is a
science which inquires
into the ultimate
causes, reasons and
principles of all things
in the light of pure
reason alone -
Aristotle
YET…
B. Meaning of Ethics (Etymology)

• The word ethics comes from the Greek

“ethos” which means customs or habits.
• Ethics is also often called moral
philosophy.
• The word moral is from the Latin “mores”
which also means customs or habits.
• (the characteristic conduct of an individual human life)
• Thus, ethics means the science of customs
or habits of society.
 ETHICS AND MORALITY

• Ethics deals with principles of ethical behavior

in modern society at the level of the person,
society, and in interaction with the
environment and other shared resources.
(CMO 20 s 2013).
• Morality pertains to the standards of right and
wrong that an individual originally picks up
from the community.
What is Custom?
 Moreover:
• While morals or morality refers to
customs, ethics extend to mean
habitual conduct or character.
• Morality deals with our reasoning and
ethics with our doing.
• Ethics can also mean ‘the science of
rightness and wrongness of character
and conduct.’
 Furthermore:
• Ethics is also the ‘science of the
highest good.’ It is the science of
morality.
• It is the science of the supreme ideal of
human life.
• Ethics is the study of what is right
or good in human conduct or
character.
In Short:
1.) What is a Moral Standard?

• The norms about the kinds of actions believed

to be morally right and wrong.
•Values placed on the kinds of objects believed to
be good and bad (e.g. “always tell the truth”,
“honesty is good”, “injustice is bad”)
•Moral standards come from:-
– Family – Religion - State - School
Non-Moral Standards
•Moral standards contrasted with standards we hold about
things that are not moral.
• Examples of Non-moral standards include:
– Standards of etiquette by which we judge
manners as good or bad.
– Standards we call the law by which we judge
legal right and wrong.
– Standards of aesthetics – good or bad art.–The
athletic standards – how well a game is being
played.
There are times we experience these:

2.) MORAL DILEMMA

3

 Fundamentally: the quality or state of being

free:
- the absence of necessity, coercion, or
constraint in choice or action;
-  liberation from slavery or restraint or from
the power of another;
- a political right
 4. Significance of Ethics
The advantage of owning moral standards
(morality and ethics) over merely abiding by
moral standards follows immediately from the
importance of ethics itself:

Ethics means right living and good moral

character.
• - The supreme purpose of human living lies
not in the acquisition of material goods or bodily
pleasure, but in the development of the moral
qualities which lift man far above brute creation.
• Education is the harmonious development of the
whole man – the primary objective of education is
the moral development of the will.
• - Knowledge is good, bodily health and strength
are good, but first and above all – Good Character.
• - Ethics is the very investigation of the meaning of
life.