What is Ethics?

Ethics

-is from the Greek word

“ethos” which means
custom or manner of
acting and behaving.
Morality

-comes from the root

word “Mores” which
means custom and
practice.
2 Ethics
Divisions of Ethics:

1. General Ethics – deals with the morality of the

human act that mainly focuses on the basic
concepts.

2. Applied or Special Ethics – refers to the

application of the moral principles, standards and
norms in various specific areas of human life and
activity.
 Moral principles must have the following
characteristics:
1. Prescriptivity – refers to the
action-guiding nature of morality.
2. Impartiality – means that moral
rule should be neutral
3. Overridingness – means that
moral principle should tower over
all other norms or standards of
evaluation
4. Autonomous from Arbitrary
Authority – moral standards
should be independent
5. Publicity – since moral
standards guide people what
to do, they should be made
public
6. Practicability – rules are
made for men to follow
2 Acts which man is morally accountable and
responsible:

1.Act of man – acts of which man has no

control of.

2. Human Act – deliberate, voluntary act

• 3 Essential elements of Acts of man and
Human Act:

1. Knowledge – where the doer is aware of what

he/she is doing.

• 2. Freedom – in which the act is not done by

force

• 3. Will – of which the doer has given its

consent to do the act
Voluntariness

- from the Latin word “voluntas”, refers to the act of the will.

Four kinds of voluntariness:

1. Perfect Voluntariness – where all the elements of the

human act is present.
2. Imperfect voluntariness – where knowledge is absent
3. Simple Voluntariness – simply doing or not doing the
act since one cannot do anything about it.
4. Conditional Voluntariness – this is when a person is
forced to do an act, which in normal condition it should
not be done.
Determinants of morality:

1. The object or Act itself – this refers to the deed done by

the doer of the action.
2. Motive or intent – the purpose or reason of doing the act.
3. Circumstances – this involves the situations that
surrounds the commission of the act.
a. Who
b. Why
c. By what means
d. Where
e. When
f. How
Generally:

1. Aggravating circumstances – refers to factors that increases

the severity or culpability of an act.

2. Justifying - – are those where the act of a person is said to be in

accordance with the law, so that such person is deemed not to
have transgressed the law and is free from both civil and criminal
law.

3. Mitigating - are factors in the commission of a crime (act) that

lessen or reduce its moral and legal consequences.

4. Exempting - – these are defenses where the accused committed

a crime but is not criminally liable.
 The accountability of the commission of an act can be modified by the
following:
1. Ignorance – is the absence of knowledge
2 Kinds of Ignorance:
a. Vincible Ignorance – is where the lack of knowledge can
easily be rectified.
b. Invincible Ignorance – difficult to rectify
2. Concupiscence or passion –refers to emotions whether negative
or positive desire.
a. Antecedent – weakens the will power of the person
b. Consequent – intentionally aroused and kept where the doer
wilfully play his emotion.
3. Fear – is the disturbance of the mind when a person is
confronted by danger or harm to oneself or loved ones.
4. Violence – happens when physical force is exerted to a person
by another for the purpose of compelling or forcing the person to
act against his will.
5. Habits - are frequently repeated acts.
Norm - is used to measure whether an act done is good or bad, right or wrong, moral or
immoral.

Two types of Norms:

1. Eternal Divine Law – which is objective and is the ultimate and absolute norm
of morality.
2. Human Reason – this is related to a person’s conscience which is proximate
norm of morality telling a person internally what to do and should not do.

Conscience can either be:

a. Correct or true
b. Erroneous or false
(1) invisibly erroneous conscience
(2) vincibly erroneous conscience
(3) perplexed conscience
(4) pharisaical conscience
a. certain conscience c. scrupulous conscience
b. doubtful conscience d. Lax conscience
THANK
YOU!