GE 9: Ethics (Chapter 1)

Key Concepts in Ethics

MARK JOHN Q. PADILLA
General Education Department
College of Arts and Education
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus
 PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 9: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus

COURSE OUTLINE

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 4

Key Concepts The Moral The Act Reasoning through Ethical Issues
in Ethics Agent Ethical across Borders
Frameworks
• Philosophy and Ethics: How
• Culture and the moral agent • Feelings and moral decision- • Three areas in the field • Moral Challenges of
ought we to live?
• Conscience and the moral making of ethics Globalization
• The need to study ethics agent • Sexual Morality, Abortion &
• Reason and impartiality as • Deontology
• Moral vs. non-moral Minimum requirements for • Teleology Same Sex Marriage
standards Morality • Relativism • Euthanasia & Physician-
• Moral dilemmas • Moral Courage • Virtue Ethics Assisted Suicide
• Three levels of moral • Why can’t I be a good person • Moral Theories of • Environmental Ethics & Animal
dilemmas even if I want to? Justice Rights
• Foundations of morality • Political Violence: War,
• Caveat: Gullibility and Terrorism & Torture
Philosophical Tendencies
 PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus RETHINK

Chapter Objectives
1. Explain the importance of following various rules (home, community,
school rules and regulations
2. Differentiate between moral and non-moral standards
3. Distinguish between dilemma and moral dilemma
4. Identify a moral dilemma in a given situation
5. Classify moral dilemmas according to the three levels of moral
dilemmas
6. Explain why only human beings can be ethical
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus RETHINK

RETHINK
1. When was the last time you did
“good” to someone? What was it all
about? Why did you do it? What did
you feel?

2. Name at least 3 rules in your family,

school, or community that you
usually obey. Why do you obey them?
What will happen if you don’t?
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER

A C

B
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER

What is Ethics?
Ethics = Moral Philosophy
Most of the time: ethics = morality

Definition:
Vaughn (2016): Ethical and moral, the
adjective forms, are often used to mean simply
“having to do with morality,” and ethics and
morality are sometimes used to refer to the moral
norms of a specific group or individual.

Rae (2018): Technically, morality refers to the actual

content of right and wrong, and ethics refers to the process
of determining, or discovering, right and wrong.

Objective:
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER

Why study ETHICS?

Rae (2018):
• Morality and the Good Life/Society
• Morality and One’s Worldview
• Morality and Diversity/Pluralism
• Morality and the Professions

Wolff (2018):
• It can help you come to a keener sense of what does and does not matter
• It can help you form a view of what considerations do, and do not, need to be taken seriously
(controlling reasoning, attention, and emotion)
• It can help you think through the nature of your relationships with other people and with
other things of value
• It can help you think about how best to use your talents and energy, and what your goals in
life should be
 PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER

1. Mas masarap ba ang fries ng 1. Makabubuti bang kumain ng BFF

McDo kesa sa Jabee? fries araw-araw?
2. Bet mo ba ang cropped-top at 2. Okay lang ba magsuot ng maiiksing
short shorts? damit sa lahat ng lugar?
3. Pre, which is better, Netflix, 3. Should we allow obscene film clips
Disney+, or VivaMax? on Facebook Ads or posts?
4. Tes, Palmolive shampoo ko, 4. Uy, naiwang bukas ang tindahan,
meron kayo sa tindahan niyo? kuha na kaya ako ng Palmolive?

Non-Moral Standards
A matter of preference, taste, culture
and... Moral Standards
Determines what is good or bad, right or wrong

Aesthetics Ethics
(also: etiquette, law)
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER

Moral Dilemma
Dilemma
a situation in which a difficult
choice has to be made between two
different things you could do
Moral Dilemma
a situation in which: the agent is required to do each of two (or
more) actions; the agent can do each of the actions; but the agent
cannot do both (or all) of the actions. (McConnel, 2022)

Therefore, moral dilemma = example

obligated decision + choices +
compromise
Moral Dilemma: (whereas
P-person, A-action, & C-
compromise)

P + A1 = ±C;
P + A2 = ±C;
A1 ≠ A2 Have you also encountered any moral dilemma?
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER

Levels of Moral Dilemmas

Structural dilemmas are dilemmas
encountered and resolved by network of
organizations. Structural dilemmas are
multi-sectoral and larger in scope than
organizational dilemmas (De Guzman,
2018).

Organizational dilemmas are those

“encountered and resolved by
organizations or social institutions. This
include moral dilemmas in business,
medical field and public sector (De
Guzman, 2018).

Personal dilemmas are those that are

encountered and resolved personally by the
individual. Personal dilemmas may be caused
by the individual him/herself, by another
person, or by a group
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER

Foundations of Morality
Moral dilemma = obligated decision + choices + compromise
Resolving moral dilemma = Freedom + Reason + Impartiality

Are we free?
Can we choose?
What’s the better choice?
Why did we choose the choice?
What happened to our choices?

Why only human beings can be ethical?

PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REMEMBER

Caveats!
Tendencies towards…
1. Confirmation Bias
2. Virtue Signaling
3. Legalism
4. Religious Pluralism
5. Nihilism / Absurdism
 PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REFLECT

REFLECT
1. Get a stuff from your bag that best describes you as a “good”
student, child, or a member of your community. Explain.

2. What rules, standard or command do you usually fail to obey

that consequently makes you a less “good” person? What
actions can you take to fulfill it? Who do you think are the
persons that can help you? (Mention names).

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
PADILLA, Mark John Q.
GE 8: Ethics
General Education Department
PSU-Urdaneta City Campus REFLECT

READING ASSIGNMENT
1. Module 1 from the University Learning Material folder (see File Tab)
2. pp. 3-8 of "Doing Ethics..." by Vaughn (2016) (access .pdf at bit.ly/GE9-MP-V1)
3. pp. 1-4 of "Theories of Ethics..." by Graham (2011)
4. pp. 11-26 of "Moral Choices..." by Rae (2018)

KEYWORDS
1. Philosophy, Axiology, Ethics, Morality, Moral Dilemma, Moral & Non-Moral Standards, Rules

STUDENT ACTIVITY
1. P001M – Responding to Moral Dilemma
2. G001M – Learning Huddle (Chapter 1, Reflect Question #2)