Module #1

Understanding Ethics
A. Undertanding Ethics
* Ethics – Derives from the Greek word “ethos” which means “custom”. – (a long established practice common to many or to a
particular place or class considered as unwritten law).
– The Latin for custom is “Mors” from which comes morals and morality.
* Ethics is also called “moral philosophy” – the study of human conduct and values. Etymologically, ethics refers to the way
people behave, act or go on with their lives in the society.
* Ethics is the science of the morality of human acts. It is a normative science because it concerns matter of values rather that of
facts.
* Ethics Logic and Aesthetics (philosophical sciences) deal about the ultimate nature of values.
> Ethics – is concerned with moral properties of acts either good or bad. (constitute ethical values).
> Logic – deals with cognitive values of propositions as true or false and reasoning as valid or invalid according to the
rules of thought inherent in the human mind.
>Aesthetics – refers to perceptual properties of natural and artistic object as beautiful or ugly and pleasing or
unpleasing based on formal structure or emotion expression.
* Ethics, Psychology and Etiquette – deal with acts done by human beings. All these three sciences may speculate on the same
act they do so from different values and perspective.
> Ethics – is concerned with moral properties of acts as either good or bad while the others do not deal with these
concept
> Psychology – studies human behavior that is either normal or abnormal based on observable behavioral pattern.
- Paranoia is abnormal in Psychology, but it does not quality as something bad because it is has no ethical
significance.
 > Etiquette - is about manner or propriety that is either proper, improper, acceptable or unacceptable to people
according to the conventions of their society and culture.
Ex.
Eating by hands during formal dinner is proper and accept able in some parts of Asia, while it is disdained in Western
countries.
Note 1: Such act cannot be said to be either good or evil because manners do not have ethical values.
Ex.
Province do not say “ Po or Opo”
Note 2: There are specialized field of ethics dealing with particular moral issues such as:
- social ethics - animal ethics
- bioethics – bio means “life” and ethics means “morality
Professional communities talk about:
- business ethics - medical ethics - legal ethics
- academic ethics - nursing ethics - sports ethics
Note 3: Since ethics is about human acts and their morality, only human being are capable of morality (actions done by
animals and object do not have ethical values).
- Human acts in accord with goodness are moral like love and justice
- Those in accord with evil are immoral (murder, corruption . . .).
- Acts which are neither good nor bad are a moral (sleeping, taking a bath . . .).
* Ethical Theories – set the standards upon which are based the goodness or badness of human acts.
2 CLASSIFICATIONS ACCORDING TO THE CATEGORIES FOR ANALYZING HUMAN ACTS:
1. Deontological Theories – believe that good and bad are due to the human acts themselves. From the Greek work
“deos” that means “what is binding, right or proper”, “deontological ethics appeals to moral obligations, laws, rules
or imperatives which serve as the ultimate basis of morality.
- Conduct which abides with the commanded act is right, while that which.
- Contradicts the commandments is wrong.
5 VERSIONS OF DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
( differentiated based on the nature of the act and its point for obligation by the moral agent)
a.) Virtue Ethics – (Aristotle) asserts that the goodness of an act is determined by the person’s possession of moral
characters or virtue, and its badness by the absence of these characters.
b.) Stuicism - (by Epictetus) maintains that nature is good and man acts rightly by surrendering his life to whatever
nature intends him to be and he acts wrongly by contradicting the natural flow of life.
c.) Natural Law Ethics – (by Thomas Aquinas) believes that there is within the rational nature of man a moral law given
by God that makes man know what is good and bad and commands him to do good and to avoid evil.
d.) Peontologism – (by Immanuel Kant) holds that the goodness or badness of an act depends on the universal moral
imperative inherent in the structure of autonomous human reason.
e.) Conventionalism – (by Thomas Hobbes) maintains that moral judgment is the function of people in the society
agreeing with one another by social contract: what acts are to be regarded good and commanded or what acts
one to be considered bad and prohibited (approved by the society, university . . .).
 2. Teleological Theories – however, never deny that the act and its result are both legitimate considerations for judging
morality.
- derived from the Greek “teleos” that means “end”. Teleological theories look at the morality of
human acts from the standpoint of their ends results or consequences. They claim that what
determines these goodness and badness is not the acts but their corresponding results.
2 TYPES OF TELEOLOGICAL THEORIES
(distinguished by the nature of the consequences produced by the acts)
1.) Hedonism – (by Aristippus and Epicurus) believes that an act is good if it gives pleasure for the self and evil if not
“cheating”.
2.) Utilitarianism - (by J. Bentham and J. S. Mill) holds that an act is good as it results in bringing pleasure to the
greatest numbers of people and it is bad as it results in bringing them pain.
HUMAN NATURE
– Moral act is stamped in the nature or essence of man so that the ethical values of good and evil are framed within
the theory of what and how it is to be human.
– According to Virtue Ethics (by Aristotle) the rational nature possessed by man is the basis of virtuous moral conduct
* Stoicism – (Epictetus)
- The Greek word “Stoa” referred to the porch or portico in Athens where some philosophers congregated. Their
philosophy was called “stoicism”, founded by Zeno of Citium in 300 BC. The Romans adopted stoicism to practical concerns of the
individuals, society and state. Some Roman officials were stoics like: Seneca Cicero and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Stoic ethics
gained popularity among the people of Rome through the teachings by Epictetus (born in Asia minor about the middle of the 1 st
Century A.D. He was sold to slavery as a child but was freed later in life because of his intelligence and education.
THE ETHICS OF STOICISM (BY EPICTETUS) PROPOSES 3 MORAL CONVICTIONS ABOUT THE WORLD AND HUMAN LIFE:
1.) Nature is innately good and man is a part of nature.
2.) Man does good by following nature and he does evil by contradicting it.
3.) Man ought to accept everything that happens to him without question in order to live a tranquil life.
Law of Nature and Life
– According to Epictetus, there is an inherent order of things in the universe. This order is governed by an absolute,
unchanging and unbending law of nature. Events that happen are due only to themselves and cannot be otherwise.
Ex. : A porcelain vase when it falls it is broken (law of nature)
- People are human beings – they live, get sick then die.
– Epictetus – believes in the theory of “determinism” – that man lives within the natural order of the world. Man is
merely a part of nature, subjects to its laws, like everything else. In real life man is thrown into wealth or poverty, capability or
disability by the determination of nature in which he has no choice. Nature is uncontrollable.
Ex. : Human life in nature is like the actor in a play. The author determines the part that the actor may play and the
actor has to act naturally according to his role.
 – Obedience – Stoic ethics teaches “absolute obedience” to the law of nature as the greatest virtue.
– For us to live a good life, we must therefore abide with everything that nature has given us by willingly accepting
events in life as they happen.
Note:
- We do evil by opposing the natural flow of life by means of willful complaining and questioning. Complaining
to life’s miseries inevitably leads to inner emotional pain.
- Epictetus says “ the essence of good and evil lies in the attitude of the will. Whether to abide with nature or not
depends on our own disposition.
– Resignation and Tranquility
– Epictetus teaches a way to cope with life’s suffering and tragedies, “Seek not that the things which happen
as you wish but wish the things which happen to be as they are and you will have a tranquil flow of life”.
– “It is not what happens in life that troubles man, rather it is his opinion about the event, his mental
disposition”.
– Accidents that befall us, affect us only from the outside . . . Whatever happens in life, nothing is wasted
and lost because it is always an opportunity for the formation of proper habits.
Man achieves mental tranquility when he controls of his will.
– Natural Law Ethics or Christian Ethics
– views that in us lies an innate capacity for knowing what is good and evil is the basis of Natural Law Ethics. This is
formulated by Thomas Aquinas ( 1225, 1274) a Dominican Monk. Called the Angelic Doctor. Aquinas is considered to be the
greatest philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church. Aquinas derives much of his thoughts from his predecessors the
Fathers of the church and the ancient Greek philosophers. Aquinas lived during the medieval period when Scholasticism was
the predominant philosophy, His ideas were products of the scholastic line of thinking which asserted the supremacy of faith
over reason. So it was said that “Philosophy is a handmaid of Theology”. Natural Law Ethics, therefore, has to be understood
from the perspective of theological reflections. The ethics by Aquinas is an interpretation of Aristotle theory of morality as
flowing from human rational nature. In general Natural Law Ethics views morality to be product of obedience to divine, moral
law inherent in human nature.
– Law
– Law is described by Aquinas as a rule because it commands and prohibits and a measure as it sets standard of
actions.
– By definition, law is “the ordinance of reason designed for the common good and promulgated by one who was
charge of the society”.
– Law aims towards order. It is designed and executed by the authority for the general welfare of the community.
3 kinds of Law
1. Eternal Law – is made by God through his omnipotence for all things and promulgated by dispositions ordered to
them.
2. Natural Law – is the moral law made by God through his goodness for man as rational features and made known by
human nature.
3. Positive Law – is the civil law made by men in the society through political legislation for themselves and
promulgated by public pronouncements.