GEC 8: ETHICS

ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF
HUMAN EXISTENCE
 WHAT IS ETHICS?
• The dictionary defines ethics as “an area of study that deals with ideas
about what is good and bad behavior: a branch of philosophy dealing
with what is morally right or wrong.
• Ethics is a requirement for human life. It is our means of deciding a
course of action. Without it, our actions would be random and aimless.
• Refers to good thing that one should pursue and one thing that one
should avoid.
• Recognizing the notion of good & bad, and right & wrong are the primary
concerns of ethics.
 Clarifications about Ethics
(kinds of Valuation)
1.To recognize that there are instances when we make
value judgements that are nor considered to be part of
ethics. (aesthetics-sense or feeling which refers to
judgments of personal approval or disapproval that one
make about what he sees, hears, smell, taste. Etiquette-
concerns with right and wrong actions)
 Ethics and Morals

2. Morals- refers to specific beliefs or attitudes that

people have or to describe acts that people perform.
(Individuals personal conduct-moral judgement or
moral reasoning).
Ethics- discipline of studying and understanding ideal
human behavior and ideal ways of thinking.
 Descriptive and Normative
• Descriptive study of ethics reports how people particularly groups, make
their valuations w/o making any judgement either for or against these
valuations.
• Normative study of ethics, is done in Philosophy (Philia “love”, Sophia
“wisdom” or moral theology
• (Strength and weaknesses of these two theories will be the focus of this
session.)
Issue, Decision, Judgement and Dilemma
• Issue- refers to situations that are often the source of considerable and
inconclusive debate. (moral issues-ex. Capital punishment or euthanasia)
• Decision – an act one does when confronted by choice of what act to
perform. (moral decision and moral judgment)
• Dilemma- going beyond the matter of choosing over wrong, or good over
bad, and considering instead the more complicated situation wherein one
is torn between preferences. (moral dilemma)
 Reasoning

• Why do we suppose that a certain way of acting

is right and its opposite is wrong?
• Why do we consider this way of acting is
acceptable while that way of acting, the opposite
is, unacceptable?
 Sources of Authority
• Law- referring to rules and regulations that are posited forward by an
authority that require compliance.
• Religion- the Divine Command theory – one is obliged to obey God in all
things.
• Culture- with different cultures in the society, ways of thinking and
valuing of people also differ. (Cultural relativism-acceptable or
unacceptable is relative to, or that is to say, dependent on one’s culture.)
 Arguments on Cultural Relativism
1. The premise on the reality of difference.
2. No one is in no position to render any kind of judgement on the
practices of another culture.
3. No one is in no position to render judgement on the practices
of even one’s own culture.
4. Presumption of culture as a single, clearly-defined substance or
as something fixed and already determined.
 SENSES OF SELF

• SUBJECTIVISM – recognition that the individual

thinking person (the subject) is at the heart of all moral
values.
• It leaps to the more radical claim that the individuals is
the sole determinant of what is morally good or bad,
right or wrong.
 SENSES OF SELF

• Reflect on the following statement.

1. “No one can tell me what is right and wrong.”
2. “No one knows my situation better than myself.”
3. “I am entitled to my own opinion.”
4. It is good if I say that it is good.”
 SENSES OF SELF

• PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM- “Human beings are

naturally self-centered, so all his actions are always
already motivated by self-interest. (ego or self)
 SENSES OF SELF

• ETHICAL EGOISM- prescribes that we should make our

own ends, our own interests, as single overriding principle.
• It does not suppose all our actions are already inevitably
self-serving. We may act in a way that is beneficial to
others, but we should do that only if it ultimately benefits
us.