21/01/2019

ETHICS
• A branch of philosophy that studies morality or the rightness or
wrongness of human conduct.

ETHICS • Stands to queries about what there is reason to do.

• Concerned with character when it deals with human actions and
RUBY ROSE VINLUAN reasons for action.
• Greek word: ethos – “character”, or in plural, “manners”
• Also called moral philosophy, it evaluates moral concepts, values,
principles and standards. It is considered a normative study of human
actions.

1 2

RULES BENEFIT SOCIAL BEINGS IN VARIOUS

IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO SOCIAL BEINGS
• RULES – refer to explicit or understood regulations or
principles governing conduct within a specific activity
or sphere.
- tell us what is or is not allowed in a particular
context or situation.
- serve as a foundation for any healthy society.
MANNERS:
• Rules protect social beings by regulating behavior
• Rules help to guarantee each person certain rights and
freedom
• Rules produce a sense of justice among social beings
• Rules are essential for a healthy economic system

3 4

MORAL VS NON-MORAL STANDARDS

• “NOT ALL RULES ARE MORAL RULES. THAT IS, NOT ALL STANDARDS ARE MORAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS
STANDARDS”
• MORALITY - speaks of a code or system of behavior in regards to standards of a) Involve serious wrongs or significant benefits
right or wrong behavior.
- may refer to the standards that a person or a group has about what
is right and wrong, or good and evil.
b) Ought to be preferred to other values
• MORAL STANDARDS – concerned with or relating to human behavior, especially c) Not established by authority figures
the distinction between good and bad behavior.
- involved the rules people have about the kinds of actions they d) Have the trait of universalizability
believe are normally right and wrong, as well as values they place on the kinds of
objects they believe are morally good and morally bad. e) Based on impartial considerations
• NON-MORAL STANDARDS – refer to the rules that are unrelated to moral or
ethical considerations f) Associated with special emotions and vocabulary
- these standards are not necessarily linked to morality or by nature
lack of ethical sense.

5 6

1

DILEMMA AND MORAL DILEMMA
• DILEMMA – refers to a situation in which tough choice
has to be made between two or more options,
especially more or less equally undesirable ones.
• MORAL DILEMMA (ETHICAL DILEMMA) – are
situations in which a difficult choice to be made
between two courses of action, either of which entails
transgressing a moral principle.
• “NOT ALL DILEMMAS ARE MORAL DILEMMA”
7 8
THREE LEVELS OF MORAL DILEMMAS
1. PERSONAL DILEMMAS – are those experienced and resolved
on the personal level.
2. ORGANIZATIONAL DILEMMAS – refer to ethical cases
encountered and resolved by social organizations. It includes
moral dilemmas in business, medical field and public sector.
3. STRUCTURAL DILEMMAS – refer to cases involving network of
institutions and operative theoretical paradigms. They usually
encompass multi-sectoral institutions and organizations, they
may be larger in scope and extent than organizational
dilemmas.
9 10
FREEDOM AS FOUNDATION OF MORALITY
• Morality is a question of choice.
• Morality is choosing ethical codes, values, or
standards to be a guide.
• Choosing is impossible without freedom.
• Morality requires and allows choices, which means
the right to choose even differently from our fellows.
11
21/01/2019
KEY FEATURES OF MORAL DILEMMA
1. The agent is required to do of each two or more
actions
2. The agent can do each of the actions, but the agent
cannot do both or all of the actions
• In a moral dilemma, the agent thus seems to
condemned to moral failure; no matter what he does,
he will do something wrong or fail to something that
he ought to do
ONLY HUMAN BEINGS CAN BE ETHICAL
• Human beings are rational, autonomous, and self-
conscious
• Human beings can act morally or immorally
• Human beings are part of moral community
REASON AND IMPARTIALITY
• Moral judgements must be backed by sound reasoning and that morality
requires the impartial consideration of all involved (Rachels, 1999).
• Reason and impartiality compose the minimum conception of morality or
the minimum requirement for morality.
• REASON – a requirement of morality entails that human feelings may be
important in ethical decisions, but they ought to be guided by reason.
• IMPARTIALITY – involves the idea that each individual’s interests and point
of view are equally important.
- also known as evenhandedness or fair-mindedness, impartiality
is a principle of justice holding that decisions ought to be based on objective
criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit
to one person over another for improper reasons.
12