ETHICS: ITS

MEANING, NATURE
AND SCOPE
CHAPTER I
ETYMOLOGICAL MEANING OF ETHICS
ETHICS: GREEK WORD “ETHOS”:
CUSTOM OR A PARTICULAR WAY
AND MANNER OF ACTING AND
BEHAVING.
LATIN: “MOS” OR “MORES”. ..
MORAL OR MORALITY
ETYMOLOGICAL MEANING OF ETHICS

ETHICS AND
MORALITY: USE
INTECHANGEABLY
ETHICS AND MORALITY DISTINGISHED
ETHICS AND MORALITY: BOTH
DEAL WITH GOODNESS, BADNESS,
RIGHTNESS OR WRONGNESS OF
THE HUMAN ACT OR HUMAN
CONDUCT
 IN ETHICS: STUDIES MORALITY
ETHICS AND MORALITY DISTINGISHED
MORALITY: GIVES ETHICS A
PARTICULAR PERSPECTIVE OF WHAT
TO STUDY ABOUT- THE RECTITUDE OF
WHETHER AN ACT IS GOOD OR BAD,
RIGHT OR WRONG.
PROVIDES WITH A QUALITY THAT
DETERMINES AND DISTINGUISHES
RIGHT CONDUCT FROM WRONG
CONDUCT.
ETHICS: A PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION
Knowing and doing: knowledge and
action.
The “learning” of ethics does not
actually guarantee morality on the part
of the person’s concrete and practical
conduct and behavior.
Farthest distance: to cross between
the head and the heart.
ETHICS: A PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION
Ethics: (theory) provides


certain principles and

guidelines as to what is good
and bad, right and wrong in
human conduct, it is morality
which actualizes theory.
ETHICS: A PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION
Ethics (word) Morality
(flesh). Application (praxis)
ethics (theory).
 Morality is the doing (
practice) of ethics.
ETHICS: A PRACTICAL DISCIPLINE
ETHICS should be taken


as a way of life.
Intimate connection with
the daily lives.
 interaction between
knowledge and practice.
ETHICS: A PRACTICAL DISCIPLINE
Knowledge serves
practice, for each other
new truth learned is a
new reason for a better
life.
ETHICS: A PRACTICAL DISCIPLINE
Knowing what is right
without actually
changing the way we
behave morally is
nothing but useless
knowledge.
Importance of Studying
Ethics
 1.
Without moral
perception, man is only an
animal. Without morality,
man as rational and free
being is a failure.
(deterioration)…
Importance of Studying
Ethics
2. good life:
idea of right and
wrong, good and
evil…..
Importance of Studying
Ethics
3. making choices and
decisions: Ethics as a
practical science.
We become good and bad
persons through the
choices we make.
Importance of Studying Ethics
4. Making moral decision
is often times difficult.
Confronted with moral
dilemmas. A need to pause and
reflect: Ethics provides with
moral paradigms.
Importance of Studying Ethics
5. Enable to reason
out moral beliefs and
of why one holds them.
to critically examine the ground and foundations of
one’s moral beliefs and claims, whether they are valid or not.
Importance of Studying
Ethics
6. Aids a person to widen one’s
horizon as to what is good and bad.
Exposures to ethical paradigms and
perspectives will naturally broaden
understanding and make us appreciate
the richness and diversity of ethical
views held by various thinkers.
Importance of Studying Ethics
Knowing the good is


good in itself. Though,

“doing” the good is even
much better than “just
knowing” the good.
Ethics: A Definition
It is a practical


science or the morality

of human act or
conduct and of the
good life.
Ethics: A Definition
As a philosophical discipline: deals
with ultimate principles and truth
concerning the morality of human
conduct through the use of human
reason alone and experience ,
without the aid of supernatural
reason or divine revelation.
Ethics: A Definition
Deals with the study
of the right conduct of
the human person, the
rectitude of his/her
actions.
Material Object of Ethics
The material object of a science is
its subject matter, the thing, or
things, or that which the science
deals with in its study.
The subject matter of Ethics as a
particular field of study is human
conduct or the human act.
Material Object of Ethics
Human Conduct: acts done
by a human person he or she
is conscious of, which
proceeds from one’s
deliberation and freewill, and
thus, for which one is held
morally responsible.
Formal Object of Ethics
The formal object of any science is
the special or particular way and
viewpoint that a science employs in
dealing with its specific subject
matter.
The formal object of ethics in its
investigation is the morality of the
moral rectitude of human act or
human conduct.
Formal Object of Ethics
Right conduct/ actions conform
to right reason (norm of morality)
 Morality is that quality in the
human act by which it is judged to
be good or bad, right or wrong,
moral or immoral.
Division of Ethics
TWO AREAS OR


MAJOR PARTS:
General Ethics
Special ( applied) Ethics
Kinds of Valuation and Types of Norms
 Norm:
 rule, standard, or measure.
 it is something by which an
act or conduct is measured as
good or bad, right or wrong,
moral or immoral.
Kinds of Valuation and Types of Norms
The criteria of judgment about the
sorts of person one ought to be and
the sorts of action one ought to
perform.

 the standard of right and wrong in

human actions. Certain actions are
considered morally good and others
as morally bad.
4 TYPES OF NORMS
1. Technical Norm


2. Societal Norm

3. Aesthetic Norm
4. Ethical or Moral
Norm
Technical Norm
Refers to man’s needs which come
from his bodily space-time limitations.
Norm has to do with survival, health and
well-being.
 techniques of how certain things
pertaining to survival
Every community prescribes certain
proper ways of working and doing things.
Right way of planting rice………
Societal Norm
Has something to do with the need for group
cohesion and for strengthening the bonds that
keep the community together.
 eg. manner or attire, certain ways of
speaking, of conducting oneself, rituals: proper,
fitting, appropriate or recommended: they
maintain and strengthen the bonds that keep
the community together.
 frowned: unmindful of or destructive of social
relations.
Aesthetic Norm
refers to typical perceptual forms
regarding color, shape, space,
movement, sound, feeling and
emotion, touch and texture, taste,
scent and odor.
 “ beautiful”…..
Represent a certain free play and
celebration of the human spirit.
Ethical or Moral Norm
refers to ideal vision of a human
person an ideal stage or perfection of
his being, which serves as the
ultimate goal and norm.
 person’s actions are judged to be
right or wrong, good or bad.
 ideal vision of what a person should
be : non-negotiables
The Moral Dimension of
Human Existence
 “ the experience of morality
is part of every person’s life”.
 “ good or bad”, right or wrong,
ought, obligation, duty : are
commonly found in various
forms of human conversations.
The Moral Dimension of
Human Existence
When can one truly say that “
something ( an act/conduct/behavior)
or someone is moral or immoral,
ethical or unethical?
Are there clear and neat rules that
govern morality that can easily be
accessed in practically all situations
of human existence?
The Moral Dimension of
Human Existence
 FIRST POSITION:
 “ A - MORALITY“
 Morality is understood as occupying just one area among
the many diverse areas in human life.

The other areas, which are termed as non-moral ‘ have

their own meanings, and goals and are independent
evaluation.

 Morality’s scope is simply confined to a specific and

limited area in human existence; hence, the rest of the
other areas in human experience are not subject to ethics
or morality.
The Moral Dimension of Human
Existence
 SECOND POSITION:
Claims that practically all of human life is under the
domain of morality.
 everpresent and is necessary for man to be truly
human.
 there are clearcut moral rules for every situation in
life.
Insist that to be human means that one recognizes
these rules and strictly follow them since they are
the basic guides for everything we do.
 Morality as permeating all facet of human
experience.
The Moral Dimension of
Human Existence
 THIRD POSITION:
“ MIDDLE GROUND”
 Morality is not just limited to a few
select areas of man’s life but is found in
every situation in various ways there are
situation in life where the focus of human
experience is a moral obligation or value,
when we are concentrating on what
should be done.
The Moral Dimension of
Human Existence
 InConclusion:
“ if we are to be fully human we must
somehow manage to maintain a sort of balance
in all of these areas of our lives without
neglecting any.
 Human existence is too rich and complex to
confine ourselves to a single or few dimension
only. “Life challenges us to live fully in all
areas, balancing a mature moral sensitivity
with a well-rounded involvement in other areas
of life.
CHARACTERISTIC OF MORAL
PRINCIPLES
1. Reasonability
 7. Practicability
2. Impartiality 8. Univesalizability
3. Prescriptivity
4. Overridingness
5. Autonomous from
Arbitrary Authority
6. Publicity
REASONABILITY
 Moraljudgment must be backed by good reasons;
feelings should be guided as much as possible by
reason.
The morally right thing to do is always the thing best
supported by sound arguments.
 Confident that something is right if it is reasonable.
 If it does not appeal to reason and common sense/
experience, then it has to be viewed with suspicion
and reservation.
IMPARTIALITY
 Ethicalor moral rule should be neutral
when it comes to the question as to who are
its recipients.
Moral standards are supposed to apply to
everyone regardless of one’s status and
situation in life.
Morality requires the impartial
consideration of each individual’s interest.
IMPARTIALITY
Veil of Ignorance: for us to wear in
order to treat everyone fairly and justly
irrespective of differences.
Moral rules should not advance the
interest of a few, or worse of one
person alone.
Impartiality ( aside from reasonability)
are the “two minimum requirements of
morality”.
PRESCRIPTIVITY
 practical, or action guiding nature of morality.
 the commanding aspect of morality
Moral principles are generally put forth as some kind
of commands or imperatives since they are intended
to direct people on what to do and to avoid.
 influence the way we act in accordance with certain
rules of conduct.
 e.g…. Do not kill, do no harm to your fellowmen, love
your neighbor, do not steal.
OVERRIDINGNESS
 Moral standards must have hegemony.
Should reign supreme over all the other
standards or norms of valuation, whatever
they may be.
 predominant authority and override other
kinds of principles.
 should take precedence over others.
Conflict with other norm the moral norm
must prevail. ( morality over legality, morality
over technicality)
Autonomous from Arbitrary
Authority
 Moral
standards should stand on their own logic
independent of the arbitrariness of the majority.
 Tyranny of numbers
 Tide of public opinion on matter of right and wrong
 Something is right or wrong regardless of what the
majority decides or says.
 Moral rules only bow down before the throne of “ right
reason” even if there are undue pressures coming from
the mob and public opinion.
 To follow “ wherever the better argument leads” is
morality’s sole guiding light.
PUBLICITY
Moral rules and principles must be made
public if they are to serve as clear
guidelines to our actions.
 Self-defeating to just keep them from
public knowledge.
 No moral accountability for something
which one truly does not know.
 Anything noble and good should be made
in public.
PRACTICABILITY
Moral rules should not be
impossible to achieve.
Must be workable and not too
idealistic
 For what practical use is a
norm if it is simply impossible
for anyone to follow it?
 UNIVERSALIZABILITY
A moral rule or principle must be applicable to
everyone, without exception, provided of course


that all people are in a relevantly similar situation

or context.
If I judge that an act is right or wrong for a
certain person, then the act is right or wrong for
any other relevantly similar person.
Categorical Imperative: Kant’s Deontological
“ Do unto others what you want others to do unto you”
or in a negative sense…….