REVIEWER FOR ETHICS

WHAT IS ETHICS?
 Ethics is about matters such as the good thing that we should pursue and the bad thing that we
should avoid: the right ways in which we could or should act and the wrong way of acting.
1. It was about what is acceptable and unacceptable in human behavior.
2. It may involve obligations that we are expected to fulfill, prohibitions that we are required to
respect, or ideals that we are encouraged to meet.
3. Ethics as a subject for us to study is about determining the grounds for the values with particular
and special significance to human life.
 Ethics may be described as a critical reflection on various life situations. It is an inquiry into some
standard to guide one’s action, or as a tool to understand a given condition.
1. A person who asks herself what to do next after losing a job or someone who struggles while
working abroad, far away from loved ones is an individual for whom ethics is most real.
 The word ethics come from the Greek word ethos, meaning character or custom. Today we use the
word ethos to refer to the distinguishing disposition, character, or attitude of a specific, culture, or
group (Padilla, 2019).
1. The etymology of ethics suggests its basic concerns:
a. Individual character, including what it means to be a good person.
b. The social rules that govern and limits our behavior, especially the ultimate rules concerning
good and evil, which we call morality.
VALUATION OF ETHICS
 Universal Values
A value is universal when it has the same value or worth tor all, or almost all, people.
The claim for universal values can be understood in two different ways:
- It could be that something has a universal value when everybody finds it valuable. This was
Isaiah Berlin's understanding of the term.
- Something could have universal value when all people have reason to believe it has value.
Reasons for having Universal Values
- The universality of human rights emerged during the 20th century with the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights on the belief that the basic values and principles underlying the concept of
human rights are of a universal nature.
- These values and principles included the concept of individual liberty and freedoms, the belief in
democracy and political rights, the acknowledgment of social and economic rights
Ten Universal Values Shalom Schwartz (2014) proposed ten (10) broad value domains that are universal
and fairly comprehensive.
 POWER
 ACHIEVEMENT
 HEDONISM
  STIMULATION
 SELF-DIRECTION
 UNIVERSALISM
 BENEVOLENCE
 TRADITION
 CONFORMITY
 SECURITY
Reasoning and authority
 Ethics and Philosophy
- Greece is traditionally considered the birthplace of philosophy.
- Socrates might not be the first Greek person to philosophize but is recognized for being the first to
redirect the focus of philosophy from the natural world to the human person.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure and the determination of right
behavior based on the usefulness of the action’s consequences (Bulaong et al., 2018).
- This means that pleasure is good and that the goodness of an action is determined by its
usefulness. The principle of utility is about our subjection to sovereign masters of pleasure and
pain.
 Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill see moral good as pleasure, not merely self- gratification,
but also the greatest happiness principle or the greatest happiness for the greatest number of
people.
- We are compelled to do whatever Increases pleasure and decreases pain to the most number of
persons, counting each as one and none as more than one.
Mill provides an adequate discourse on rights despite it being mistakenly argued to be the weakness of
utilitarianism.
 He argues that rights are socially protected interests that are justified by their contribution to the
greatest happiness principle.