Module 1 Introduction to Ethics

At the end of this module, you are expected t0:

1. Understand the importance of Ethics to Philosophy to Higher Learning
2. Learn its contribution to Man’s development
Ethics and Philosophy
What is Ethics? Why is it important to every society? First of all, let us define Ethics
– simply put it is the Philosophy of Life. By critical thinking it discerns men form brutes making
men decide better than mere a priori judgment. The quality of life men lived is a testament to
man’s mental development.
Ethics is the primary vehicle for men to reach the very purpose of life – the pursuit of happiness.
Ever since civilizations began their baby steps, societies are created to ensure their security from
predators – real or imagined, they have to create laws but of what use is it if not guided by
reason, and that is where Ethics come in.
The written law is used to ensure order but what is the ultimate source of it all – ethics no doubt.
Ethics made men decide what is right or wrong guided by reason should ambiguity in the written
law persists.
As we all know nothing is perfect, everything has flaws, with that confusion comes in. Human
Ethics are clouded by man’s self-interest that interpretation to law and order as muddled as
needle in a haystack. As time goes by changes in the environment as well as the complexities of
the human world as well as his thinking altered the understanding of Ethics.
That is an undeniable fact. Sadly leaders of the modern world lack ethical standards that at times
their morals are condescending. In the current world we are currently in, there are age-old
questions that even baffled geniuses and they are:
1) what is the supreme purpose of human living?,
2) What is man’s greatest good and perfection?,
3) what is the ultimate objective of human strivings, is it attainable?,
4) what is the summum bonum (highest good) of human life and
5) what is the root cause and remedy to human suffering.
Is man intrinsically good or evil? If we are to correlate man as part of the Animal Kingdom then
men are bad. Take for example co-workers in an office who display “decency” in each other’s
presence but invent stories behind their backs to discredit them to their boss and gain brownie
points a sure sign of a lack of professional ethics.
We might say this is immoral but logical just the same, we live in a dog-eat-dog world. Survival
at all cost is the name of the game. Which brings us to another philosophical question, why are
not moral acts are not legal and vice versa? Going to church is moral but why was this not
legislated? In the same way, why is divorce considered immoral to us Filipinos is legally
approved in other societies?
The decadence of ethics is not just limited to the business world. It has even affected every
aspect of society, such as sports and entertainment.
Ethics and Human Development
Humans are not born endowed with ethics as if it is an inherent characteristic; but their behavior
jives with human development. Man initially behaves like brutes, and under human
development, he behaves less morally and more ethically. Ethics and morality are
interchangeable for they are both patterns of human behavior but in reality are different.
Ethics refer to rules provided by an external source, such as laws, codes of conduct in
workplaces or principles in religions. Morals on the other hand refer to an individual’s own
principles regarding right and wrong. Ergo as man progressed he deviates from his clouded
personal beliefs to a more socially acceptable norm.
Ethical human behavior depend on two things: personal development and human development.
Personal development, in general, is a process of internalization of values, judgement and
thought; and morally, is a transition from what we should ought to do, to what is the best thing to
do. Human development is the combination of -collective- personal development and social
development.
The ethics of human behavior ranges from the spectrum of low personal and human development
to high personal and human development. In time, man’s ethical development will also serve as
his transition from a self-indulging individual to a person endowed with knowledge that will aid
him in his

Module 2 Introduction to Ethics

At the end of this module, you are expected t0:
1. Understand the importance of Ethics to Philosophy to Higher Learning
2. Learn its contribution to Man’s development
Ethics and Philosophy
What is Ethics? Why is it important to every society? First of all, let us define Ethics – simply
put it is the Philosophy of Life. By critical thinking it discerns men form brutes making men
decide better than mere a priori judgment. The quality of life men lived is a testament to man’s
mental development. Ethics is the primary vehicle for men to reach the very purpose of life – the
pursuit of happiness. Ever since civilizations began their baby steps, societies are created to
ensure their security from predators – real or imagined, they have to create laws but of what use
is it if not guided by reason, and that is where Ethics come in. The written law is used to ensure
order but what is the ultimate source of it all – ethics no doubt. Ethics made men decide what is
right or wrong guided by reason should ambiguity in the written law persists.
As we all know nothing is perfect, everything has flaws, with that confusion comes in. Human
Ethics are clouded by man’s self-interest that interpretation to law and order as muddled as
needle in a haystack. As time goes by changes in the environment as well as the complexities of
the human world as well as his thinking altered the understanding of Ethics. That is an
undeniable fact. Sadly leaders of the modern world lack ethical standards that at times their
morals are condescending.
In the current world we are currently in, there are age-old questions that even baffled geniuses
and they are:
1) what is the supreme purpose of human living?,
2) What is man’s greatest good and perfection?,
3) what is the ultimate objective of human strivings, is it attainable?,
4) what is the summum bonum (highest good) of human life and
5) what is the root cause and remedy to human suffering.
Is man intrinsically good or evil? If we are to correlate man as part of the Animal Kingdom then
men are bad. Take for example co-workers in an office who display “decency” in each other’s
presence but invent stories behind their backs to discredit them to their boss and gain brownie
points a sure sign of a lack of professional ethics. We might say this is immoral but logical just
the same, we live in a dog-eat-dog world. Survival at all cost is the name of the game. Which
brings us to another philosophical question, why are not moral acts are not legal and vice versa?
Going to church is moral but why was this not legislated? In the same way, why is divorce
considered immoral to us Filipinos is legally approved in other societies? The decadence of
ethics is not just limited to the business world. It has even affected every aspect of society, such
as sports and entertainment.
Ethics and Human Development
Humans are not born endowed with ethics as if it is an inherent characteristic; but their behavior
jives with human development. Man initially behaves like brutes, and under human
development, he behaves less morally and more ethically. Ethics and morality are
interchangeable for they are both patterns of human behavior but in reality are different.
Ethics refer to rules provided by an external source, such as laws, codes of conduct in
workplaces or principles in religions. Morals on the other hand refer to an individual’s own
principles regarding right and wrong. Ergo as man progressed he deviates from his clouded
personal beliefs to a more socially acceptable norm.
Ethical human behavior depend on two things: personal development and human development.
Personal development, in general, is a process of internalization of values, judgement and
thought; and morally, is a transition from what we should ought to do, to what is the best thing to
do. Human development is the combination of -collective- personal development and social
development. The ethics of human behavior ranges from the spectrum of low personal and
human development to high personal and human development. In time, man’s ethical
development will also serve as his transition from a self-indulging individual to a person
endowed with knowledge that will aid him in his pursuit for happiness.
References and Supplementary Materials
Books and Journals
1. Montemayor, Felix; Ethics the Philippines; Navotas Metro Manila; National Book Store

Module 3 The Scope and Meaning of Ethics

At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. To understand the Definition of Ethics
2. Morality and other phases of Human Life
3. To learn about Human Acts
A deeper understanding of Ethics
Ethics is a branch of Philosophy that studies human acts and human conduct. Although there are
subjects that study human conduct such as Psychology and Sociology. Ethics has a deeper
meaning in its standpoint by further delving into the aspect of human acts. They are more
concerned with the morality of human acts.
Noted definition of Ethics
1. Ethics is the practical science of the morality of human actions
2. Ethics is the scientific inquiry into the principles of morality
3. Ethics is the study of human conduct from the standpoint of morality
4. Ethics is the science of human acts with reference of right and wrong
Relation of Ethics with Other Sciences
1. Ethics and Logic – Logic is the science of right thinking and while Ethics is the science of
right living. Thinking and Doing things go hand-in-hand, we cannot move without thinking right
the same way every action is guided by reason.
2. Ethics and Psychology – The two subjects dealt with the study of man, human nature and
human behavior but that is all their similarity ends. Psychology only tell us the causes of man’s
actions that may be psychological or physiological but ethics tell us how man should react.
Ethics is interested in moral obligation while Psychology ends there.
3. Ethics and Sociology – as we all know, Sociology deals with the study of society as well as
the social order that regulates the society as a whole. But then what is the foundation of their
social order if there is no basis of right and wrong which is Ethics. Any society is doomed to fail
if devoid of correct basis of thinking.
4. Ethics and Economics – Napoleon once said that an army marches on its stomach, in relation
to economics man has to fulfill is economic needs. The need for material wealth is inherent in
man that there are instances that economic topics needed ethical principles such as capital-labor
relations, profit, interests, money et al. The need to settle these conflicts must have ethical basis
to incur equitable results.
Morality and Other Phases of Human Life
1. Ethics and Education – Education whether formal or informal is a never-ending process and
is the foundation of man’s moral, intellectual and physical capacities. But then again education is
illicit if it is not supported by ethics, they say ethics is life the same way education is intertwined
with life. Learning is good but learning supported by ethics is better inasmuch as ethics is living
right.
2. Morality and Law – as mentioned in the previous module, not everything moral is legal and
not everything legal is moral. Meaning there are good things that do not need legislation and
immoral acts that the State may approve. But to further differentiate them laws only used
external acts while ethics cover man’s “acts” that play in his mind that will not incriminate him
in any statute. For example, a plan for a robbery if discovered is not criminally liable in any court
of law but ethics said it is a fault for such “act” is intrinsically evil.
3. Ethics and Politics - Man in his constant search for happiness be it temporal or eternal is
never ending. They say politics and ethics are poles apart – in a certain point that is correct it is
the very reason why politics become dirty for they deviate from ethics. Man’s insatiable greed
for wealth and power thru politics means absence of ethics. An ideal state should be an ethical
state.
4. Ethics and Art – Ethics is about positive morality while art is beauty. Any work of art that is
beautiful, will give a positive outlook to the looker that will be greatly appreciated. The purpose
of art is for appreciation that is contributory to man’s ethics.
5. Religion and Ethics – Religion is ethics and ethics is religion, they are interchangeable for the
any religious belief tends to ethical standards in relation to his most fundamental tenet. What
unites them all boiled down to three things namely:
a) belief in the Supernatural,
b) man’s beginning and end and
c) right living.
Morality and Human Acts
Morality is the quality of goodness or badness in a human act. In this case, we base judgement on
any human act based on its ethicality. The quality of an act may be justified according to its
gravity. An evil human act maybe considered “right” just as long as it can be justified which lead
us to its norm of morality. By that term, we mean that the basis for determining its correctness
are the standard of the judging party and the reason why an act is morally wrong or right.
Human Acts just like the word itself means actions of men that are done willfully and willingly.
Keep in mind that scenarios beyond human control are not human acts such as rainfall, sunset,
earthquake even the beating of the heart or blood circulation are beyond human act for these are
actions man cannot control. In the case of assassinations where the culprit pulled the trigger, the
gun is not to blame but the doer of the action that caused taking the life of another man. Once
questioned he has the right to justify his action as either morally right or wrong.
References and Supplementary Materials
Books and Journals
Ethics
The Scope and Meaning of Ethics 3
Course Module
1. Agapay, Ramon B.; Ethics and the Filipinos; Mandaluyong Metro Manila, National Book
Store
2. Montemayor, Felix M.; Ethics, the Philosophy of Life; Navotas Metro Manila; National.

Prepared by: Approved by:

Raymundo F. Bandal Veronica S. Berganting

Instructor Head, Diploma Program