Module 5:

Ethics thru Thick and Thin, and Ethics and Religion

Objectives
At the end of the Module, you are expected to:

1. demonstrate understanding of the challenges to ethical behavior in today’s world;

2. demonstrate understanding of the meaningful search of universal values; and
3. demonstrate understanding of how people respond to an increasingly pluralist
and individualist globalized world.

Discussion

Note. The different lessons in this Module have been taken from various sources
available online. Ideas from these sources have been chunked and presented with the
aim of facilitating easier understanding of the main concern of the Module. Details of the
sources can be found in the references section. You can access these sources if you
are interested to see them in their entirety.

Lesson 1: The Ethical Challenges of Globalization

▪ Political Scientist David Mittelman (1996) defines globalization as the

compression of space and time. By this, he meant that the technologies of
globalization have reduced the significance of the distance barrier and the
salience of time in cross-border interactions.

▪ Sociologist Roland Robertson (1992) refers to globalization as the compression

of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole.

▪ Globalization has transformed the world from a collection of discrete communities

interacting occasionally to an overlapping community of fate is clearly indicated
by the fact that the world is increasingly integrating along the cultural, political
and economic spheres.

▪ Communities across the world in reality now coexist in a single, shared space
albeit demarcated into artificial political enclaves known as nation states.

▪ The demarcation of the world into territorially bounded communities, however, is

gradually coming under strain as the intensification of transnational relations
occasioned by globalizing forces and processes opens up new forms of
solidarities and responsibilities.

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 ▪ With the increasing realization that our seemingly innocuous actions could
potentially generate transnational and transgenerational consequences, it has
become imperative that we begin to reflect on our moral responsibilities and
obligations in the globalizing world.

Ethical issues in Globalization

▪ As nations, peoples and communities across the globe become economically,

socially and politically connected, the distinction between the global and the local
becomes increasingly blurred and events and actions in one locale carries with it
the potential to generate transnational and transgenerational consequences.

▪ It is precisely because in a globalized world, events and actions are capable of

giving rise to transnational consequences, that moral reflection about our
responsibilities and obligations has become an imperative.

▪ The first normative question elicited by globalization concerns the character of

globalization itself. Critics have argued that the currently unfolding neoliberal
globalization concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, while it leaves the
majority in the condition of poverty.

▪ To the extent that economic globalization or the spread of the laissez-faire

capitalism deepen the inequalities within and between nations, it is morally
condemnable from both the consequentialist and deontological perspectives.

▪ From the consequentialist perspective, the ethical argument against globalization

is that it fails to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people.

▪ From a deontological point of view, globalization will be condemned on the

account that exploited populations are treated as “means to an end” and not as
“end in themselves.”

▪ The second prominent normative challenge arising out of globalization is the

problem of managing the global environment in order to forestall a global
ecological collapse, a prospect that threatens humanity with the specter of
annihilation.

▪ Other questions relate to cultural imperialism, human rights, global poverty, the
rise of powerful transnational corporations.

Lesson 2: Challenges of Filinnials and Millennials

Millennials
▪ Millennials broadly refer to youth born in the 1980s and 1990s. They came of age
at the turn of the new millennium.

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 ▪ They are those born from 1982 to 1994 while other sources stretch the range up
to 2004.

▪ Generation Y, another term commonly used to pertain to millennials, is poised to

overtake Generation X.

▪ Older people might find them selfish because, as studies show, millennials
especially in the West "want it all" and they "want it now." This explains their
insatiable drive for new gadgets, clubbing, travel, rewarding jobs, and even
designer drugs.
▪ Millennials are always on the hunt for their identities. To use an analogy,
millennials are like newbie chefs who are always on an experiment to create their
special sauce or signature dish.
Filinnials
▪ When commentators describe Filipino youth as millennials, they typically refer to
a very specific segment of our population. Millennials are characterized as young
people who are educated, tech-savvy, well-travelled, and cosmopolitan with their
choices in life.
▪ The common notion that millennials all over the world share the same youth
culture might be somewhat applicable in the case of the Philippines. However,
like any other nation, the Philippines has a unique history which influences and
shapes the attitudes, beliefs, preferences, and value systems of the Filipino
millennials.
Career/ Employment
▪ Millennials, those who are currently in their 20s and 30s, are projected to
comprise almost half of the entire global workforce by 2020.
▪ In the Philippines, in October 2015, it was estimated that 47.1% of the more than
66 million working Filipinos were composed of millennials aged 15–34 years old.
This data suggests that millennials are not only occupying a significant portion of
the Philippine economy, but are also shaping the direction of it.
▪ Since the conception of the term, millennials have been gaining a lot of attention
more than any other generation. This may be because this generation is the first
to grow up experiencing various global technological developments, along with
the onset of many social, political, and even cultural transformations.
▪ Millennial employees are known to be driven by immediate satisfaction and want
everything to be instant– even in their careers.
▪ When it comes to career and work ethic, millennials have been labelled, both
positively and negatively, in so many ways.

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 ▪ Millennials have been tagged as lazy, spoiled, and impatient; at the same time,
they have also been praised for their creativity, technological expertise, and
flexibility.
▪ One of the most common conceptions on millennials is that they are “career-
shifters.” Millennials are deemed to have a tendency to jump to another job that
interests them, even when their current job has nothing to do with their new
prospective job.
▪ Millennials restlessly jump from one job to another, always looking for what will
define them or give them value. One reason for this is the fact that millennials
have higher levels of anxiety and depression than previous generations. Why?
The answer is simple. Life was much simpler before. We didn’t need to be
consistently liked in order to feel valued. We didn’t need other people’s approval
to proceed with our ventures. Nowadays, millennials have a dire need for
constant approval and appreciation in order to function.
▪ For the millennials, being overly ambitious might not really be such a bad word
because their being ambitious only means that they are ready to take on jobs
that would bring them towards the fulfilment of their career goals in the future.
▪ Millennials want occupations that give them meaning. Passion is a tangible virtue
for them. And in many cases, their passion is about making a positive difference
in the world. That's why they have many passion projects.
▪ The Philippines has a very young population. Half of Filipinos in 2015 were
younger than 25. As they will shape our future, young people need to be
understood well.

▪ Official unemployment statistics are revealing. While the total unemployment rate
is declining, it is remarkable that as of April 2016, 50% of the unemployed are 15
to 24 years old. 28% come from the 25-34 age group.

▪ Unemployment, in other words, hits our youth more than it does any other age
group. For the lucky ones who found employment, the skills for which they
trained at university may not match their current occupation.

▪ Students typically enroll in such courses as engineering, information technology,

and business administration. But 80% of jobs generated in the past six years are
in the service sector, which includes BPO, tourism, and retail.

Lifestyle
▪ One of the striking characteristics of millennials is that they do practice
“challenge convention” which pertains that they continuously seek to find better
and suitable ways of doing things on their own.

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▪ Most of them prefer to be in charged on their own matters such as when it comes
to handling their finances, accommodation and even travels.
▪ They are usually tagged as entitled, with close parental involvement, and
demands less supervision. Comparatively speaking, these kind of attributes were
not present in the previous generation.
▪ As millennials are digitally active, they spent most of their times with their mobile
phones and laptops at their hands exchanging and facilitating communication in
all forms. This kind of lifestyle demands less work and more play for majority of
them.
▪ As they perceived that the “real life” is not limited to one or two more aspects
such as attaining stable career and finances, loving and complete family and the
likes, they are the generation who wishes to have a well-balance life.
▪ They are taking the meaning of LIFE into a new direction- unconventional,
predictable, and that is something out of the box. For millennials, to maximize life
is to travel. They are experts when it comes to finding affordable airfare rates and
tours. Millennials viewed travel as a necessity rather than a luxury.
▪ As millennials are also described as team and people-oriented, most of them do
not have issues dealing with people.
▪ Negatively, millennials are labeled as materialistic, spoiled and entitled were also
not seriously concern about saving. As most of them perceived that there is more
to life than money per se, millennials unfortunately do not have a strong sense of
financial stability.
▪ If there is a common denominator for all millennials is that they are much familiar
with technology. They are hailed as the digital natives. The founders of the
prominent social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are all
millennials. Millennials, undeniably are the biggest consumer of digital media.
Millennials are three times more likely than baby boomers to watch a video on
their mobile device.
▪ Millennials not only use social media for connection and communication but it
now also a way for them to spread news and information. As social media is real-
time, it gives you real-time information which helps you to make right choices
especially in times of crisis.
▪ The defining and guiding values of members of the millennial generation include
optimism, confidence, high self-esteem, diversity, civic duty, ethical consumption,
achievement, morality, change, multi-view and a global perspective.
▪ The study, sponsored by the Philippine National Youth Commission, profiles the
needs, attitudes, and economic state of Filipino youth aged 15-30 years old.
70.2% reported that their household income on average is less than P10,000.

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 18.8% of households are recipients of 4Ps, which means they are indigents.
42.5% of surveyed youth are hoping for a job within the next five years. Among
those who are employed, 26.2% indicated that their occupation poses some form
of hazard to their health. These basic economic data suggest that many of our
youth are not as upwardly mobile as we thought they were. They have a very
limited lifestyle.
Relationship/ Social Relationship
▪ Since most millennials today are already exposed to various dating platforms and
other means to attract potential mates, one of the known challenges that arose is
how these new trends changed their perceptions towards relationships. In
particular, there is now a question as to how millennials select their romantic
partners and how they value the relationships that they are able to form.
▪ The emergence of new means to build relationships is now taking its scene,
along with the spur of the “hookup culture” where most millennials are identified
to be fascinated with. Hence, the notion as to whether the traditional Filipino
conservative ideals in selecting partners and managing relationships also
evolved.
▪ Most millennials today often set standards or status that can keep up with their
current lifestyle activities. Thus, they choose to marry at a later age as they take
their time to find a partner that will suit their lifestyle and preferences.
▪ Meanwhile, although some traditional ideals in building relationships are still
applicable to today’s millennials, there also appeared to be distinct changes in
belief. This includes their perception towards pre-marital sex. In traditional dating
scene, constantly initiating communication or physical contact towards a man will
label her as “flirt” and even sexually “loose.”

▪ Lacking social interaction at a young age, millennials channel this unsatisfied

need when they grow up in the form of seeking attention and approval.
Facebook, along with other social media sites, served as the perfect avenue to fill
this unsatisfied need.

Lesson 3: Religion and Ethics

Can we be Ethical without being Religious?

▪ A longstanding debate has been whether ethics plays a role in religion. Most
religions have an ethical component.

▪ Ethics, which is a major branch of philosophy, encompasses right conduct and

good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing
right and wrong. Ethics deals with ideas such as Right, Good and Duty and these

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 concepts were discussed in ancient Greece by Plato and Aristotle in the 3rd &
4th Century BCE.

▪ A central aspect of ethics is "the good life," the life worth living or life that is
simply satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than
traditional moral codes. The ancient Greeks called it eudaimonia or happiness.
The ancient Greeks believed happiness was brought about by living one’s life in
accordance with virtue – positive traits of character.

▪ Virtue in the highest sense, in an adult who has been brought up well, will not just
involve good personal habits such as courage and temperance, but also
friendship and justice and intellectual virtue. The essence of virtue is in the
wholeness of the person brought about by integrity.

▪ The influential philosopher, Immanuel Kant defended the idea of God as a basic
requirement of ethics. We ought to be virtuous and do our duty, he said. Kant
believed virtue should be rewarded by happiness, and it would be intolerable if it
were not so.

▪ Since it's clear that virtue often does go unrewarded in the present life, Kant
argued that the soul must be immortal. Virtue must receive its due recompense in
a future life, and there must be a God guaranteeing that it is so rewarded. The
existence of God and the immortality of the soul were what Kant called the
postulates of practical reason - the assumptions without which, so he claimed,
ethics and a moral life would not be possible.

▪ Revealed religions like Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam do

prescribe some clear and unambiguous rules to follow. If their scriptures were
authored or dictated by God, then the commands in them are God's own
commands. They cannot be changed if human circumstances change or ethical
ideas progress.

▪ If religion has a role in moral decision-making, then what should be that role? In
America, for many individuals, their religion is a centrally defining characteristic of
who they are, such that they would be nearly incapable of making ethical
decisions independently of their religious beliefs.

▪ Further, some of our most basic moral sentiments are directly connected to
religious ideology. For example, most people agree that things like murder and
adultery are always wrong, regardless of circumstances. Most major world
religions echo these sentiments, and it can be argued that the ancient codes of
conduct these traditions embody are actually the original source of our social
intuitions. At a minimum, we do seem to regard religion as a good source of
basic moral guidance, making it unwise to argue that there ought to be no
connection between religion and ethics.

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 ▪ The link between religion and morality is best illustrated by the Golden
Rule. Virtually all of the world’s great religions contain in their religious texts
some version of the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would wish them do
unto you”. In other words, we should treat others the way we would want to be
treated. This is the basic ethic that guides all religions. If we do so, happiness will
ensue.

Religion Expression of the Golden Rule

Christianity All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, Do
ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.
Confucianism Do not do to others what you would not like yourself.

Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the

family or in the state.
Buddhism Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.

Hinduism This is the sum of duty, do naught onto others what you would
not have not have them do unto you.
Islam No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that
which he desires for himself.
Judaism What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the
entire Law; all the rest is commentary.
Taoism Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s
loss as your own loss.
Zoroastrianism That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another
whatsoever is not good for itself.

▪ The role of philosophers is to accurately try to define and promote ethical

concepts based upon logic and reason.

▪ A religious person on the other hand, follows his or her code of conduct because
he believes that it is proper behavior and reaction to the varying challenges and
circumstances which arise during the course of life.

The Role of Religion in an Ethical Society

▪ In our rush to build our modern cultures, we’ve forgotten how to sustain them.

▪ Many people today—particularly among intellectuals, the young, and those from
cultures that retain a sense of collective purpose—still hold to altruistic and
spiritual values, and despair at the destructive forces swirling around them.

▪ But the faltering or failure of many of the more liberal movements of the left
shows that an intellectual attachment to human rights, solidarity, concern for the
excluded and marginalized, and redistribution of wealth is not sufficient.

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 Movements of the left are just as riven by ego, ambition and the struggle for
power as those on the right.

▪ What is missing is the level of spiritual education and transformation in each

individual. Human potential comes to fruition when cultivated in a spirit of selfless
service, without pride, with no desire to be seen as superior to anyone else,
ready to accompany others in their own acts of service and thus to become part
of an organically-evolving learning community.

▪ It is this dimension of education that is largely absent today in societies around

the world. This sort of spiritual education empowers every individual to refine
their character and to contribute to an ever-advancing civilization. At this level,
effective personal responsibility and accountability can be built into the
institutions of society.

▪ This leads us to the great absence in efforts to address the crises in today’s
world: religion. Traditionally religion has provided the multitudes with basic moral
and ethical values. Religion has taught about good and evil, saints and sinners,
and the altruistic values that build lasting cultures—versus the greed, lust,
indolence, pride, and violence so valued in today’s market-based societies. Yet
today, even in societies that claim to be religious, those ethical values are largely
lacking, or are given lip service while the great majority pursue self-centered
materialistic objectives.

▪ Where religion has been replaced by a secular ideology, the results are no
better, and fear often enforces common values rather than the positive internal
motivation that religion can provide.

▪ It is becoming increasingly clear that passage to the culminating stage in the

millennia long process of the organization of the planet as one home for the
entire human family cannot be accomplished in a spiritual vacuum.

▪ Religion is the light of the world, and the progress, achievement, and happiness
of man result from obedience to the laws set down in the holy Books. Briefly, it is
demonstrable that in this life, both outwardly and inwardly the mightiest of
structures, the most solidly established, the most enduring, standing guard over
the world, assuring both the spiritual and the material perfections of mankind,
and protecting the happiness and the civilization of society — is religion.

References

Alcasid, E. et al. (2017). #FILLENIALS understanding the Filipino millenial generation.

https://www.academia.edu/33733065/Understanding_the_Filipino_Millennial_Ge
neration_pdf

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Cornelio, J. (2016, Aug 21).The Filipino millennial? https://rappler.com/voices/thought-
leaders/defining-filipino-millennials

Dahl, A. L. (2016, Dec. 24). The role of religion in an ethical society.

https://bahaiteachings.org/role-religion-ethical-society/

Millennials and the struggle to be human (2017, Aug 9). The Philippine Star.
https://www.philstar.com/campus/2017/08/08/1726348/millennials-and-struggle-
be-human

Mintz, S. (2012, Sept. 4). The role of Ethics in religion.

https://www.ethicssage.com/2012/09/the-role-of-ethics-in-religion.html

Osimiri, P. (2015). The ethical challenges of globalization. Covenant University Journal

of Politics and International Affairs, 3 (1), 1-14.

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