Republic of the Philippines

MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Lesson 1

Etymological Meaning of Ethics

Man cannot deny the fact that in his life everything he does, he desires for
happiness. He does not act, unless the end of his action can make him happy. As one
philosopher said, life in itself is goal-oriented or goal-directed, this means that human
life has a purpose. His actions direct or lead him to the realization of his final goal or
end, which is, happiness. However, there is a standard for everything he does. A
standard of what is right and wrong in particular action or behaviour as human beings in
attaining happiness. This is the concern of ethics, how human beings ought to live their
lives to attain his purpose or happiness. “What is right” and “what is wrong” in one’s
behaviour.

⮚ What is “Ethics”?
Etymological Meaning of Ethics The name Ethics is derived from the Greek word
ethos, which means customs. Custom is here employed to mean the way of acting
common to all men of all places of all time. In other words, it is a “characteristic way of
acting.” The English term moral is taken from the Latin word mos or moris which also
means customs. Thus, we understand why Ethics is sometimes called Moral Science or
Moral philosophy.

a.) Definition
From a realistic point of view, Ethics is defined as the practical science of the
morality of human conduct

Ethics is a science. A science is a relatively complete and systematically

arranged body of connected data together with the causes or reason by which these
data are known to be true. Ethics squares with this definition, for it is a complete and
systematically arranged body of data which relate to the morality of human conduct; and
it presents the reasons which show these data to be true. Ethics is therefore a science.
 Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

Ethics is a practical science. That which presents principles and rules to be acted
upon is a practical science. Now, ethics presents principles and rules to be acted upon,
therefore ethics is a practical science.

Ethics is a science of human conduct. By human conduct we mean only such

human activity as is deliberate and free. A deliberate and free act, an act performed with
advertence and motive, determined (i.e., chosen and given existence) by the free will, is
called a human act. Acts performed by human beings without advertence, or without the
exercise of free choice, are called acts of man, but they are not human acts in the
technical sense of the expression which is here employed. Human acts make human
conduct: Ethics is therefore a science of human conduct.

Ethics is the science of the morality of human conduct. Human conduct is free,
knowing, deliberate human activity. Such activity is either in agreement or disagreement
with the dictates of reason. Now the relation (agreement or disagreement) of a human
activity with the dictates of reason is called morality; the quality of human act by which
we call it right or wrong; good or evil. Ethics studies human activity to determine what it
must be to stand in harmony with the dictates of reason. Hence, Ethics deals with the
morality of human conduct.

b.) Object
Every science has a Material Object and a Formal Object. Therefore, ethics has
these too.

The Material Object is the subject-matter of the science: the things, with which
the science deals. The Material Object of Ethics is human acts, that is to say, human
conduct.

The Formal Object of a science is the special way, aim, or point of view that the
science employs in studying or dealing with its Material Object. Now Ethics studies
human acts (its Material Object) to discover what these must be in order to agree with
the dictates of reason. Hence the special aim and point of view of Ethics is the right
morality, or rectitude, of human acts. We assert, then, that the Formal Object of Ethics is
the rectitude of human acts.
 Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

c.) Importance
An investigation of the objects of various sciences reveals that only Ethics
studies the morality of the human acts or human conduct by means of human reason
alone. Thus, this makes Ethics a noble and an important science.

d.) Human Act

A human act is an act which proceeds from the deliberate free will of man.

In a wide sense, the term human act means any sort of activity, internal or
external, bodily or spiritually, performed by a human being. Ethics, however employs the
term in a strict sense, and calls human only those acts that are proper to man as man.
Now man is an animal, and he has activities in common with brutes. Thus, man feels,
hears, sees, employs the senses of taste and smell, is influenced by bodily tendencies
or appetite. But man is more than animal; he is a rational, that is to say, he has
understanding and free will. Hence it is only the Page 5 of 8 act that proceeds from the
knowing and freely willing human being that has the full character of a human act. Such
an act alone is proper to man as man. And therefore, Ethics understands by human acts
only those acts that proceed from a deliberate (i.e., advertent, knowing) and freely
willing human being.

e.) Act of Man

Act of man is an act that man performs indeliberately or without the advertence
and the exercise of free choice. Thus, such acts as are affected in sleep, in delirium, in
the state of unconsciousness; acts don abstractedly or with inadvertence; acts
performed in infancy; acts due to infirmity of mind or the weakness of senility---all these
are acts of man, but they are not human acts.

It is to be noticed that acts which are in themselves acts of man may sometimes
become human acts by the advertence and the consent of the human agent (and by the
agent is meant the one who does perform an act). Thus, if I hear words of blasphemy as
I walk along the street, my act of hearing is an act of man; but the act becomes a
human act if I deliberately pay attention and listen. Again, my eyes may fall upon an
indecent sight, or upon a page of obscene reading matter. The act of seeing, and even
of reading and understanding the words, is an act of man; but it becomes a human act
the moment I deliberately consent to look or to read.
 Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

Ethics is not concerned with acts of man, but only with human acts. Human acts
are moral acts, as we shall see later on. For human acts man is responsible, and they
are imputed to him as worthy of praise or blame, of reward or punishment. Human acts
tend to repeat themselves and to form habit. Habits coalesce into what we call a man‟s
character. Thus, we find verified the dictum of Ethics: “A man is what his human acts
make him.” However, in order that an act be human, it must possess three essential
qualities: it must be knowing, free, and voluntary. Hence, we list the essential elements,
or constituents, of the human act as: Knowledge; Freedom; Voluntariness.