GE-106 | Ms.

Lucila Bujactin

We live in Communities  “Common Wisdom” may not exist

 Unity – there’s something common for novel situations brought by new
(ex. Mass – common belief in God) technologies.

Characteristics of a Community Discernment Decision Making

1. Understand each other Choosing between Choosing between
2. Care two good things. right and wrong.

The Ethical Point of View Ethics

 Most everyone shares “core values”,  Ethics are standards of moral conduct
desiring; − Standards of right and wrong
− Life behavior.
− Happiness − A gauge of personal integrity.
− Ability to accomplish goals − The basis of trust and
 Two ways to view world: cooperation in relationships
1. Selfish Point of View – consider with others.
only own self and its core values.
2. Ethical Point of View – respect
other people and their core values. Ethical Principles
 Ethical Principles are tools which are
used to think through difficult
Defining Terms situations.
− Association of  Three useful ethical principles:
people organized 1. An act is ethical if all of society
under a system of benefits from the act.
rules. 2. An act is ethical if people are
− Rules: advance treated as an end and not as a
the good of means to an end.
members over 3. An act is ethical if it is fair to all
SOCIETY
time. parties involved.
− Mas deep and
samahan ng
community kaysa What is Ethics?
sa society  Each society forms a set of rules that
kumbaga walang establishes the boundaries of generally
care sa iba. accepted behavior.
− A society’s rules  These rules are often expressed in
of conduct statements about how people should
− What people behave, and they fit together to form
MORALITY
ought/ought not to the moral code by which a society
do in various lives.
situations.  Ethics is the set of beliefs about right
− Rational and wrong behavior.
examination of  Ethical behaviors conforms to
morality generally accepted social norms, many
− Evaluation of of which are almost universal.
ETHICS people’s behavior
 Virtues are habits that incline people
− examining,
to do what is acceptable, and Vices are
studying,
habits of unacceptable behavior.
evaluating way of
living  People’s virtues and vices help define
their value system – the complex
scheme of moral values by which they
Why Study Ethics? live.
 Ethics: a way to decide the best thing
to do.
Professional Codes of Ethics
 New problems accompany new
 A professional code of ethics states
technologies
that principles and core values that are
essential to the work of a particular
occupational group.

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− Code of Ethics for Teachers
− Code of Ethics for
Psychologists
− Code of Ethics for Nurses
Point of Sharing: Virtue Ethics
 Your beliefs become your thoughts
 Your thoughts become your words
 Your words become your actions
 Your actions become your habits
 Your habit become your values
 Your values become your destiny
− Mahatma Gandhi
The Rational Man: The Ethical Man
 “Know Thyself: The unexamined life
is not worth living”
− Socrates
 “I cannot teach anybody anything, I
can only make them think”
− Socrates
 “Good actions give strength to
ourselves and inspire good actions in
others”
− Plato
Ethics
 Ethical thinking emanating from the
golden years of Greece and Rome.
 Core and fundamental area of
philosophy.
 Study of man in the light of hid
activity
− Actions
− Acts of Man vs. Human Acts
Acts of Man Human Acts
doesn’t’ require based from a
thinking and reflected/examined
reflecting (you do it action (thought
because you need it) actions) (higher than
the acts of man)
Aristotle’s Ethics: The Philosophy of Man
as Morally Human
 Man is a composite nature of:
a. Body – matter, sense, passion
b. Soul/Spirit – mind, intellect,
reason
Rational Being/Man
 Reason – Highest faculty of man that
elevates man far over and above
creation.
− It is reason that makes man
resemble the supreme reason
(God) that guides destines
individuals and leads all things
to their proper ends.
 This is hegemony of reasoning man
called rationalism.
 Ethical man is a moral man
 Ethics – Aristotle
− Greek: “Ethous/ethos” – use,
custom, way of behaving,
character.
− Latin: “Moris/mos” – ethics of
morality becomes synonymous
in philosophical discourse.
 Ethics as the study of human acts as if
we are to study it, it must be
understood that activity stems from:
− Freedom
− Directed toward goal
 In this respect “human activity” is
either:
− Good
− Evil
Ethics
 Practical science because it applies the
contemplated truth to human conduct
the moral experiences of man in
everyday life.
 Hence, the ability to do the right in a
concrete moral context.
Importance
 It provides solidity to man’s
knowledge of moral principles useful
for directing human behavior toward
the goal.
 It points man to understanding how
human acts are informed with
rationality and permeated with
goodness.
 The Human Person: Identity
- Who am I?
- What am I?
 If this question to be asked:
- Our HUMAN IDENTITY
 To be able to understand better our
“BEING” in the community relative
to “BEING” community, let us take a
look at the NATURES of the
HUMAN PERSON.
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Natures of the Human Person
1. Open & Relational – Social Being
 Social Being (walang taong masayang
lagi syang nag iisa)
- Being by others
 Conceptions
 Birth
 Nurtured (up bringing)
- Being with others
 Family
 Friends
 Neighbors
 Associate
- For others
 Love
 Service
2. Conscious Being
 Rational
 Capable of self-awareness thru
KNOWING and FREEWILL.
 That all-knowing God has endowed
man knowledge to understand his
being, origin, and destiny (basis of our
moral life)
3. Embodied Spirits
 Bodies – are essential part of our
being human.
 God has made it good and
honorable since God has
created it, and will raise it on
the last day. Moreover, he
dignified it thru his
INCARNATION.
 Incarnation – from the word
“karne” in English “flesh”,
Incarnation is the mystery of
Jesus becoming Human or
Flesh.
Visible -
Invincible – soul, spirit (breath of God in us)
 St. Paul admonishes us:
- BODY – temple of the Holy
Spirit.
- GLORIFY GOD THRU YOUR
BODY. And almost in all our
relationship with God and others
are expressed thru our bodies
which are the natural sacrament of
our spiritual depth.
 2 Languages  Body
4. Historical Realities
 Man grows and develops thru stages
 We have our stories to tell of how we
have grown to become our FULL
SELVES.
5. Unique yet Fundamentally Equal
- Different
 Physical
 Intellectual Make-up
 Moral Pictures
- Dignity
 Same – Equal – Nature
 Nature
 Origin and Destiny
 Calling – God’s
Image,
 Holy like God
 Equal
 Destiny
 Rights
 As rational beings, we are called
to image God in a unique way.
- No one can take our place
- We are free people
Freedom
 As one of our distinct quality as
humans in the community that no
other creature has
 Doing/choosing what is
right/good
 An ACTION
Authentic Freedom
 Is not the right to say and do anything
we want but “to do good” only no
more no less.
 Freedom is becoming true, honest
 Freedom will help you to be ethical
PROCESS and TASK
 With our free choices, striving to
overcome obstacles to freedom
(TASK) (Accountability)
 We gradually grow towards maturity
(PROCESS), into becoming more free
and responsible.
Shared freedom in the Community
 A shared capacity to choose what is
good to become our true selves which
involves FREEDOM FROM
OBSTACLES of true self-becoming
and FREEDOM FOR GROWING
as fully human.
 Madali maging tao, mahirap
MAGPAKATAO
 Common Good – Fruit of shared
freedom.
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 Founded in TRUTH (John
8:32)
- St. Paul said: Gal. you have
been called.
- St. Peter adds: LIVE AS
FREE MAN but do not use
your freedom as cloak for
vice, live as servants of God
(1pt. 2:16)
 Freedom
- Is a response, ability, task.
- Not a license to abuse but a
responsibility to act upon
what is right and just.
- Obstacles:
1. Ignorance – unaware sa
good and bad
2. Bad Habits
3. Entertaining bias,
grudges
4. Sin – greatest obstacle
 What does it mean to be a free
person?
1. Able to choose what is
good and act upon it.
2. Strives to overcome
personal weakness and
does not ignore but
confronts evil.
2 Forms of Sin
Sin of Commission Sin of Omission
You actually commit You did not act on
the sin, YOU DID IT. what you should have
done, NOT ACTING.
 It is important that we belong to
a community. Why?
− Because the “I” can’t be
“Me” which you
(others) relating/treating
me as a person. I can’t
discover my true self
alone by myself.
Neither can I be fully
human – person I am (a
student, mother, teacher,
engineer, pastor, nurse)
without a community.
 The community can’t exist
without humans, persons to
form a community (not a herd
of, flock of, a pond of…
whatever kind of animal)
Ethics
 Is the branch of philosophy that
involves systematizing, defending,
and recommending concepts of right
and wrong behavior
3 Significant Area of Ethics
 Deals with the
foundations and nature
Metaethics
of moral values,
properties, and words.
 Deals with systems of
Normative morality and questions
Ethics how one ought to be
and act morally.
 Deals with what a
Applied person is obligated (or
Ethics permitted) to do in
specific situations.
A. Metaethics
3 Kinds of Metaethical Problems
1. What is the meaning of moral terms
and judgements? (Moral Semantics)
2. What is the nature of moral
judgements? (Moral Ontology)
3. How might moral judgements be
supported or defended? (Moral
Epistemology)
Cognitivism
 Deals with thinking, mind, intellect.
 Ethical statements are propositions
and can be either true or false.
3 Main Sections of Cognitivism
1. Realism
 Objective good and bad features to the
world which propositions are about.
(for common good)
 Simply put, there are specific good
and bad rules that apply to everyone
no matter what.
 Ethical Naturalism –
ethical claims can be
expressed as natural
properties without the use
of ethical terms. For
instance, something like
“bad” can be reduced to
some natural property.
 Ethical Non-Naturalism –
holds that there are
objective and irreducible
moral properties (such as
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the property of
‘goodness’).
2. Subjectivism
 Moral statements are made true or
false by only individuals or groups of
individual like specific cultures.
(selfishness)
 Individual Subjectivism
– only individuals
themselves determine what
is moral. (Others can’t
judge morals)
 Cultural Subjectivism –
only groups of individuals
determine what is moral.
These societies will treat
those morals as the correct
ones. (Morals can be
judged by different
cultures and each culture
will treat their morals as
the correct ones)
3. Error Theory
 That although ethical claims do
express proposition, all such
propositions are false. There’s no such
thing as moral truth so all moral
statements are all wrong, hence the
error.
Non-Cognitivism
 Ethical statements are not propositions
and thus have no truth status.
Types of Non-Cognitivism
Emotivism Prescriptivism
Holds that ethical Moral statements
sentences merely function like
express emotions. universalized
imperative sentences
(command). Simply
put, moral statements
are just giving a
command.
Moral Epistemology
 Deals with how moral knowledge is
possible and derived.
− Rational Knowledge –
morality can be known by
reason including ‘a priori’
facts like Plato and Immanuel
Kant argued for.
− Empirical Knowledge –
moral knowledge may include
evidence by observation
including scientific study.
B. Normative Ethics
 Normative ethics studies systems of
morality and standards of right and
wrong actions.
3 Main Types
1. Deontology
 Is the theory that the (rule-based
ethics) morality of an action should be
determined by whether the action
itself is right or wrong under a series
of rules.
− Categorical Imperative – act
only according to that maxim
whereby you can at the same
time will that it should become
a universal law.
2. Consequentialism
 The theory that the consequence of
one’s conduct are the ultimate basis
for any judgement about the rightness
or wrongness of that conduct. (a.k.a
Teleological Theories = Greek word
telos means end)
− Utilitarianism – an ethical
theory that states that the most
moral action is one that
maximizes happiness and well-
being for the affected
individuals.
− 2 Types of Utilitarianism
1. Negative Utilitarianism
2. Positive Utilitarianism
3. Virtue Ethics
1. Ethics – the normative theory that
emphasizes the virtues or the moral
character of an individual.
 Cardinal Virtues
- Wisdom
- Courage
- Temperance
- Justice
 Utility = Usefulness in
Achieving Happiness
C. Applied Ethics
 Which consists of the analysis of
specific, controversial moral issues.
 Medical Ethics
 Business Ethics
 Environmental Ethics
 Sexual Ethics
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The Moral Judgement of Human Conduct

Human Act Act of Man
 Deliberately  Acts not
performed by depending on
man, freely, free choice.
and knowingly “Actos
Hominis”
 Involuntary
acts
3 Elements  Less of
1. Freedom freedom and
2. Intention knowledge
3. Knowledge/
Consent
 ACTIONS  Manner in
that proceed which
from reflection actions made
and volition. is the same
for man and
animals.

Question on the Norm of Morality

1. Moral
2. Amoral
3. Immoral
4. Norms of Morality

Key Concepts
1. Moral Act Human act
Action which does
not conform to the
2. Immoral Act rules of conduct/to
what is universally
good.
No sense of morality,
3. Amoral Act No concern to what is
right and wrong.
Gestures which
4. Non-moral
cannot be judged as
Act
good or bad.
What ought to be.
An actual
5. Morality
living/practice of
ethics.
Human conduct
understood and lived
6. Christian
out in the context of
Morality
faith (by reason and
DIVINE revelation)

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