ETHICS

Module 1- Meaning and Division of Philosophy

Humanities
 Philosophy
 Ethics

Humanities
 (the term humanities is derived from the Latin word “humanus” meaning human, refined and
cultured)
 The Humanities are those academic disciplines that study the expressions of human being that
explore and reveal what it means to be a human.
 Humanities believes that a man should be humanized, socialized and educated to respond
positively to rapid changes.

Philosophy
 Pythagoras (Greek philosopher) - invented the term “Philosophy”

Three Types of Man

 - lover of pleasure
 - lover of success
 - lover of wisdom – the superior type

Etymological Meaning of Philosophy

 (Grk. Philia=love & Sophia=wisdom) love of wisdom
(Wisdom – the knowledge of the ultimate causes of everything)
 It gives the impression of someone who is seeking wisdom, not one who has found it.

Real Definition
 the science of all things by their first causes as known in light of reason.

Traits of a Wise person

 A wise person is aware of what he knows and what he does not know/aware his
own ignorance.
 A wise person holds beliefs that are not only true but which he can also justify.
 A wise person knows a lot about things that are valuable in life.
 A wise person can put his knowledge to practical use.
 A wise person does not only know what is true, but also knows what is good or what ought to be
done in a given situation and acts accordingly.
Branches of Philosophy

Metaphysics
 (Grk. meta & physika) – after/beyond physics
 the branch of philosophy concerned with the study of "first principles" and "being" (ontology).
 (Ontology - the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being.)

Some of the questions that metaphysics deals with are:

 What is the ultimate reality?
 Is reality one or many different things?
 Can reality be grasped by the senses or is it transcendent?
 What is a substance?
 What are accidents?
 Example: Cake can be a cake without an accidents. (Candle, box, icing, design, size, dedication,
flavour.)

Epistemology
 (Grk. episteme – logos) - knowledge and word/speech/study
 is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin, scope and (possibility/study) of
knowledge.
 the study of the validity of human knowledge.
 How do you know that you know?

Some of the questions that epistemology deals with are:

 What is knowledge?
 Is knowledge acquired exclusively through the sense or by some other means?
 How do we know that what we perceive through our senses is correct?

Ethics
 the science (study) of morality
 the study of the morality of human act

Some of the questions that ethics deals with are:

 What is morally right?
 Are there any objective standards of right or wrong?
 Are moral values absolute or relative?

Logic
 (Grk. Logos) – word, what is spoken
 the study of correct reasoning
 It is the basic tool that philosophers use to investigate reality
 Example: All rulers are 12 inch. Marcos is a ruler- Marcos is not a rules instead he is a leader,
president, politician etc.
Cosmology
 -the science of the universe

Some of the questions that cosmology deals with are:

 What are space and time?
 How is the world related to human beings?
 Is the world created or has it been existing from all eternity?

Theodicy
 a philosophical knowledge of God

Some of the questions that theodicy deals with are:

 Does God exist?
 What are the proofs of God’s existence?
 What is the problem of evil?
 How do we reconcile the existence of a benevolent God and the unmerited misery in the world
Module 2- Ethics and Morality
Definition of Ethics
 the practical science of the morality of human actions
 Science = systematic study or a system of scientific conclusions clearly demonstrated, derived
from clearly established principles duly coordinated. (not experimental science but philosophical
science)
 morality = the quality of right or wrong in human act
 human acts = acts done with knowledge and consent

Definition of Morality
 refers to that quality of goodness or badness in a human act

Moral vs Ethical
Terms “moral” and “ethical” are often used interchangeably but both derive their meaning from the idea
of “custom”.

“moral” = (Latin – mores)

“ethical” = (Greek - ethos)

Custom
a traditional and widely accepted way of behaving or doing something that is specific to a particular
society, place, or time.

Morality refers to:

 Certain Customs
 Certain Precepts
 Certain Practices of Peoples and Cultures

Ethics refers to:

 the whole domain of morality and moral philosophy

Ethics and its Subdivisions

(1) Descriptive morality
(2) Moral philosophy (ethical theory)
(3) Applied ethics

Descriptive Morality
- Refers to actual beliefs, customs, principles, and practices of people and cultures.

Moral Philosophy
- The systematic effort to understand moral concepts and justify moral principles and theories.
- Moral Philosophy analyzes key ethical concepts such as “right”, “wrong”, and “permissible”.
- Explores possible sources of moral obligation such as God, human reason, or the desire to be happy
- Seeks to establish principles of right behavior that may serve as action guides for individuals and
groups.

Applied Ethics
- Deals with controversial moral problems such as abortion, premarital sex, capital punishment,
euthanasia, and civil disobedience.
Traits of Moral Principles

Prescriptivity
 The practical or action-guiding, nature of morality.
 Moral principles generally put forth as commands or imperatives
 Intended for use: to advise and influence action
 Used to appraise behavior, assign praise and blame, and produce feelings of satisfaction or guilt.

Univerzability
 Moral principles must apply to all people who are in a relevantly similar situation.
 Exemplified in the Golden Rule
 Applies to all evaluative judgments.
 An extension of the principle of consistency

Overridingness
 Moral principles have predominant authority and override other kinds of principles.
 Take precedence over considerations including aesthetic, prudential, and legal ones
 Religion is a special case where a command may override a normal moral rule

Publicity
 Moral Principles must be made public in order to guide our actions.
 Necessary because principles are used to prescribe behavior, give advice, and assign praise and
blame
 Keeping a moral principle secret would be self-defeating

Practicability
 A Moral Principle must be workable and its rules must not lay a heavy burden on us when we
follow them.
 Rules must take human limitations into consideration so as to prevent moral despair, deep or
undue moral guilt, and ineffective action
Module 3- Act of Man vs Human Act
Definition of Ethics
 the practical science of the morality of human actions
 science = systematic study or a system of scientific conclusions clearly demonstrated, derived
from clearly established principles duly coordinated. (not experimental science but philosophical
science)
 morality = the quality of right or wrong in human act
 human acts = acts done with knowledge and consent

Human Acts
 Human Acts (actus humani) – are actions that proceed from insight into the nature and purpose
of one’s doing from consent of free will. They can also be rightly be called personal acts.
 an act which proceeds from the deliberate free will of man.
 Actions are proper because the actors is human beings
 Nag-iisip and intentionally

Acts of Man
 Acts of Man (actus homonis) – are actions which are performed without intervention of intellect
and free will
 Man’s animal acts of sensation (ex: use of the senses) and appetition (ex: bodily tendencies), as
well as acts that man performs indeliberately or without advertence and the exercise of free
choice, are called acts of man.
 Hindi nagiisip at walang consent
 Example: Umihi ang aso sa kalsada
Naihi ang tao sa salawal

Other Examples of Acts of Man:

 Breathing
 Sleeping
 First reaction of anger or sympathy
 Acts performed in infancy

It is to be noticed that acts which are in themselves acts of man sometimes become human acts by the
advertence and consent of the human agent (agent-the one who does or performs an act).

Example: If I hear words of blasphemy as I walk along the street, my act of hearing is an act of man; but it
becomes human act if I deliberately pay attention and listen.

Two Principles which Constitute the Human Act

The intellectual Constituent
 The will can decide for something and seek if only it is first known. Hence the human act is
voluntary only if its different elements are sufficiently known.
 This requires as essential conditions for a human act knowledge of the aspired object, attention to
the action with which the object is to be pursued, and judgment on the value of the act.
 May knowledge na sa isang bagay na ginugusto like cellphone at airplane
  Example:

 If a man robs and strikes a person not knowing him to be a priest, he is guilty of criminal of criminal
injury but not a personal sacrilege.

 If a woman receives the gift of a pearl necklace, not knowing that it is stolen, she is not guilty of any
offense, but a victim of ignorance which excuses her from guilt.

Sacrilege- disrespect to the people in church

The Volitive Constituent

 Volitive – of or arising from the will
 If a man for some reason is not free to choose what he would like according to his insight and
will, but has to act against his will, his action is not free and consequently not a human act.
 Wala pang nakikita pero gusto mo na
 Example: psychological afflicted person

Divisions of the Voluntary Act and Effect

 The perfect and imperfect voluntary act
 The directly and indirectly voluntary effect
 The positively and negatively voluntary effect

The Perfect and Imperfect Voluntary Act

 Perfectly voluntary - is an act which is performed with full attention and full consent of the will
 Imperfect voluntary – is an act if attention or consent of the will or both together are imperfect
 Though imperfect attention and imperfect consent usually go hand and hand, full attention can
nevertheless at exist together with imperfect consent.
 Example: A person who acts under the influence of fear may act with full attention but with
imperfect consent

The Directly and Indirectly Voluntary Effect

 The effect is directly voluntary if it is intended in itself as an end
 Ex: Murder for the sake of revenge
 The effect is directly voluntary if it is intended in itself as means
 Ex: murder for reasons of robbery and profit
 The effect is indirectly voluntary if it is not intended but merely permitted as the inevitable
result of an object directly willed.
 Example: The death of fetus caused by the removal of uterus affected by cancer is not intended
as a means nor an end, but only permitted as an indirectly voluntary effect.
 The positively and negatively voluntary effect
 The will effects something positively by exercising active influence on the causation (anything
producing an effect) of an object.
 Kung may ginawa ka either masama or mabuti
 Ex: injuring a neighbor by setting his house on fire

 The will effects something negatively by voluntary omission of an act which could have
averted an evil from another person him to secure a good.
 Ex: it is negatively voluntary not to extinguish a fire already started in a neighbor’s house.
(omission is against charity only, it does not oblige to restitution.

Obstacles of Human Acts

Impairments of required knowledge
 Ignorance - the absence of intellectual knowledge in man
 Two kinds of Ignorance
 Vincible ignorance – is ignorance that can be dispelled by the use of ordinary diligence
Such ignorance is, therefore, due to lack of proper diligence on the part of the ignorant
person, and is his fault. (Fault mo na sa sarili mo if di mo ginawa pero may kakayahan ka
naman)
Example: Not aware sa school policy kasi dimo binasa yung manual ng school

 Invincible ignorance – is ignorance that ordinary and proper diligence cannot dispel.
(Impossibleng mangyari)
Example: Curious ka kung talagang mainit ba ang araw

 Error- the state of believing what is untrue, incorrect or wrong

 Ignorante sa isang bagay, false opinion, false conviction
 Example: misleading books, articles
 The origin of error, prejudices, false opinions and convictions may lie in deficient education, the
influence of bad company, reading of misleading books and papers, etc. man is challenged to
overcome the errors which hold him in their sway in personal search for truth, to escape the
negative influence of those forces which misguide him, and to reach views based on sound
reasons. For false convictions bring with them false attitudes to life.

Impairments of required free consent

 Passion/Concupiscence – a movement of the sensitive appetite which is produced by good or
evil as apprehended by the imagination. It means those bodily appetites or tendencies.
 Walang mali kasi part siya ng whole process
 Two Classes of Concupiscence

Concupiscible
 Love
 Hatred
 Desire
 Aversion (the act of turning away)
 Joy
 Sadness
 Irascible
 Anger
 Courage
 Fear
 Hope
 Despair

 Concupiscence in the sense here has no connotation of evil. God has endowed men with these appetites,
which pervade their whole sensitive life. They are instruments for self-preservation of the individual and
the human race.
 The passions become destructive and evil only if their force is not controlled by reason. Since this is not
a remote possibility, but on contrary a common danger, man has the urgent duty to control and to check
his sensitive appetites.

Division of Passion
 A.) Antecedent- Antecedent passion precedes the action of the will and at the same time induces
the will to consent. This takes place in voluntary movement.
 Example: Delicious food served at table spontaneously causes appetite and the desire to eat it.
 Antecedent passion lessens voluntariness and sometimes precludes it completely. Passion lessens
voluntariness because it hinders the reflection of reason and weakens its attention. At the same
time it strongly urges actions and entices the will to consent. The more intensive concupiscence
is, the weaker are intellect and will.
 This explains why a very vehement passion can occasionally, though only seldom, overrule
intellect and will in such a way that free choice and a voluntary human act are excluded. If
passion diminishes voluntariness, it increases on the other hand the inclination of the will. In
other words, what is will through antecedent passion is willed with greater intensity but less
freely.
 B.) Consequent- Consequent concupiscence is willed, directly or indirectly. Hence the acts that
proceed from it have their proper voluntariness, direct or indirect.

 Fear- the shrinking back of the mind from danger.

 (more accurately) the agitation of mind, ranging from slight disturbance to actual panic, brought
about by the apprehension of impending evil.
 Fear does not destroy the voluntary character of an action; but it usually lessens its guilt as well
as its merit. According to the accepted principles of moral theology, no degree of fear, unless it
hampers the use of reason, destroys voluntariness and excuses from sin.

 Violence – physical force used as to injure, damage, or destroy/extreme roughness of action

 Violence or coactions is external force applied by a free cause for the purpose of compelling a
person to perform an act which is against his will.
 Violence cannot reach the will directly. It may force bodily action, but the will is not controlled
by the body. Still, the will has the command of bodily action, and since this command is limited
or destroyed for the moment by violence.

 Habit – a pattern of action that is acquired and has become so automatic that it is difficult to
break.
 Habit does not destroy voluntariness; and acts from habit are always voluntary, at least in cause,
as long as the habit is allowed to endure.
Module 4- Norms of Human Act
Norms of Human Act
 The norm which determines or measures the morality of human act is objectively the moral law
and subjectively a person’s conscience. Human acts are morally good if in agreement with these
norms and morally evil if in disagreement with them.
a) Conscience
b) Law

Conscience- – the practical judgment of reason upon an individual act as good and to be performed, or
as evil and to be avoided.
 Judgment of reason – it is reasoned conclusion. Although the term conscience is also used to
designate the act of reasoning out the right and wrong of a situation before choosing what to do,
it is more properly employed as in our definition to signify the judgment which is the conclusion
of that act of reasoning. Now, an act of reasoning requires a principle, or set of principles, from
which the process of reasoning proceeds.
 Practical judgment – this means that it has reference to something to be done, either the
performance of or omission of an act.
 It is a judgment that commands, forbids, allows, or advises, according as it declares and
individual act obligatory, prohibited, permissible, or prudent.

Three Phases of Conscience

 Antecedent- Before an action, conscience judges an act as good to be performed or evil and to
be omitted
 Decision- The moment to decide to do or not to do a certain act
 Consequent- After action, conscience is a judgment of approval or disapproval.

States of Conscience
 Correct or true - a judgment in accordance with fact, that is, when it judges as good that which
is really good, and as evil which is really evil, then it is correct or true
 Erroneous – conscience that is not true
 Invincibly erroneous or inculpable erroneous – conscience that is erroneous without the
knowledge or fault of the agent
 Culpably erroneous – erroneous through the agent’s fault
 Certain conscience – an altogether firm and assured judgment, in which the agent has no fear
whatever of being in error
 Doubtful/dubious – conscience that is not certain, that is hesitant, that is a judgment in which
the agent is aware of the possible error

Law- The basis of rights and duties - all the rules of conduct established and enforced by the authority
of a community state or the other group.

Three Types of Law:

1) Eternal/Divine Law
2) Natural Law
3) Human Positive Law

\
  Eternal/Divine Law
 it is God’s eternal plan and providence for the universe
 (St. Augustine) the divine reason and will commanding that the natural order of things be
preserved and forbidding that it be disturbed
 Natural Law
 It is the eternal law as known to man by his reason. It is man’s participation in the eternal
law.

The Decalogue
 I am the Lord your God; you shall not have strange gods before me.
 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
 Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day
 Honor you father and your mother.
 You shall not kill.
 You shall not commit adultery.
 You shall not steal.
 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
 You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

 Human positive law

 an ordinance of reason, derived from the natural law, promulgated for the common good
by human agency in charge for the society
 ordinance of reason – an active and authoritative ordering or directing of human acts in
reference to an end to be attained by them
 reasonable – means that it must be just, honest, possible of fulfillment, useful and in
some degree permanent
 promulgated – made known to those bound by it, the subjects

 Human positive law is territorial and public; it binds only its subject while they are in the place in
which the law applies.
 Two Types of Human Positive Law
a. Ecclesiastical Law – law enacted by the church
b. Civil Law – human law enacted by the state

Essential Qualities of True Law

 it must be just
 honest
 possible
 useful
 relatively permanent
 promulgated
 Rights and Duties
Rights = a moral power residing in a person - a power which all others are bound to respect - of doing,
possessing, or requiring something

Eternal law – ultimate basis of right

Division of Right:
 Natural Right and Positive Right
 Right of property and right of jurisdiction
 Alienable and Inalienable

Natural Right and Positive Right

 Natural Law – basis of natural right
Example: the right to preserve one’s life
 Positive Law – basis of positive right
Examples of Positive Right:
Ecclesiastical right – Example: the right established by canon law
 Civil right – Example: the right to vote

Right of property and right of jurisdiction

 Right of property (possession) – the power one has of disposing of a thing possessed according
to one’s own wish or benefit
 Two Types of Right of Property:
 Right IN Property – when goods are actually in hand
Example: my right to my cell phone
 Right TO Property – when goods are owned but not in hand
Example: my right to cell phone bought and paid for, but not yet delivered to me

Right of jurisdiction
 Right of Jurisdiction – is the lawful power of a duly constituted superior to make laws and to
govern his subject.
 Alienable and Inalienable
 Alienable – when its subject may lawfully cede or renounce it
Example: I may renounce my property by giving it away
 Inalienable – when its subject is not free to renounce, but must retain it
Example: My right to life

Juridical and Non-Juridical (moral right)

 Juridical – when it is a legal right, a right strictly enjoined by law (natural/positive)
Example: My right to the book I bought 3 for P100
 Non-Juridical (moral right) - when it is founded on virtue other than justice, such as a right is
founded upon the virtue of charity
Example: the right of a benefactor to gratitude the right of a poor man to alms
Properties of Rights
 Coaction – the power which right enjoys of forcefully preventing its violation, and exacting
redress for unjust violation.
 Limitation – the terminus of right beyond which it cannot be exercised without violating the
right of another.
 Collision – the apparent conflict of two rights in such wise that one cannot be exercised without
violation of the other.

Subject of right
 The subject of right is the human person who possesses right.
 Do the animals have rights? Cruel treatment of animals is immoral not because it violates any
right that they may have, but it because it outrages reason. Cruelty is not in accord with the
dictates of reason.

Duties Defined
 Duty = (objectively) is anything one is obliged to do or to omit
= (subjectively) a moral obligation incumbent upon a person of doing or omitting something
 Divisions of Duty
o Natural and Positive
o Affirmative and Negative
o Perfect/Juridical and Imperfect/Non-Juridical, Moral

Natural and positive

 Natural Duty – a duty imposed by the natural law
Example: duty of preserving one’s life
 Positive Duty – a duty which comes from positive law
Example: (ecclesiastical) – celibacy - for priest not to marry

Affirmative and Negative

 Affirmative – a duty which requires the performance of an act
Example: Honor your father and your mother
 Negative – a duty which requires the omission or avoidance of something
Example: You shall not kill

Perfect/Juridical and Imperfect/Non-Juridical, Moral

 Perfect/Juridical – a duty which in strict justice, and so corresponds to a perfect right
Example: to give the just wage to the employees by the employer
 Imperfect/non-juridical, moral – a duty which does not oblige according to justice but
according to charity or some other virtues.