The Foundations of Ethics

What is Ethics?
- is defined as the study of the right and good, i.e., right conduct in the affairs of human life, and
the pursuit of the good life.

Ethics is moral philosophy: the philosophical study of moral values. It embraces four main interests: (1)
clarification of important moral ideas and issues; (2) critical assessment of moral claims by testing their
truth, justification, and adequacy through argument; (3) development of a comprehensive perspective
on moral ideas and principles by uncovering their interconnections and their roles in our lives; and (4)
moral guidance, sometimes via principles, but more often through improved practical judgment about
what we should aspire to be, what forms of relationships are desirable, and how we should seek those
ends.

What is Morality?
- gives ethics a particular perspective of what to study about – that is the rectitude of whether an
act is good or bad, right and wrong.

Morality is a particular system of values and principles of conduct, especially one held by a specified
person or society. Morality is complex, for several reasons: factual uncertainty, vagueness, conflicting
reasons, and conflicting perspectives.

*Factual uncertainty means that we are often unsure of the facts relevant to applying moral values.
*Vagueness surrounds many moral principles.
*Conflicting reasons arise because morality involves many different reasons. These reasons often come
into conflict, creating moral dilemmas. Moral dilemmas are situations in which two or more reasons
point to different courses of action and it is not altogether obvious which reasons should take
precedence.
*Conflicting perspectives arise in part because it is often permissible to emphasize specific moral reasons
differently in our conduct.

Therefore ethics is the “word”, while morality is the “flesh”. Morality is here aptly understood as the
application (praxis) of ethics (theory).

Why study Ethics?

- moral philosophy is the love and pursuit of wisdom in moral matters.
- strictly speaking, then, moral philosophy cannot be taught because the love of wisdom cannot
be imparted in the way in which facts about the world can be imparted. But the love of moral
wisdom can be encouraged in everyone and can be nurtured in those who actively seek to
understand morality and its place in human life.
Branches of Philosophical Ethics

Philosophical Ethics

General Ethics (Normative Ethics) Applied Ethics

develops and tests general theories focuses on practical moral

about morality needs

Metaethics is the most abstract area of moral philosophy. It doesn’t ask what acts, or what kind of acts
are good or bad, right or wrong; rather, it asks about the nature of goodness and badness, what it is to
be morally right or wrong. e.g.  "How can we know what is right and wrong?"
(https://moralphilosophy.info/metaethics/)

Material Object of Ethics

- the subject matter of Ethics as a particular field of study is human conduct or the human act.
Human conduct, which the science of ethics mainly deals with, refers to the act that is done by a
human person which he/she is conscious of, which proceeds from one’s deliberation and
freewill, and thus, for which one is held morally responsible.

Formal Object of Ethics

- the formal object of any science is the special or particular way and viewpoint that a science
employs in dealing with its specific subject matter. The formal object of ethics in investigation is
the morality or the moral rectitude of human act or human conduct. Ethics deals with the
human person’s right conduct, whether his/her actions conform to right reason which is the
immediate norm of morality. Morality is that quality in the human act by which it is judged to be
good or bad, right and wrong, moral or immoral. Ethics does this through the use of the natural
light of human reason.

Characteristics of Moral Principles:

1. Prescriptivity – this refer to the practical, or action-guiding nature or morality. Moral principles
are intended to direct people on what to do and to avoid. It tries to influence the way we act in
accordance with certain rules of conduct.
2. Impartiality – this means that an ethical or moral rule should be neutral when it comes to the
question as to who will be its recipient. Moral standards are supposed to apply to everyone
regardless of one’s status and situation in life. Moral rules should not advance the interest of a
few, or worse, of one person alone.
3. Overridingness – moral standards must have hegemonic authority. This means that they should
tower over all other standards or norms of evaluation, whatever they may be. They are not the
only standards –where human actions can be judged or assessed - but they should take
precedence over others.
4. Autonomous from Arbitrary Authority – moral standards should stand on their own logic
independent of the arbitrariness of the majority. We can always challenge on logical grounds
the tyranny of numbers and the tide of public opinion on matters of right and wrong.
 5. Publicity – this simply means that moral rules and principles must be made public if they are to
serve as guidelines to our actions. The obvious reason for this is that principles are made and
promulgated to render advice as well as assign praise or blame to certain behaviors.
6. Practicability – moral rules should not be impossible to achieve or else they are not for men but
for angels.

Untenability of Moral Skepticism and Relativism

*Theory of Skepticism – from a Greek word “skepsis”, which means examination, and inquiry. a
theory that a certain knowledge is impossible. This theory has for its basic tenet: Everything is to be
doubted; nothing can be held for certain. Moral Skepticism would doubt the existence and validity of all
moral standards.

*Relativism - as the thesis that all points of view are equally valid. It makes all truths variable,
i.e., dependent on time, place, age, race, financial status; so that there is one truth for the old, another
truth for the young; one for the rich, another for the poor. Applied to morals, this theory becomes moral
relativism according to which morality is never fixed or constant but continuously changing. Morality,
like truth, depends on factors which vary with time, place, a person’s status, etc., according to the moral
relativist. [In ethics, this amounts to saying that all moralities are equally good.]

The fundamental principles of morality are the same and invariable. It is the interpretation of
some of these principles that sometimes varies among different people. But this does not show that
morality in itself is variable.

Relativism is not only hostile to ethics, it is destructive of all knowledge, all science, all
philosophy, which stand for the attainment of objective truth.

PHILOSOPHICAL THEORIES

*Ethical Subjectivism
morality is merely about feelings, attitudes, and beliefs, none of which are objectively justified
or any better than others.

*Ethical Egoism
agree that morality is about reasons, but they reduce all sound moral reasons to one dictum:
promote one’s own good.
An act is right when it promotes one’s own best interests, that is, what is good for oneself overall and in
the long run.

Ethical Altruism is an ethical doctrine that holds that individuals have a moral obligation to help,
serve or benefit others, if necessary at the sacrifice of self interest.
(https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_altruism.html)

*Psychological Egoism
portrays all people as motivated solely by what they believe to be good for themselves in some
respect. (a moral action is one that is in your best interest, so although people don't always act in their
self-interest, they should.)
Relation of Ethics With Other Sciences

1.Ethics and Logic. - Logic is the science of right thinking. Ethics is the science of right living. But living
presupposes right thinking. Thinking follows doing. To think right often means to do
right, as knowledge of right leads to the doing of right. Both ethics and logic aim at
rectitude: the former aims at right doing; the latter, at right thinking.
2.Ethics and Psychology – both deal with the study of man, human nature, and human behaviour.
There is, however, a basic difference. Psychology is not interested in the morality
of human behaviour, unlike ethics. Psychology studies how man behaves; ethics
studies how man ought to behave.
3.Ethics and Sociology – Sociology deals with human relations in a society, but human relations are
based on proper order and proper order comes only with the proper observance
of moral laws and principles which regulate the actions of men in a community.
4.Ethics and Economics – Economics deals with such topics as wages, labor, production and distribution
of wealth. But what will determine the relations between employer and
employee. In order that peace and happiness will prevail in community, the
actions of man must be governed by the invariable principles of morality.

Morality and the Other Phases of Human Life

1. Ethics and Education – education develops the whole man: his moral, intellectual and physical
capacities. Since man, however, is primarily a rational moral being (endowed with reason and
will, which ranks him above brute creation), the primary objective of education should be the
development of these powers in man, which consists his true perfection.
2. Morality and Law – morality and law are intimately related. Right and wrong, good and bad in
human actions presuppose a law or rule of conduct. Furthermore, the laws of the state are
restatements, specifications or interpretations of an anterior natural moral law.
However, there is a striking difference between what is moral and what is legal. The legal only
covers the external acts of man; the moral governs even the internal acts of man, such as the
volitional and intentional activities of the will and mind; i.e., man’s thoughts and desires.
3. Ethics and Art – ethics stands for moral goodness; art, for beauty. But as transcendentals the
beautiful and the good are one. Evil always implies ugliness or defect and the good is always
beautiful since it is the very object of desire and therefore, like beauty, pleases when perceived.
4. Ethics and Politics – man owes allegiance of the State. Politics aims at good government for the
temporal welfare of the citizens. But between the temporal and the spiritual and eternal welfare
there is no conflict.
Politics has often become very dirty and the reason is precisely because it is divorced from
ethics.
5. Ethics and Religion – we have the closest relation between these two phases of human activity:
religion and ethics. This is evident from the following considerations:
a. Both of these are based on the same postulates:
1. The existence of a Creator
2. Freedom of the will in man
3. Immorality
b. Both have the same end – the attainment of man’s supreme purpose or man’s ultimate end.
c. Both prescribe the same means for attaining the goal of man: right living.
 REFERENCES

 Bulaong, Oscar, Etc., (2018). Ethics: Foundation of Moral Valuation, Manila,

Rex Book Store
 Fernandez, A., Grumo, E., & Reambonanza, E.,( 2012). Ethics: Basic Concepts,
Theories and Cases, MS Lopez Printing & Publishing
 Holmes, Robert. (2003). Basic Moral Philosophy, Thomson Wadsworth
 Martin, Mike. (2001). Everyday Morality: An Introduction, Thomson
Wadsworth
 Montemayor, Felix. , (1994).Ethics: The Philosophy of Life, National
Bookstore
 P Sahakian, W., & Sahakian, M.L., (1970). Realms of Philosophy, Schenkman
Publishing Company