1: Ethics, and Its Key Concepts

Learning Objectives

With the completion of this self-learning module, you should be able to:

1.Illustrate knowledge of what ethics is and its importance

2.Recall rules you have to follow and why you need to follow them

3.Differentiate moral from non-moral standards

4.Recall a moral experience and detect the moral dilemma present in it.

5.Define why only human beings are moral

A.Ethics: Its Definition And Importance

Have you experience a situation where it requires that you have to choose on what to do and part of
it is to decide which of the choices is right or wrong? Can you recall an experience where you really felt
bad and sad because you hurt somebody because of your wrong action? Did you ever wonder why
people need to be good and avoid what is evil? Did it ever come to your mind why we need to be
pleasing in our action?

There are many people who ask why study ethics? Why be moral? Webster’s dictionary has a
number of definitions for moral including: -of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior -
conforming to a standard of right behavior. This is an important question for a course on ethics -is being
moral important to you, why (or why not)? Most people think doing well in life is associated with being
“good”. (philonotes.com)

For example: do you think a person who gains money dishonestly is a success? Is a politician who beats
his wife and children a success? Is Mother Theresa a success -she had very few of the things society
commonly associates with doing well. Most people like fairness, justice, truthfulness, compassion in
society. Ethics help give direction to societies and people who think they cannot flourish without some
form of morality. Morality is said to be breaking down in society today -juvenile crime, drug abuse,
alcoholism, teenage pregnancies, crime rates -all seem to indicate that the moral fabric of society
is breaking down. Moral questions are at the heart of life’s vital issues -including those affected by the
actions above. “Morality is primarily concerned with the questions of right and wrong, the ability to
distinguish between the two, and the justification of the distinction. (phlionotes.com)

Montemayor (1994) mentions in his introduction on his book Ethics: The Philosophy of Life that Ethics is
the philosophy of life and that it delves into the deepest whys and wherefore of human existence, men’s
actions, problems and destiny.

He further mentions that to live well and happy, we must know what we are living for. He says this is
taught by Ethics that investigates the meaning and purpose of human life. He mentions that according
toSocrates the unexamined life is not worth living for man.
Montemayor (1994) also states that Plato one of the greatest philosophers of all times
proclaimed Ethics as the supreme science, the highest in the hierarchy of human values, as it is
Ethics that is concerned with the attainment of life’s greatest Good and Goal –Happiness.

Definitions of Ethics

The book of Montemayor (1994) provides the following definitions of Ethics:

1.Ethics is the practical science of the morality of human actions.

2.Ethics is the science of human acts with reference to right and wrong

3.Ethics is the scientific inquiry into the principles of morality.

4.Ethics is the study of the rectitude of human conduct

5.Ethics is the human conduct from the standpoint of morality.

6.Ethics is the science which lays down the principles of right living

7.Ethics is the practical science that guides us in our actions that we may live rightly and well.

8.Ethics is normative and practical science, based on reason, which studies human conduct and
provides norm for its natural integrity and honesty.

9.According to Socrates, ethics is the investigation of life.