Ethics :

■ Study of Morality
■ Stands to What there is reason to do.
■ Dealing with human actions and reason of actions.
■ Concerned with character.
■ Ethos in greek means Character or Manners.
■ Also Called Moral Philosophy because it concerned with norms of
human conduct,
■ Concerned a normative study of human actions.

Morality :
■ Rightness and Wrongness of human conduct / action.
■ Speaks about the system behavior in regards to standards of right and
wrong behavior.

Norms :
■ Rule or standard of behaviour shared by members of a social group.
Norms may be internalized—i.e., incorporated within the individual so that
there is conformity without external rewards or punishments, or they may
be enforced by positive or negative sanctions from without.

Importance of rules to social beings

1. Protect social being by regulating behavior

Build boundaries of limit on behavior
To impose the consequence on those who violate it.
To avoid negative consequences.

2. Help to guarantee each person certain rights and freedom

Each person guaranteed certain rights as the government is limited in its power.
The division of power and checks and balances further Protect the individual
Liberty

3. Produce sense of justice among social beings

In order to keep the string from dominating the weak.
Preventing control of the power of the system.
4. Essential for a healthy economic system
To ensure the safety of the product. Employee, and quality of product.
Copyright and patents help protect people’s intellectual property.

Moral and Non- Moral Standards

“ Not all rules are moral rules, That is, not all standards are moral standards.
 Morality Standards :
Concerned relating to human behavior, especially between good and bad
behavior.

Character of Moral Standard

● Serious wrongs and significant benefits.
Matters which can seriously impact if it causes injuries or
benefits for human beings.
Circumstances :

● Ought to be preferred to other values.

A person has a moral obligation to do somethings,
Circumstances :

● Not established by Authority figures.

Not invented by authoritative bodies
The adequacy of making laws/ rules of reason that are
considered to support and justify them.
❖ Consideration of lawful agreement between
parties or beneficiary in equal measure of
reasonably proportional to the value given
by.
● Trait of universalizability
Everyone should live up to moral standards.
Universalizability is an extension of the principle
of consistency, that is, one ought to be consistent about one’s
value judgments.
Circumstances:
❖ It cannot be right for A to treat B in a
manner in which it would be wrong for B to
treat A.
❖

● Base on Impartial consideration

Does not evaluate standards on the basis of the interest of
a certain person/ group but one that goes beyond personal
interest to a universal standpoint in which each person's interests
are impartially counted as equal.
Circumstances
❖
● Associated with special emotions and vocabulary
It is used to propose or advise action retroactively.
Used to evaluate behavior, To assign praise or blame
 To produce feelings of satisfaction and guilt.
Circumstances :
A person lies even to fulfill a special
purpose, he/she still violates moral standards, then he/she will feel guilt or ashamed by his/her
action afterwards.
Non - Moral Standards
Unrelated to moral and ethical considerations.
Ex: Etiquette, Fashion Standard, Rules in games, and House Rules.
Religious rules, Traditions, And legal Statutes are non-principles.

Circumstances :

Dilemma and Moral Dilemma

“ Not all dilemmas are moral dilemmas “

Dilemma
A situation in which a tough choice has to be made between two or more
choices.
Moral Dilemma
Also called Ethical Dilemma
Involves conflicts between moral requirements.
Key features of Moral Dilemma
Required to do each of two or more actions
Can do each of the actions, but cannot do both or all of actions.
“ We are condemned to moral failure; no matter what we do, we will do something wrong, or fail
to do something that he ought to do. “

3 levels of Moral Dilemmas

● Personal Dilemmas
Are those experienced and resolved on the personal level
Circumstances
❖ Conflict promises
➢ Choice between the life of child and
mother’s child
■ The lawyer or prosecutor needed to
choice between using a Suppressed
evidence against to other parties to
stress on the case or Accepting the
scheme failure in court by
representing the natural evidence

● Organizational Dilemmas
Case encountered and resolved by social organization
 Circumstances
❖ Medical Institutions : Withdraws life support from
dying patient
➢ Human life should not be deliberately
shortened and Upreventable pain should
not be tolerated
❖ Financial Institution : Investment Option
➢ Should invest in South Global Members or
on the North Global Members.

● Structural Dilemmas
Cases involving networks of institutions and operative theoretical
paradigms.
Circumstances :
❖ Health Organization
➢ It intends to ensure that every
beneficiary shall receive affordable
and quality health benefits

Only human being can be ethical

● Rational, Autonomous, and self-conscious.
★ Rational
○ Based on Logic and/ or Reason
★ Autonomous
○ Concerns a person's desires in the quest for the good life, in the
context of the person's values, commitments, relationships, and
communities
○ Free
★ Self-conscious
○ Self awareness to one oneself
■ Gives as a power to decide for outcomes, as become a
better decision maker.
■ It can give as an emotion towards a circumstance or our
own behavior.
● Can act morally or immorally
★ Act morally
○ Required to sacrifice their interest for the sake of others.
★ Act immorally
○ Pursue their good at the expense of others.

● Part of Moral Community

➔ Essential of social relations that exist among beings.
➔ Only humans can communicate in truly meaningful ways.
 ➔ These kinds of relationships require members of such relations to extend real
concern to other members of these relationships in order for the relationships to
continue.
➔ Constitute our lives and the values contained in them.
➔ Human beings have that no animal has is the ability to participate in collective
cognition.
● Freedom as Foundation of morality
○ These principles in ethics apply even when the motives are pure.
● Minimum Requirements for morality: Reason and Impartiality

❖ Reason
➢ Requirement for morality entails that human feelings may be important in
ethical decisions
➢ . But ought to be guided by reason.
➢ Reasoning help us to evaluate our feelings and intuitions about moral
cases are correct and defensible.
❖ Impartially
➢ Involves the idea that each individual's interest and point of view are
equally important
➢ The idea of ethical standards is equally applied for everyone, not for a
certain person/ group.

Four kinds of Law:

● eternal law;
○ God perfect plan, unknowable by human
○ “Ultimate norm of Morality”
○ It is the plan of God in creating the universe and assigning to each
creature a specific nature.

○ “ The divine wisdom directing all actions and movement “

St. Thomas Aquinas

○ “ The divine reason or will of God commanding the natural order of things
be preserved and forbidding that it be disturbed”
St. Augustine

● natural law;
○ Universal
■ Human nature shared by all men
○ Its Obligatory
 ■ Because the tendencies of our human nature are that laws of our
desires and actuations which we cannot ignore without dire
consequences.
○ It is Recognizable
○ Its is immutable and unchangeable
○ “ Remote Norm of morality “
○ It reflects what the thing is in accordance with its nature.
○ It also refers to the operational tendencies of human nature.
○ “ Everything has been made with a specific nature and a purpose “
St thomas Aquinas

● human law;
■ the interpretation of natural law
■ that is, that which is promulgated by human beings
■ very human law has just so much of the nature of law as is derived
from the law of nature.
● Divine Positive Law;
○ Are those made known to men by God Like the “ Decalogue “ ( Ten
commandments ) given by Moses.
○ We also call them Moral Laws because they are concerned with Moral
Acts.
○ Violation of these Laws constitutes a SIN

Conscience
● It must be informed and moral judgment enlightened.
● A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful.
● “ it formulates its judgements according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed
by wisdom of the creator ( CCC 1783 )
● The education of conscience awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the
interior law recognized by the conscience.
● The education of conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart ( CCC
1784 )
● The most secret core and sanctuary of Man ( GS 16 )
● There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.
● The Person’s whole commitment to values and judgment one must take in the lights of
that commitment to apply those values.
● A judgment of the reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of
concrete act ( CCC 1976 )

Dimension of Conscience
1. Synderesis
The basic tendency or capacity within to know and to do good
2. Moral Science
 ○ It is the force of conscience
○ It empowered us to reach out to the objective moral values in each specific
situation in order to discover the right thing to do.
3. Conscience
The specific judgment of the good.
I must do it in a particular situation.

8 Types of Conscience

● Correct Conscience
○ Judge what is good as good and what is evil as evil
■ Stealing
■ Paying debts

● Erroneous / False Conscience

○ Judges incorrectly that what is good is evil and what is evil is good.
○ Error In Conscience comes from:
■ Mistake in Inferential Thinking
■ Ignorance of the law
■ Ignorance of the fact and other circumstances
■ Ignorance of future consequences
○ Inculpable Conscience
■ Error is not willfully intended
○ Culpable Conscience
■ Error due to neglect or malice
● Neglect
○ Fail to care for properly
● Malice
○ Desire to do an evil

● Certain Conscience
○ Subjective certainty of legality of particular actions to be done or to be omitted (
lawfulness or unlawfulness of a certain fact.
○ It is possible however to be sure of something good when in fact is just the
opposite and vice versa.
○ It is the kind of conscience that moralists are always followed by man.

● Doubtful Conscience
○ Happens when a person is not certain about a moral judgment.
○ Vacillating conscience, unable to form a definite judgment on certain action.
○ Settling its doubts before an action is performed
○ It is advised that this kind of conscience should not be followed unless the moral
agent has resolve the doubt.
● Scrupulous Conscience
○ Rigorous Conscience
○ Is one which see there is wrong or none.
○ Meticulous and wants incontrovertible proofs before it acts.
○ It is a conscience which is extremely austere; It is always scare to commit evil.

● Lax Conscience
○ It is the Opposite of Scrupulous conscience
○ Refuse to bothered about the distraction of good and evil.
○ It rushes on and is quick to justify itself.
■ “ Bahala na “
○ It is the kind of conscience which fails to see wrong / where there is wrong.

● Consequent Conscience
○ A judgment after an act is done
○ It bears the following effect:
■ Inner peace
○ Inner peace is a deep state of calm, acceptance, and
contentment. It means being in harmony with yourself
■ Remorse
● a deep regret coming from a sense of guilt for past wrongs

● Antecedent Conscience
○ A judgment before an action is done
○ Its main functions are command, to advise, to forbid and to permit.