UNDERSTANDING THE PERSON ○ standards we call the law by which we

● Biological judge something as legal or illegal

● Psychological ○ standards of aesthetics by which we
● Sociocultural judge art as good or rubbish
○ Religious
○ Multicultural AMORAL
○ Socioeconomic ● Amoral, or "without morals," is defined as "having
○ Political or demonstrating no care about whether an action
○ Ethical is morally right or wrong.“
○ Media ● Amoral means "being neither moral nor immoral,"
● A morally indifferent person doesn’t have a
conscience to act against it.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF ETHICS ● Here are some example:
○ Infants could be said to be amoral since
ETHICS they have not yet developed the brain
● Ethics is derived from a Greek word “Ethikos” capacity to understand right and wrong.
which means character. ○ Some extreme sociopaths are also
● Ethics is a branch of philosophy that evaluates the amoral, since they lack a conscience as
principles of conduct of an individual or group. a result of a cognitive disorder.
● It works as a guiding principle to decide what is
good or bad. They are the standards which govern IMMORAL
the life of a person. ● Immoral is something that is evil or wrong. It
● Ethics defines the character of an individual. means failing to adhere to moral standards.
● Ethics are related to right and wrong conduct of an ● Immoral describes a person or behavior that
individual in a particular situation. conscientiously goes against accepted
● Some ethical principles are: morals—that is, the proper ideas and beliefs about
○ Truthfulness how to behave in a way that is considered right
○ Honesty and good by the majority of people.
○ Loyalty ● A person who does an immoral acts has acted
○ Respect against his/her conscience/moral code.
○ Fairness ● Here are some examples:
○ Integrity ○ Stealing someone’s car
○ Cheating on one’s spouse
MORAL ○ Killing a person
● Morals is derived from a Greek word “Mos” which
means custom. UNMORAL
● Morals are the social, cultural and religious beliefs ● Unmoral refers to those having no moral
or values of an individual or group which tells us perception.
what is right or wrong. ● It refers to something to which right and wrong are
● Morality is not fixed because it describes the not applicable, such as animals, forces of nature,
particular values of a specific group at a specific and machines.
point in time. ● Example: Typhoons/tropical storms are unmoral,
● Some moral principles are: since they are formed by unconscious natural
○ Do not cheat processes that exist outside the bounds of
○ Be loyal morality.
○ Be patient
○ Always tell the truth
○ Be generous CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS
a. Moral standards involve serious wrongs or
NON-MORAL significant benefits.
● Non-moral standards refer to standards by which ● It means moral standards deal with
we judge what is good or bad and right or wrong in matters which can seriously impact, that
a non-moral way. is, injure or benefit human beings.
● Non-moral standards refer to rules that are b. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other
unrelated to moral or ethical considerations. Either values.
these standards are not necessarily linked to ● It means moral standards have
morality or by nature lack ethical sense. overriding character or hegemonic
● Examples of non-moral standards are: authority.
○ standards of etiquette by which we ● If a moral standard states that a person
judge manners as good or bad has the moral obligation to do
something, then he/she is supposed to
 do that even if it conflicts with other
non-moral standards, and even with
self-interest.
c. Moral standards are not established by authority
figures.
● Moral standards are not invented,
formed, or generated by authoritative
bodies or persons such as nations’
legislative bodies.
● In principle therefore, moral standards
cannot be changed nor nullified by the
decisions of a particular authoritative
body.
● One thing about these standards,
nonetheless, is that its validity lies on
the soundness or adequacy of the
reasons that are considered to support
and justify them.
● Ideally instead, these values ought to be
considered in the process of making
laws
d. Moral standards have the trait of universality.
● it means that everyone should live up to
moral standards.
● To be more precise, however, it requires
that moral principles be applicable to
everyone who is in a circumstance that
is relevantly comparable.
● This characteristic is exemplified in the
Golden Rule, “Do unto others what you
would them do unto you (if you were in
their shoes)” and in the formal Principle
of Justice, “It cannot be right for A to
treat B in a manner in which it would be
wrong for B to treat A, merely on the
ground that they are two different
individuals, and without there being any
difference between the natures or
circumstances of the two which can be
stated as a reasonable ground for
difference of treatment.”
● It is an extension of the Principle of
Consistency, that is, one ought to be
consistent about one’s value judgments.
e. Moral standards are based on impartial
considerations.
● It means, moral standard does not
evaluate standards on the basis of the
interests of a certain person or group,
but one that goes beyond personal
interests to a universal standpoint in
which each person’s interests are
impartially counted as equal.
● Impartiality is usually depicted as being
free of bias or prejudice.
● Impartiality in morality requires that we
give equal and/or adequate
consideration to the interests of all
concerned parties.
f. Moral standards are associated with special
emotions and vocabulary.
● Prescriptivity indicates the practical or
action-guiding nature of moral
standards.
○ These moral standards are
generally put forth as
injunctions or imperatives
(such as, ‘Do not kill,’ ‘Do no
unnecessary harm,’ and ‘Love
your neighbor’).
○ These principles are proposed
for use, to advise, and to
influence action.
● Retroactively, this feature is used to
evaluate behavior, to assign praise and
blame, and to produce feelings of
satisfaction or of guilt.
HUMAN BEING A MORAL AGENT
● Instincts are what functions to animals
○ such as a pack of wolves that need to
survive, suicide attacks of worker
honeybees that protect the colony from
intruders, and when chimpanzees
scratch each other’s back as an
example of altruism (Thrivers,1971).
● Rationality is a concept of decision-making
○ when people act on their best to attain
their needs, preferences, priorities, and
principles (IRMA, 2015). We are free to
act.
Thus:
● Only human beings are rational, autonomous, and
self-conscious.
● Only human beings can act morally or immorally.
● Only human beings are part of the moral
community
● Only beings capable of ethics because of free
moral judgment.
DEVELOP MORAL CHARACTER
● The term “character” is derived from the Greek
word “charakter”, which was initially used as a
mark impressed upon a coin.
● Moral character refers to the existence or lack of
virtues such as integrity, courage, strength,
honesty, and loyalty.
● A certain person has a good moral character
means that he/she is a good person and good
citizen with a sound moral compass.
● The word character gives a distinct mark by which
one thing was distinguished from others, and then
primarily to mean the collection of qualities that
distinguish one person from another.
 ● The moral character traits that constitute a
person’s moral character are characteristically
understood as behavioral and affective
dispositions.
● Moral character, in philosophical sense, refers to
having or lacking moral virtue.
● If one lacks virtue, he/she may have any of the
moral vices, or he/she may be marked by
condition somewhere in between virtue and vice,
such as continence or incontinence.
● Moral character traits are those dispositions of
character for which a person is deserving of a
positive reactive attitude, such as praise or
gratitude, is a virtue.
● On the other hand, a vice is a moral character trait
for which the agent is deserving of negative
reactive attitude, such as resentment or blame.
● A good moral character is practically a disposition
to do virtuous acts.
● Oppositely, a bad moral character is, in effect, a
disposition to do malicious deeds.
MORAL
● has to do with excellence in the performance of
decisions relating to moral and practical activity
● excellence of character
● it arises from habitual practice (ethos)
MORAL VIRTUE - A HABIT FOR HUMAN BEING
● All persons have the latent potentiality to develop
moral virtues, only if they habitually do excellent
deeds.
● The role of practice and habit is necessary in
developing moral virtue.
● It is only by practice that we come to know that we
truly know how to do something
● we become morally virtuous by doing morally
virtuous.
● we become just by doing just acts.
● We become temperate by doing temperate acts
● we become courageous by doing courageous
acts.

VIRTUE - A HABIT FOR HUMAN BEING

● Virtue- “arete” in Greek means excellence.
Excellence in Greek thought is how a thing/being
fulfills its function in accordance with its nature
○ A knife is considered excellent if it
cuts/slices sharply , durably and
properly. Fulfilling its essence as a tool
for cutting and slicing.
○ Thus, it can be called a “virtuous knife”
● Virtue is a state of character which makes a
person good and capable of fulfilling his/her end
(telos)
● as character, it emphasizes a certain consistency
or constancy in facing different situations (it is a
mean between excess and deficiencies-mesotes)
● is a result of one’s character that is the result of
choice (governed by prudence or practical
wisdom-phronesis)
● Virtuous –means to exhibit one’s capacity to fulfill
one’s essence or purpose in such a way that one’s
potentiality as a particular being may be said to be
actualized in the most excellent way.
○ A horse who consistently wins in a race
is a virtuous horse.
○ A dog who consistently bark at night
because there is an intruder is virtuous
dog.

A VIRTUOUS HUMAN BEING

INTELLECTUAL
● has to do in harnessing reason’s
contemplative/reflective activity for arriving at
knowledge.
● its existence and development arises from
teaching/instruction
● excellence of thought