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THESIS STATEMENTS
1. IT IS IMPORTANT TO DISTINGUISH MORAL AND NON-MORAL STANDARDS BECAUSE
SOME VALUES AND NORMS HAVE MORAL IMPLICATIONS AND SOME DON’T.

Moral Standards
• Involve significant injuries or benefits
• Promote the well-being
• Based on adequacy of reasons that justify the act
• Based on impartial considerations and should equally apply to all (fair and just)
• Preferred over other standards including self- interest
• Associated with special emotion such as guilt, shame or remorse

non-moral standards
• Standards by which our judgement has no moral implication
• Standards of etiquette
• Standards of law
• Standards of aesthetics
• Performance standards

2. MORAL DILEMMA IS A MORAL EXPERIENCE. IT HAS THREE LEVELS.

 Two actions that one can possibly choose

 There is a moral reason for choosing
 One cannot possibly choose all possible actions

Personal Moral DIlemma

• experieced and resolved in the personal level
Organizational moral DIlemma
• members of the organization are in involved in a moral conflict
• involves issues on corporate practices, policies relationship with workers and clients
Structural Moral Dilemma
• person or group of persons who holds a high position in society faces a morally conflicting
situation that will affect the entire society

3. ONLY HUMAN BEINGS CAN BE ETHICAL. FREEDOM IS THE FOUNDATION FOR MORAL
ACTS. IT IS COROLLARY WITH RESPONSIBILITY.

a. rational, autonomous and self-conscious

b. Only humans have the capacity for free moral judgement

Freedom is the foundation of morality, because morality involves making choices

Resposibility follows freedom -exercise of freedom is not without consequences

4. CULTURAL RELATIVISM HOLDS THAT THERE ARE NO MORAL UNIVERSAL

STANDARDS. THUS, MORALITY IS DEPENDENT ON WHAT THE SOCIETY APPROVES.
HOWEVER, THIS PREMISE POSES SOME OBJECTIONS.

 Different cultures have different moral codes.

 Therefore, there is no objective ‘truth’ in morality. Right and wrong are only matters of opinion,
and opinions vary from culture to culture.

Claims of cultural relativists

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1. Different societies have different moral codes.

2. The moral code of a society determines what is right or wrong within that society.
3. There are no moral truths that hold for all people at all times.
4. There are no moral universal standards.
5. The moral code of our own society has no special status; it is but one among many.
6. It is arrogant for us to judge other cultures. We should always be tolerant of them.

IF cultural relativism is true…

 We could no longer honestly say that the customs of other societies are morally inferior to our
own.
 We could no longer justifiably criticize the code of our own society
 The idea of moral progress is called into doubt.

Objections
 but some values are shared by all cultures.
 In order to criticize other cultures, however, we can appeal to broad principles.
 This is closely tied to what people believe to be right; however, the code and the people
can be in error.
 one moral code might be better or worse than others.
 We shouldn’t tolerate everything. Human societies have done terrible things, and we
can acknowledge moral progress.

5. SOME QUALITIES OF THE FILIPINO MORAL IDENTITY ARE RELIGIOUS INCLINATIONS,

PERCEPTION OF OTHERS, PAKIKISAMA AND UTANG NA LOOB.

Filipino moral character is a blend of mixture of difference races.

• Religious inclinations
Split level Christianity
Disparity between what we ought to do and what we are doing

 Perception of others (Hiya)

Filipinos are very aware of the opinions of others and what people think of them

 Utang na loob
Filipinos always recognize one's indebtedness

 Pakikisama means getting along with others to preserve a harmonious relationship

6. LAWRENCE KOHLBERG IDENTIFIED SIX STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT.

Heinz dilemma

• Stage 1 Punishment orientation

Heinz should not steal the medicine because he will consequently be put in prison which
will mean he is a bad person.

• Stage 2 Pleasure-seeking orientation

Heinz should steal the medicine because he will be much happier if he saves his wife,
even if he will have to serve a prison sentence.
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• Stage 3 Good boy/Good girl orientation

Heinz should steal the medicine because his wife expects it; he wants to be a good
husband.

• Stage 4 Authority orientation

Heinz should not steal the medicine because the law prohibits stealing, making it illegal.

 Stage 5 Social Contract

Heinz should steal the medicine because everyone has a right to choose life, regardless
of the law.

• Stage 6 Morality of Individual principles

guided by self-chosen universal ethical principles
Heinz should steal the medicine, because saving a human life is a more fundamental
value than the property rights of another person.

7. ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING REFERS TO THE PROCESS OF EVALUATING AND

CHOOSING AMONG ALTERNATIVES IN A MANNER CONSISTENT WITH ETHICAL
PRINCIPLES. IT INVOLVES SEVERAL STEPS.

In making ethical decisions, it is necessary to perceive and eliminate unethical options and
select the best ethical alternative. This can be done by following several steps ethical decision-
making.

The process of ethical decision making involves the following:

• Commitment: The desire to do the right thing regardless of the cost
• Consciousness: The awareness to act consistently and apply moral convictions to daily
behavior
• Competency: The ability to collect and evaluate information, develop alternatives, and foresee
potential consequences and risks

Good decisions are both ethical and effective.

1. State the Problem

2. Gather and assess relevant facts in the case
3. Identifying the stakeholders
4. Develop list of at least five options
5. Test options
6. Make a tentative choice
7. Make final choice

8. IN VIRTUE ETHICS, CHARACTER EXCELLENCE IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF

PERSONALITY THAT RESULTED IN THE APPLICATION OF VIRTUES HABITUALLY.

• virtues are good acts. intellectual virtue of wisdom helps us what particular virtue, among moral
virtues we need to apply under specific circumstance. For Aristotle, practice of virtues must be
in moderation, not too much neither too little. Thus in forming a virtues character one must
practice virtues habitually guided by the intellectual virtue of wisdom.
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9. KANTIAN ETHICS DICTATES THAT MORAL IMPERATIVES ARE ALWAYS CATEGORICAL

AND NOT HYPOTHETICAL.

• According to Kant, we need to look into our will, as either we possess the will that is good or will
that is bad. the only good without qualification is the good will
• will becomes good only when it is motivated by duty
• when we act from duty, we exhibit the good will.
• If a person does the right thing just because it pleases him, for Kant, he is not yet intrinsically
moral.
• To act morally is to act from no other motive than the motive of doing what is right.
• when a person acts out of duty, he is obedient to the categorical imperative
• For Kant, moral commands are always categorical and not hypothetical
• Categorical Imperative states that one is ought to do the moral law in the absence of conditions
since it is simply done out of duty not out of any condition.
• Categorical imperative has two formula, namely:
• Universalizability
• act only according to a maxim by which you can at the same time will that is shall become a
universal law”
• . Respect for person
• act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person
of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.
• Every person has intrinsic worth or dignity

10. UTILITARIANISM STATES THAT AN ACTION IS RIGHT SO LONG AS IT PROMOTES THE

GREATEST HAPPINESS OF THE GREATEST NUMBER.

11. RAWLS PROPOSES JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS AS AN ETHICAL FRAMEWORK. RAWLS

SPEAKS OF FAIRNESS IN TERMS OF PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY AND PRINCIPLE OF
DIFFERENCE.

• justice should be distributed that would yield fairness for those who have more and those who
have less
• fairness refers not to equality but as equity

• Principle of equality
• 1st: Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties
compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for others.

• Principle of difference
• 2nd: Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) reasonably
expected to be to everyone’s advantage, and (b) attached to positions and offices open to all.
• inequalities should benefit the least advantaged members of the society, and that opportunities
be given through employments

12. THE GOAL OF EVERY ECONOMIC GROWTH IS TO INCREASE THE PRODUCTION OF

SCARCE RESOURCES SO THAT EVERY PEOPLE’S WELLBEING SHALL BE SUSTAINED.

• This happens only when the resources are well-distributed from the macro-level, which is the
(economic growth from regional, national and international level), down to micro-level, which is
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(economic growth from the personal level that addresses their aspirations, capabilities,
productivities and opportunities)
• “economic growth under inclusive growth must create opportunities for all people in different
levels of the societies, and the resources distributed to them accordingly”

• the role of taxation and government spending is of utmost importance

13. RELIGION PLAYS A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN ETHICS. HOWEVER, OUR

MODERN/GLOBALIZED SOCIETY POSES SOME CHALLENGES AGAINST IT.

• A religion is that aspect of culture defined as an organized system of beliefs supported by

dogmas and expressed through rituals and ceremonies and moral codes

• Religion fulfills in man the need for answers to questions about life’s purpose, sufferings and
destiny.
• right and wrong/good and bad are part of the teachings found in all religious beliefs
• Religion provides an explanation to moral accountability.

• Secularization is a cultural transition in which religious values are gradually replaced with
nonreligious values.
• It has long been believed that secularization is the inevitable by-product of Modernization, and
that the rise of modern science, pluralism, and consumerism is sure to usher in the decline of
religion.
• religious fanaticism and extremists' beliefs fail to respect universal moral values
• twists beliefs in ways that would make it appear that it is their god and their religion that inspires
them to decapitate, torture and murder those who believe differently.