1

CHAPTER 1: MORAL AND NON-MORAL STANDARDS

When classes were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you have been
staying at home most of the time. In the television, social media, or in print you see different
ways by which people display their behavior. Some might be appealing to you; others may
make you feel disgusted. But why such reactions? What makesyou happy when you like a
Facebook post; and sad when the post seems not right?
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. define ethics and morality and differentiate them;
2. Identify the nature and purpose of morality, and
3. differentiate between moral and non-moral standards.

Activity

Take a deep breath and say the word ―morality‖ in your mind three times. Then, on
a separate sheet of paper write a one-sentence description for each picture using your
understanding of the word morality as the guide of your judgment.

Source: www.cbc.ca/news/

Source:www.businesstalentsolutions.com/the-five-meeting-
etiquette-offenses/
Source: www.top5.com/reviews/best-travel-purses/

Analysis:Why do you think doing right actions is important?

Ethics
Ethics is the philosophical study of the nature of good life, of right action, and of duty
and obligation to do good. It is a sub-branch of philosophy under Axiology, a philosophy
concerned with human values. Hence, ethics is the philosophical study of morality we call
moral philosophy. It consists of universal beliefs or principles about what goodness is.
Ariola (2018) enumerated four ethical principles that can be found across cultures: a.) non-
killing principle; b.) non-lying principle; c.) non-stealing principle, and; d.) principle revolving
sexual conduct. Examples of issues that are ethical in nature includes honesty, freedom, and
love.
From this, we can say that ethics is theoretical as it tries to critically reflect on the
nature of goodness or of the ideals of what‘s moral and what‘s not. Standards that govern
professional practice are also ethical principles. Physicians and nurses are some of the
many health professionals who give frontline services in this COVID-19 pandemic. The
reason why they risk their lives in the name of their professions is because they are ethically-
bound to the life-giving oath that they have taken.
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Morality
Morality on the other hand is about the rules that govern the promotion of human
goodness so that individuals and the society may flourish (Pojman, 2005). Morality then
speaks of norms (Pojman, 2005) or rules of human conduct. If ethics is theoretical, morality
is practical and most of the time relative. What we believe to be moral in our culture may not
be for the other. Religion also influences our view
of morality. For example, Muslims consider eating
pork as haram or forbidden because the Holy
Quran says that pork is impure while for Catholics,
a fiesta is incomplete without lechon baboy.
Although law and morality should go hand-
in-hand, it is not always the case. Law is a system
of rules in a specific country enacted by its ruling
agency and once violated a corresponding
punishment is given. Cheating during a quiz may
be morally unacceptable but you can‘t be put to jail
just because you let your classmate copy your
answers. Hence, what is immoral may sometimes
be not illegal
Why
be ETHICS AND MORALITY
ethi
cal? Morality is about what is right and
wrong—some things are right, others
` are wrong. Morality is the code or rules
Morality is, as Socrates said, ―How we in which our actions are judged against
ought to live.‖ It is therefore important that we shared values. Ethics are principles
study Ethics so that we would be able to align that form those moral codes (Boone,
our thinking, feeling, and action to what is 2017).
good and beneficial not only to ourselves but to a much larger community as well. For
Boone (2017), Ethics helps us understand the world by providing structure to it through the
standards, virtues, and rules that it provides that guide our behavior; he explains why it is
important for us to act ethically with these points:
1. Acting ethically is a requirement for life. Ethics help us choose the best way to
act so that the things that we do will not be aimless, pointless, and random; hence, we live a
life that is happy, productive, and purposeful.
In this time of pandemic, you have a moral obligation to yourself to keep your mind
and body healthy by following certain health measures.
2. Acting ethically is a requirement for society. Kindness matters; it helps unite the
society. As members of a much wider community there are roles to play and rules to follow.
Ethics helps build relationships that keeps the society from falling apart.
That is why, people are advised to stay at home in order to save other people‘s lives
during this pandemic. If a Manila-based worker wants to go back to his province, he needs to
see his plan according to a much larger scheme of things before deciding and not just
according to his individual needs. One must do his or her part in making everyone safe and
 3

avoid the risk of viral contagion by not travelling; it is in this sense that the
Balik/HatidProbinsya Program of Senator Bong Go becomes problematic.
3. Acting ethically has a religious purpose. Because we need incentives to act morally,
religion provides such reward. Acting according to the norms of religion would make you
take hold of the promise of an eternal reward, doing otherwise would entail an after-life
suffering. That is why, for some people, doing what is right would mean following the
commands of the holy text of their religion.
In 2021, the Philippines will celebrate its 500 years of being Christianized.
Christianity was signalled in the country when Magellan and his troops first landed in
Homonhon Island, Eastern Samar. Our country is the only predominantly Catholic nation in
the Asian region. In the present COVID-19 situation, it was featured in the news that
President Duterte said to shoot all those who would violate the lockdown rules. Is his
statement morally upright based on the teachings of Christianity?
4.Acting ethically is for the benefit of oneself. The golden rule, ―Do unto others what
you want others do unto you‖, means that kindness begets kindness. Even when one
behaves appropriately because of self-interest, surely good things will follow. For Eastern
philosophy, a good act brings good karma.
We have this proverb “Ang susisakaligayahan ay ang pagigingmapagmapasalamat”.
That is why, you feel happy when you pack food for our COVID-19 frontliners because you
feel grateful for their heroism. That feeling of happiness is a personal gain yet it benefits not
only yourself but others as well.
5. We act ethically because humans are basically good. This is the major claim of
moral philosophy. Humans are naturally good and they try to behave accordingly. Do
humans act accordingly because they have to, or do they pursue an ethical life because
there are acts that in themselves are naturally good and worth pursuing? What do you think?
The Purpose of Morality
Living ethically assures that
everyone will flourish. Although morality
may restrict our freedom, acting morally
upright brings greater freedom to do
good to oneself and to others. Pojman
(2005, p.7) enumerates these purposes
of morality:
1. To keep society from falling apart
Photo E
2. To ameliorate human suffering
3. To promote human flourishing
4. To resolve conflicts of interest in just
and orderly ways
5. To assign praise and blame, reward Source: https://aconversationinethics.wordpress.com/
and punishment, and guilt
 4

The Nature of Moral Principles

To lead a moral life, one follows moral principles. These are practical guides that
govern our actions and these principles have these traits or characteristics (Pojman, 2005):
1. Prescriptivity. As what the word ―prescribe‖ means, moral principles are imperatives,
they give commands. For example, ―Do not steal‖ or ―Love your enemies.‖
2. Universalizability. Moral principles must apply to all relevantly similar situation. If
cheating is prohibited in a certain exam, then in all kinds of exam, cheating must not be
tolerated. The key here is consistency. Just like the golden rule, do not do to other people all
the things that you don‘t want to be done to you.
3. Overridingness. Moral principles take precedence over other principles or one moral
principle may take over another. For example, civil disobedience may be morally upright
when it is done with a higher cause. That is why, going to rallies during the Martial Law or in
the present Anti-Terrorism Bill mañanitarallies are considered right even when they mean
social disobedience because they serve a greater purpose and that is to defend human
freedom.
4. Publicity. Moral principles should be known by all who should follow them; they
shouldn‘t be a secret because we use these principles to give commands, to assign rewards
or punishment or to give advice.
5. Practicability. Moral codes should be workable and they should not lay a heavy burden
to those who follow them. In other words, they could be done. If posting in Facebook your
criticism about the government would mean terrorism, then the Anti-Terrorism Bill is
impractical because turning a blind eye to
what the government is doing is not a practice MORAL & NON-MORAL STANDARDS
of democracy.
Moral standards involve the rules
Moral versus Non-moral Standards people have about the kinds of actions
they believe are morally right and
Moral standards are principles that wrong, as well as the values they place
have moral impact. They definitely point out on them. Non-moral standards refer to
what is right and wrong, good or evil. Moral rules that are unrelated to
standards provide a structure on how you are ethical considerations
going to live your life and how you relate with (ourhappyschool.com, 2018).
others in harmony as it outlines the values that
you share with others to promote goodness to everyone, or the common good. That is why,
not keeping your word, taking advantage of others, or tarnishing your friend‘s reputation in
social media are seen as moral misconducts because they do not promote goodness.
Rules about table manners, classroom procedures and routines, or dressing up for a party
are considered non-moral standards because they are outside the scope of morality, they
do not have ethical considerations and would not give a great dose of guilt when not
followed. To violate a moral code with intention is to be immoral. An amoral act is neither
moral nor immoral. Feeling angry is natural, anger is amoral; but the act of killing someone
due to anger is another thing—it is immoral.
By now, you shouldn‘t be surprised if in the preceding activity only the middle picture
speaks about morality. Answering your phone in a meeting, although it is disturbing to
others, does not mean immorality but stealing (the middle picture)does. To sleep during a
classroom discussion does not have a great moral impact but the intention for doing so may
convey a moral question.
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ASSESSMENT
Answer directly the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Make a Venn Diagram on Ethics and Morality. Mention the similarities and differences of
Ethics and Morality.
2. Describe the nature and purpose of morality.
3. Make a T-Chart on the differences between moral and non-moral standards.

REFERENCES

Ariola, M. M. (2018). Understanding the Self. Adfo Books.

Boone, B. (2017). Ethics 101: From Altruism and Utilitarianism to Bioethics and Political
Ethics, an Exploration of the Concepts of Right and Wrong (Adams 101). Adams Media.

Pojman, L. P. (2005). By Louis P. Pojman - How Should We Live?: An Introduction to Ethics:

1st (first) Edition. Cengage Learning.
.
 6

CHAPTER 2: THE MORAL EXPERIENCE

In the first lesson, we have discussed how ethics and morality are defined. We also
drew a line between moral and non-moral standards. These standards provide structure to
moral experience. Have you ever asked yourself: ―Am I good?‖ ―If so, why am I doing things
that are morally wrong?‖ ―If man is basically good, why do I have the tendency to do bad
things?‖ ―Why should I consider others even when they are mean and uncomprehending?‖
These questions make you reflect critically to find out the goodness of your experience as a
moral being; and that‘s what ethics is all about—to have a rational understanding of the
goodness of your experience.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. identify the two elements of moral experience;
2. explain the nature of prohibited acts; and
3. describe the innate foundations of moral experience.
Activity
Below is a poem attributed to St. Teresa of Calcutta. Read and internalize the poem
and answer the given question.

The poem tells us to love others and forgive

them with their wrong doings. In your overall
life experience, is it easy to forgive? What
makes you say it is or it isn’t?

Source: www.pinterest.com/pin/1477812357801220/
Analysis: Based on your answer in the activity, how can you say that an experience is
moral?
The Moral Experience
Without morality, we cannot promote the good. In Module 1, we learned that it is in
your best interest to become morally upright. You and your actions make up moral
experience.
A moral experience has two elements: According to Thomas Hobbes (see
the moral agent who is the doer of the Pojman, 2005), each of us has our own
action and the moral act that comprises personal interests. Hence, in order to avoid
the things done by the agent. Moral conflicts, the society must formulate contracts
experience is seen in the different
ethical frameworks called the moral
theories.
 7

or moral codes that must be adhered to so that everything will be in order; otherwise, there
will be ―war against all.‖ Imagine if people can just do whatever they want without
restrictions. They can fight over a slice of bread and kill each other. Your neighbor, without
permission, can butcher your pig for the fiesta and you will take his cow as a form of
revenge. Without morality, life will be in chaos.
The moral experience has two elements: moral agent and moral act. The moral
agent is the doer of the act—you. Only humans have the concept of morality. Non-human
animals might have morally upright behaviors similar to humans (e.g. caring for the young)
but they do not have the ability to reason out or judge their actions based on moral
principles. These human-like moral behaviors of animals are called protomoralbehaviors
(see Skutch, 2007). In this sense, the moral agent—humans—are believed to possess the
capacity to make sound moral judgment through his reasoning ability.
Moral acts are the things that moral agents do. These behaviors to be considered as
moral acts should be inside the ethical domain or within moral standards discussed in
Module 1. Each moral act has an object who receives the action, an intention that motivates
the action, and the situation that provides the context of the action. For example, you stole
your classmate‘s pen before taking the final exam because you have no money to buy one
and you are in desperate need to take the test or else you will fail the course. The act is
stealing. The object of the act is your classmate; the intention is for you to pass the course;
and the situation is that you don‘t have the money to buy for a pen.
The Nature of Prohibited Acts
By their very nature, prohibited acts cannot be habitual and enduring, if they do, they
cease to become prohibited (Skutch, 2007) and thus become a norm.
For example, if stealing becomes habitual and enduring, then no one will produce a
merchandize, save money in the bank, or hold on to earned wealth. People will live a hand
to mouth existence like the primitive times. With that, it would be impossible to steal
because there is nothing more to steal. Another, when lying becomes a norm, then telling
the truth will be the odd thing to do. In reality, liars succeed in deceiving us because most
people tell the truth than they lie. Hence, moral codes prohibit acts that in themselves
cannot be sustained and maintained (Skutch, 2007).
The Innate Foundation of Moral Experience
There are two impulses or motives that the moral experience is anchored. First,
those that are directed towards self-preservation and second, those that are directed to
others. We said that a moral act has intentions. These intentions or motives urge us to
perform acts that benefit ourselves and those that promote the welfare of others be it to our
own blood or others who are unrelated to us (Skutch, 2007).
Self-regarding motives or virtues
1. Prudence. The rational self-love; it forbids us to overly indulge with pleasure without
thinking of the future (Skutch, 2007). Prudence is doing the right thing at the right time, with
the right person, with the right intention and at the right degree.
 8

2. Temperance. It‘s standing firm to have only what is enough despite great enticement or
opposing drive and works together with prudence
(Skutch, 2007). In Filipino, we call it pagtitimpi.
3. Fortitude. Perseverance even in the face of
Anybody can
challenges so to achieve a very important goal. become angry—that
4. Patience. It is not acting on impulse. It is about
taking time to think through a certain act before doing
is easy. But to be
it. Pope Francis said in Amoris Laetitia, ―Being angry with the right
patient doesn‘t mean letting ourselves be always
mistreated, tolerating aggression or allowing other person and to the
people to use us. Patience takes root when I
recognize that other people also have the right to live right degree and at
in this world.‖
the right time and
Other-regarding motives or virtues
Altruism is the act of helping others. Altruism
for the right
and all other-regarding virtues can all be called as purpose, and in the
benevolence. The fact that we become happy when
we are able to help others unselfishly may, at the right way—that is
surface, seem a selfish act. However, if you look
deeper, you would see that benevolence is not difficult.
derived from self-interest because both exists
ARISTOTLE
separately on their own and does not require each
other in order to exist. Moreover, it is only when one
has reached a high self-awareness that he is able to become mindful about the needs of
other and satisfy them (Skutch, 2007). Simply put, one must gain himself first before he can
deny it.
That is why, even if it is hard for you to forgive someone who has done you wrong,
you take time to reflect on your experience and pattern in out because it is innate for a
person to be benevolent.
ASSESSMENT
On a separate sheet of paper, answer directly the following questions.
1. Enumerate and discuss the elements of moral experience.
2. Explain the nature of prohibited acts.
3. Describe innate foundations of moral experience using your personal experience.
REFERENCES

Pojman, L. P. (2005). By Louis P. Pojman - How Should We Live?: An Introduction to Ethics:

1st (first) Edition. Cengage Learning.

Skutch, A. (2007). Moral Foundations: An Introduction to Ethics (1st ed.). Axios Press.
 9

CHAPTER 3: THE MORAL DILEMMA

Since we have already tackled what a moral experience is, we now go with your
experience of coming to a choice of what and how to act when two opposing actions that are
morally relevant come together. This is more than just answering the question: “Sino ba ang
pipiliin ko, ang mahal ko o ang mahal ako?” In your life, you were presented with many
choices to decide on a single matter. Choosing morally appropriate action can be difficult
but because you are a moral agent, you need to be critical and bravely choose what is best
not just based on self-interest but on the common good.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
1. describe the nature of moral dilemmas;
2. find out the levels of dilemmas; and
3. explain the nature of moral reasoning.
Activity
Look at the pictures below. Imagine yourself that you are working for the government
as a law enforcer and at the same time you have a strong belief as a Christian in the sanctity
of life and that your education made you learn that every person with an alleged crime has
the right to fair trial.

Source: https://rappler.com/nation/duterte-orders-troops-shoot-kill-coronavirus- Source:https://twitter.com/yomyomf/status/739613683769217024

quarantine-violators

Will you follow the walking order of the President or will you stick to what you have learned in
church and in school? Why?
Analysis:Why do you think people have difficulty in making a decision that is significant to
his moral standing?
Moral Dilemma
Sometimes choosing is a hard thing to do. Just like in the activity, orders coming
from powerful persons that you are working for might not be aligned with the beliefs of your
religion or with what your education says. Not following orders from your boss might make
you lose your job. Setting aside your ideals might also give you a gnawing conscience.
As moral agents, encountering moral dilemmas is not an uncommon experience.
Read this excerpt adopted from Morrow (2018, p. 14):
 10

“Dear Abby,” the long-running advice column, printed the following letter
in 1981:
Dear Abby: I needed some Scotch tape, so I looked in my son’s desk for
some and noticed the beginning of a letter my son had written to his
girlfriend. It read, “I am only interested in being stoned, spending money,
and sex.”
I read no further.
My first impulse was to confront him with this, but he would say I had no
right to go snooping through his desk.
I don’t think I should go on ignoring this. I would appreciate some
advice. He is eighteen-and-a-half.
BEWILDERED FATHER
The father is torn between maintaining his son‘s privacy and in making sure that his
child‘s well-being is protected. Not only that, he thinks he cannot do both at the same time
and would need to choose only one act. If he keeps quiet about what he read from his son‘s
desk, his son might continue his vices. If he doesn‘t, it would entail that he does not have
respect for his son‘s privacy. If you‘re in the position of this confused father, what will you
do?
One is in moral dilemma when he is in conflict between two moral principles to which
he feels committed and no matter what he will choose something bad will eventually happen
(Pojman, 2005; Kowalski, 2011).

Why are we experiencing moral dilemma? For MacNiven (1993), moral dilemmas
happen because the moral principles that control our thoughts and actions have broken
down and can no longer guide us; unless we have an adequate way to solve our moral
dilemmas, our moral system will continue to fail. Sometimes we solve moral dilemmas by
ranking the priorities of our personal obligation. If the father thinks that his top priority is to
protect his child from his vices, then he will talk to his son about it even when that means
breaching his son‘s privacy. In other times, we consider a more general obligation, our
obligation for the greater good. If following the order of the President to kill people is just a
matter of taking orders as a job then it does not come from a universal principle that
promotes the common good but only for self-interest; so, you will refuse to shoot people
dead even when it means losing your job.
 11

However, not all dilemmas are moral dilemmas. Choosing what color of dress to
wear in a party, deciding on what snacks to have or where to book your next weekend
getaway are not moral dilemmas. Moral dilemmas are those conflicting choices under the
scope of moral standards.
Levels of Moral Dilemma
1. Individual or Personal Level. This involves making moral judgment and eventually
come up with a sound moral decision that concerns the individual life of a person. It does not
bear a great impact to the society at large.
For example: A woman was about to deliver her first born. However, her pregnancy
was ectopic and she only has this chance to have a baby. Because of complications, she
was rushed to the operating room unconscious. The doctors talked with her husband and
said that they can only save one life, the mother or the baby. If you were the husband,
whose life would you want to save?
2. Organizational Level. This is about the moral dilemma of a person in an organization.
Workplaces, business establishments, schools, and other organizations have regulations,
procedures or even values that may challenge the moral principles of a member of that
organization.
For example:One teacher believes that students should get the grade that they
worked for and frowns at the practice of mass promotion. When the school year ends, she
submitted the grades of her class to the principal. The principal asked her to change the
grades of 10 of her students who got failing marks so that they can pass and move to the
next grade level. If not, her teacher performance report will be affected. If you are the
teacher, will you change the grades?
3. Systemic Level. This is in the level of society at large. Moral dilemmas concerning the
different social institutions that affect the life of the whole society covers this level.
For example: The President‘s war on drugs poses a systemic moral dilemma.
Eradicating the sale and use of illegal drugs in the country is a good thing. However, the
problem lies in the implementation of the war on drugs. The country also does not have
enough budget to spend for the total rehabilitation of those involved in drug trade. But is
killing the only solution?
Moral Reasoning
We said that a moral dilemma urges us to choose, to come up with a decision
because we cannot perform all the morally relevant options. It is in this sense that we need
to come up with a sound moral reasoning. But what is it?
Moral reasoning is the art of showing that one claim is suggested by other claims,
meaning, your contentions are backed up with moral principles and not just a mere opinion.
That is why, one needs to be critical in making a sound moral judgement. In moral
reasoning, your opinion does not matter unless you can prove it under a certain framework
or a moral theory. A person who does morally sound decision does not do or say things
without concrete basis.
To do moral reasoning means to introspect. Moral reasoning is to see what your own
values imply about a particular experience, to discover whether your values conflict with one
another, and to think hard about it. It also means to evaluate what someone has already
done or is about to do. Through moral reasoning we see the consequences of our action and
 12

from these consequences we judge its goodness. We also reason according to the roles we
play (e.g. as a friend; as a family member; as a leader) as these roles demand moral
obligations (Morrow, 2018).
When you think you cannot have a sound moral reasoning, it is best that you do not
make any decisions yet until you are able to come up with a convincing moral conclusion.
Be careful with your emotions as these may interfere with sound reasoning. That is why,
you don‘t make a decision when you are overly happy or deeply sad. If you are a Christian
and you would want to know how to make a sound moral decision, here is a method
suggested from the works of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits);
you can check this on the Web: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/making-good-
decisions/an-approach-to-good-choices/an-ignatian-framework-for-making-a-decision/
ASSESSMENT
On a separate sheet of paper, do the following:
1. Write your personal experience about having a
moral dilemma. What happened? What were the
options that you needed to choose from? What was
your decision? How did you decide? Limit your story
to three paragraphs only.
2.) Then, answer these questions and provide
explanations to your answers. Limit your answers to
each in exactly five sentences:
a. In what level was your dilemma?
b. Was your decision based on moral
reasoning or a mere opinion?

REFERENCES

D.R. (2018). Moral Reasoning: A text and reader on contemporary ethics and moral issues.
NY: Oxford University Press.

Kowalski, D.A. (2012). Moral Theories at the Movies: An Introduction to Ethics. Plymouth,
UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

MacNiven, D. (1993). Creative Morality. NY: Routledge

Morrow, D.R. (2018). Moral Reasoning: A Text and Reader on Contemporary Ethics
and Moral Issues. NY: Oxford University Press.

Pojman, L.P. (2005). How Should we Live?:An Introduction to Ethics. CA: Cengage Learning
 13

CHAPTER 4: FREEDOM AS BASIC REQUIREMENT OF MORALITY

Now that you are always staying at home, it would be nice if you would talk to your
elders about the way they lived during their younger days. Surely, music will never go out of
the topic. Try asking your folks to sing to you Andy Williams‘ Born Free: ―Born free, as free
as the wind blows; As free as the grass grows; Born free to follow your heart.‖ Is your
definition of freedom the same as what the song says? Freedom is defined in many ways.
Some say it is doing what you want when you want it. Others would claim that it is not
unlimited. In the first module, we said that morality restricts our freedom only to experience
greater freedom. What does freedom got to do with morality?
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. explain the view of determinism and how it becomes a threat to ethics;
2. explain the reason that only humans are moral beings; and
3. relate freedom with morality.
Activity
Even with the current pandemic, students from UP and other young people like you
went to the streets to defend our freedom of speech and expression that can be curtailed
when the Anti-Terrorism Bill is passed. Look at these photos.

Source:https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/06/11/2020252/critics-
can-question-anti-terror-bill-court-palace

Based on your current belief of freedom, are these protests right? Why or why not?

Analysis: Based on the activity, why do you think freedom is necessary to human life?

The Case of Determinism

Determinism is a model of thought that says that human beings, because of their
genetic make-up and social experiences especially during their formative years, are
―programmed‖ to act according to these two factors. For determinism, we are already pre-
determined or pre-destined to do what we are programmed to do without thinking about
them or feeling sorry about them.
If we are to consider this, ethics then becomes irrelevant. Why would you still do moral
reasoning and come up with a sound moral judgment, which what ethics is, when your
behavior is not of your own choice but only an answer to your programming? We become
robots. For determinism, this means that we are not human beings, just human animals.
 14

Deterministic views pose an issue on free will. It threatens ethics by suggesting that
genes make ethics useless. Hence, it implies that moral advice, education, or learning
experiences are also useless. More than that, the threat comes from the idea that we
humans are just sophisticated animals, made to follow genetic instructions and can do
nothing about it (Blackburn, 2001).
Nuns vow to be chaste their whole life. If we take determinism so seriously, it would
follow that, because human beings are genetically and evolutionarily programmed to
copulate (or have sex), nuns will do everything just
to getPhoto Claid. Therefore, it will be useless to make

them have such vow because no one can. But nuns

can!
Homo sapiens: The Moral Creature
Our brain has four lobes. The frontal lobe
includes an area that functions for judgement. Our
brains are designed to make decisions, to see
alternatives and choose. Non-human animals have
different brain structure than ours. Our manner of
choosing is not based plainly on biological instincts
as that of the other animals but with our ability to
think about our actions and use our freedom to
choose. Non-human animals also do not have free
will. Hence, they are slaves of nature; they act
according to how they are genetically programmed.
Though they may show benevolent human-like acts
called protomoral behaviors (see Skutch, 2003),
these behaviors are not moral because they are not done with reason and with freedom but
due to their DNA programming.
Another thing that makes humans the only moral creature is culture. Non-human
animals do not have a culture. Socio-cultural factors like history, beliefs, ideals, and
worldviews shape our moral principles. Culture is a factor in shaping moral codes and these
moral principles are themselves part of culture. That is why, we say that morality could vary
from one culture to another.
Remember, morality is how we ought to live. Let us not forget the word ―ought‖ in
there because it is in having the freedom to choose that that ―ought‖ would require us to
think hard about our actions and only humans among all other animals have that ability.
Rationality is the capacity to think hard in order to make an upright decision. Both rationality
and freedom are required in making moral acts and only humans have both; these two then
make humans as the only moral creature. If human beings act according to their DNA-
programmed instincts and not according to freewill, then there is no need for moral
reasoning. They will not need the freedom and will to think and decide about what‘s right
and what‘s wrong, will not ever experience moral dilemma, are not bound to make choices
and hence, will have an existence similar to that of the birds, dogs, and other non-human
animals or will live a brutish life. That is why, in teleseryes, a protagonist will confront a
conscience-numbed antagonist with the line: “Hayop ka!”
 15

Freedom
We have been talking about freedom—but what really freedom is? Why would
people risk their lives in this time of pandemic in going to streets to demonstrate for us so we
can maintain our freedom of speech and expression that is threatened by the new Anti-
Terrorism Bill? It goes to show that freedom is basically important. Here are some of the
things people say about the different sorts of freedom:

Phot
oF

Phot
oG

Google images

These pictures above show how freedom is defined in the context of same-sex union,
media and expression, and religion. In the light of ethics and morality, we will consider St.
John Paul II‘s definition.
Skutch (2007) identified two
meanings of freedom in relation to morality:
1.) Freedom from prior determination.
This means that we are not tied to the
influence of any past (e.g. DNA-
programming; early experiences; ex-
girlfriend), and we use our free will. Free will
means having a firm stand to make a choice
without being hindered.
2.) Freedom to express one’s own nature. This can imply two things. A.) Being able to
satisfy a particular desire without external obstacles like laws and customs as these desires
are part of our total nature. It is being away from the things that stops us from expressing our
total personality. For example, marrying someone you love based on your sexual
preference. B.) Being able to satisfy our primary needs which, being an animal, are
biologically-determined, without being hindered by our own attitudes. This is something
internal. For example, being able to control your desire to steal for food and instead find
acceptable means to feed a hungry stomach.
We have previously learned that morality is about how we ought to live. John Paul II‘s
definition of freedom relates with morality as it points out the capacity to do what should be
done and not merely what is wished to be done. As we said, ethics is about coming up with
 16

and executing a morally upright decision through moral reasoning. If we will just do
whatever we want, then we become like irrational non-human animals that are slaves of
passions and impulses. However, because of moral freedom, we are able to think hard
about what‘s right and what‘s wrong and from there we are able to choose without being
hindered to do what we ―ought‖ to do. Ethical freedom means being able to do what is good
without being hindered and being able to hinder oneself to do evil.
ASSESSMENT
On pieces of paper, do the following activities.
1. Based on the post below, explain the view of determinism and how it becomes a threat to
Ethics.

2. Why are humans moral beings? Explain.

3. Relate freedom with morality through a drawing or collage.

REFERENCES

Blackburn, S. (2001). Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. NY: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Skutch, A.F. (2007). Moral foundations: An Introduction to Ethics. VA: Axios Press
 17

CHAPTER 5: WHAT IS CULTURE?

All of us are born into a culture. It is something that is inherited from ours. It speaks
of the way we communicate, the way we relate with others and the way we view things
coming our way. Culture is embedded in us and we cannot escape form it. It helps define our
moral behavior.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:
1. articulate the definition of culture;
2. attribute facets of personal behavior to culture; and
3. feel proud of one‘s culture and express the desire to propagate it.
Activity:Make a personal data containing your name, what you eat, your residence, your
language, how you dress, your sports, your family, family celebrations and your arts and
music.
On a separate sheet of paper, answer the following questions:
1. What do my personal data speak of my personality?
2. How does culture affect my way of seeing things and relating with others?
3. What are my manifestations that I feel proud of my culture?

Culture defined

A simple definition of culture is that it is a way of life. It is characterized as the

people‘s way of life which is shared by other people in a certain cultural region. It is not safe
to assume that everyone in a given society shares the same culture or people who are far
from each other can no longer share the same way of life. Culture occupies a large domain
in the life of man. Everything a man does in his everyday living is dominated by his cultural
orientation. From the way he pray to the way he carries himself in the social world is a
manifestation of one‘s cultural heritage. With this, culture can be defined as the values,
beliefs, behaviour and material objects that together form a people‘s way of life (Macionis,
2007). Culture encompasses a broad spectrum of an individual‘s social and personal life.
Edward Tylor defined culture as that complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, art,
law, morals, customs, traditions and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as
member of society. Marvin Harris claims that culture is totally socially acquired lifeways of a
group of people. It includes patterned of repetitive ways of thinking, feeling and acting that
are characteristics of the members of a particular society or segment of society. Clifford
Geertz defines culture as ideas based on cultural learning and symbols. It has been
characterized as sets of control mechanisms from the governing of behaviour. Our
membership to society is governed by the guidelines which are handed, twisted, revised,
and taught across generations.
Culture is far too complex and dynamic to be boxed in a single adjective. Possession
of culture can be likened to an organizational membership. There are cultures existing within
a big culture and there are cultures that remain despite the negative connotation and
unfavorable effects to its members.
 18

Characteristics of Culture
Anthropologists, sociologists and behavioral scientists in the study of culture came up
with a list of traits and characteristics shared by all cultures.

1. Culture is learned.
We acquire knowledge that are passed on to us by our parents, primal adults and the
people aroundus both directly and indirectly. Children absorbed the information given to
them from the day they were born. This form of learning cannot be attributed to biological
factors alone. Cultural leaning, then is based on the ability or human capacity to use symbols
that do not have a direct or natural connections to the things they represent.

2. Culture is collective or shared.

Culture is social in nature and not by any means to be defined as a private or
personal values of property.The knowledge one has now is a product of accumulation of bits
and pieces within a society or culture. We become enculturated to the society and society to
which we belong. We pass knowledge across generation. As generations learn and pass the
knowledge of society, the knowledge is absorbed through society and thus continue to be
shared within that society.

3. Culture is transmitted orally and in writing.

Sharing and learning of culture can be done either consciously or unconsciously,
within generations or across generation in unlimited ways. Oral transmission of culture is
potent through the life cycle of man. Even among societies with no structure of formal
instruction or education, it is a mode of learning and bringing up the young. Written
transmission is relatively modern. With writing, learning and cultural transmission became
precise, extensively complicated, highly symbolic, and heavily cumulative.

4. Culture is symbolic.
Culture operates within a realm of symbol construction and symbol usage. It is
learned, shared and transmitted using a complex set of symbols used to communicate called
language. It can be oral or written, gestures, hand signs, body language, facial expressions.
Culture is transmitted through the aid of language. It enables us to recall knowledge
encountered in the past giving us a notion of time. On the other hand, we use symbols to
communicate our emotional condition. Symbols we use and see are bound by the culture to
which they were formed.

5. Culture is holistic and integrated.

Parts of culture are intricately connected to one another into a holistic entity. For
Durkheim, culture is a product not of a single individual but of a collective. A collective
consciousness or awareness exists beyond the individual. Various elements of the culture
tend to fit each other for smoother and better adaptive process. This means that elements
within the culture need to function harmoniously, otherwise strain or frictional conflict occurs.
Culture is patterned by specific dimension of social life such as economic and political
activities.
 19

6. Culture is adaptive.
Cultural adaptation is the evolutionary process that modifies the social life of the
people in the given natural environment. It is an adjustment strategy people utilize or employ
to respond to the changes in the natural or social environment, or the method used to react
properly with respect to stimuli that are available. The strategy could be biological,
technological or socio-behavioral in nature.

7. Culture satisfies needs.

Culture defines the activities of man. It is likewise within a culture where these
activities can be gratified. Gratification refers to the granting of a quality of life or lifestyle for
personal or social gratification. Culture has the capacity to satisfy and grant the needs –
biological and social, of people. It allows the smooth and efficient interaction among
members of the society for the satisfaction of the needs. There may be differences in the
steps we all follow and the people we interact before we reach our goal, but the origin of the
gratification will be the same.

8. Culture is compulsory.
Being a member of a society also means that you become a subject of the society to
which you are born and socialize. One learns culture by conditioning. Conditioning can be
the observance of reward and punishment given an act. Compulsory in this sense of the
word does not mean it is permanent and immovable. Culture changes and is in flux.
9. Culture is dynamic.
No culture is static and permanent. Since membership to culture is continuously
changing by the influx and changes in and among members; people move in and out of a
culture. Cultural communications is transforming at fast pace by the technological
development happening, concepts and ideas are being modified and transformed with
respect to occurring events and changing political environment, the overall culture is
constantly changing.

10. Culture is cumulative.

Every time the transmission of knowledge is conducted through socialization,
accumulation occurs-from old to new. The cycle happens repeatedly and every time,
knowledge is accumulated and transformed. Knowledge that was formed and developed
within a particular culture is a process of transmission from one generation into another,
through sharing and cultural learning sharing.

11. Culture interacts and undergoes transformation.

All human cultures and societies interact to other cultures which are either related or
totally distinct from one another. This contact could either result to copying or borrowing of
some aspects of one culture resulting to the transformation of one culture or both. Interaction
can happen in the form of domination or colonialism. A dominated society is forced and the
subjected to the culture of the defeated and this may result to the acceptance of the
dominant religion, political authority, educational system, and even the way of speaking and
thinking.
 20

The Influence of Culture in Moral Development

Culture is one‘s person‘s social heritage that has been passed from one generation
to the next basically through the relationships that binds the society together. It necessarily
says on what are things a member of the society must do, what to do, and how to do things.
It teaches and conditions members on how to relate and live with the other members of the
society and even to people outside of their own culture.

Culture functions to mold and establish a social identity that brings people as well to
the knowledge of common objectives which member would try to achieve. Culture, indeed,
provides norms, customs, laws, and moral demands that are to be followed. In general,
culture plays a vital role the development of the human person. In every aspect of the human
person, the cultural background can be very visible. Culture has an essential influence on
the moral development of the human person since morality is just one of the cultural
aspects.

Culture influences the moral development of the people through the following points:

1. Culture is always social and communal by which the relationship of the people towards
one another. And their experience as a people are the culture‘s meadow. It is in this
relationship and communal experience that culture influences the moral development of its
members. It is important to note that morality as principle is promoted because primarily of
the relationship within the community. Laws and rules and standards of attitudes and
behaviors are set and promulgated by the community to promote the relationship that binds
them together as a people.

2. Culture defines the normative principles and behaviors of the society. It defines which
particular principle and behavior that should be kept that would serve the best interest of the
community. There would be a definition on what are the principles also that should not be
promoted or rejected. These defined normative principles and behaviors inform and
indoctrinate the members as they live and relate with the community. These would shape
also the kind of moral judgement a person has, which is most of the time congruent to the
general moral judgment.

3. A culture as best exemplified in the experience of the people, develops restrictions and
sets boundaries and limitations as they liver and relate with one another. These would create
an atmosphere of promoting the welfare of the community. Indeed, anyone who tries to step
beyond these is subject to punishment or consequences set by the community embedded in
the culture.

4. Culture helps in generating the character and identity of its people, it also includes the
moral character. Culture conditions the mind- the way people think and the way we perceive
the world and their relationship with one another. If a culture is aggressive, those who are in
it become aggressive in their relationship with one another. Conversely, if a culture is unjust,
the same may be developed among the people who are in it.

5. Culture identifies the authorities or the governing individuals or groups. They are the
symbol of guidance and control. In many cultures, men always are most of the time looked
up to as leaders overseeing the order of the community. They are expected to give guidance
to the body. People submit themselves to the authority: be it patriarchal or matriarchal. By
their very authority as they represent the populace, the members look at them as people
 21

who promote and keep the set of rules and laws that govern the community. Their moral
judgements are considered essential in moral issues of the community.

In sum, culture is very significant in the development of the human person and in his
moral development. It has a tight grip on the moral development of the people. It is the
conditioning principle of the moral development of its members. Although it may not always
promote what is good and just for all, it is certain that there are principles, attitudes and
behaviors that actually hinder good relationships and violate the welfare of the others. There
are aspects of culture that are difficult to eliminate, yet they should be subject to people‘s
discernment that proper changes and modifications have to be done for the sake of the
welfare and justice for everybody.

ASSESSMENT:

On a separate sheet of paper, answer as directed.

A. Make an acrostic on the word CULTURE based on your learnings in this lesson.

B. Unscramble the letters to make sense of the statement. Write your answersafter the
number.

1. CELRTUU is known as the way of life.

2. Cultural learning is based on the ability to use BLMOSSY.

3. Culture is collective and ADEHRS.

4. Culture can be ADEMNRSTTT orally or in writing.

5.Culture operates within the AELMR of symbol construction and usage.

6. Parts of a culture are intricately connected to one another into a CHIILOST entity.

7. Cultural adaptation is the AEILNOORUVY process that modifies the social life of the
people.‘

8. The gratification of these needs is almost similar and ABCDEEILPRT.

9. Being a member of the society means one become a BCEJSTU of it.

10. No culture is ACISTT.

C. Essay

Cite ways by which you feel proud of your culture. Express your desire to propagate it.

REFERENCES

Abesamis, J.T., & Franco, M. (2014). Society and Culture A Liberal Approach to
Understanding Humanity. Mutya Publishing House, Inc.

Alata, E.J., & Ignacio, E.J. (2019). Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the
Curriculum. Rex Book Store.
 22

Bulaong, O., et. al (2018). Ethics Foundation of Moral Valuation. Rex Book Store

Lanuza, G., &Raymundo S. (2016). Understanding Culture, Society and Politics. Rex Book
Store

Leaño, Jr., Roman D., et al. (2018). Ethics for College Students. Mindshapers Co., Inc.

Riodique, F. (2016). Understanding Culture, Society and Politics. Mindshapers Co. Inc.
Retrieved June 1, 2020 from
school.cms.k12.nc.us/beverlywoodES/Documents/Janjustice.pdf
 23

CHAPTER 6: CULTURAL RELATIVISM

All of us are born into a culture. As we grow, we meet other cultures and are
oftentimes shaped by it.As bearers of culture, our task is to be tolerant of other cultures and
see what is good in some and adapt the same in our lives.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

1. define cultural relativism;

2. recognize differences in moral behavior of different cultures;

3. evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of cultural relativism; and

4. appreciate the differences among cultures

Activity:

On a sheet of paper, in five sentences, give your own view about the racial
discrimination being experienced by the colored men and women in the United States of
America, in particular with the death of George Floyd.

Introduction

The recent event that shook human rights advocates in the world particularly in the
United States of America was the death of George Flyod, a black American. His last words
continue to haunt us today: ―Sir, I cannot breathe‖ brings to mind the deep-seated concept
and understanding of being able to subjugate people because of their sex, color and religion.

In the world today, we recognize that the many cultures of the world have their own
beliefs, values and practices that have developed in particular, historical, social, material and
ecological contexts and that it makes sense that they would differ from our own and that
none are necessarily right or wrong, good or bad. Then, we are engaging in cultural
relativism.

Cultural Relativism defined

Cultural relativism is the ability to understand a culture on its own terms and not to
make judgements using the standards of one‘s own culture. Its goal is to promote
understanding of cultural practices that are not typically part of one‘s own culture. Using the
perspective of cultural relativism leads to the view that no one culture is superior that another
when compared to systems of morality, law, politics and etc. It is a concept that cultural
norms and values derive their meaning within a specific social context. This is also based on
the idea that there is no absolute standard of good and evil. Therefore every decision and
judgment of what is right and wrong is individually decided in each society. It also means
that any opinion on ethics is subject to the perspective of each person within their particular
culture. Overall, there is no right or wrong ethical system.

Cultural relativism is considered to be more constructive and positive conception as

compared to ethnocentrism. It permits to see an individual‘s habits, values and morals in the
context of his or her cultural relevance by comparing it to one‘s own cultural values and by
deeming the most superior and greater of all.Anthropologists believe that all cultures are
 24

equally legitimate expressions of human existence, to be studied from a purely neutral

perspective.

Cultural relativism and ethics

Cultural relativism is closely related to ethical relativism. Ethical relativism views truth
as variable and not absolute. What constitutes right and wrong is determined solely by the
individual or by society. Since truth is not objective, there can be objective standard which
applies to all cultures. No one can say if someone else is right or wrong. It is a matter of
personal opinion and no society can pass judgement on another society.

The advantages and disadvantages of Cultural Relativism

ADVANTAGES OF CULTURAL DISADVANTAGES OF CULTURAL

RELATIVISM RELATIVISM

1.It promotes cooperation. 1.It creates a system that is fuelled by

We are so different from each other that
we have many things to share. Every
individual has a different perspective
based on their upbringing, experiences
and personal thoughts. By embracing
the many differences we have, the
cooperation creates the potential for a
stronger society.
personal bias.
Every society has a certain natural bias
to it because of how humanity operates.
People tend to prefer to be with others
who have similar thought or feelings, so
they segregate themselves to become
neighborhoods, communities and social
groups that share specific perspectives.
When people are given the power to
define their own moral code, then, they
will do so based on their personal bias.

2.It creates a society where equality is 2.It would create chaos.

possible.
People who can follow their own moral
In some cases, people rise by stepping code because there is no wrong or right
on top of other people. For some, it is a would be allowed to pursue any life they
sociable way of creating discrimination. preferred under the theory of cultural
Today this is seen in the discrimination relativism. There is no real way to protect
of women, the limited opportunities that the people in such a society, so each
minority people face, and the violence person can be responsible to protect
we all experience due to political themselves. It creates a system that
oppression. emphasize that only the strongest can
survive.
Cultural relativism allows the individual
to define their moral code without
defining the moral code of others. Each
man lives on his own. That separation
creates equality because each person
can set his/own definition of success.

3.People can pursue a genuine interest. 3.It is an idea that is based on the
perfection of humanity.
Today more than ever, people are

drawn to certain career options because
they have no other choice. In cultural
relativism, you get to pursue your own
interest without restrictions. You set the
definitions of what you can have and
what you cannot have. When done
earnestly, each person would get to
focus on his/her strengths instead of
his/her weakness.
4.Respect is encouraged by cultural
relativism.
As people are from different cultures,
they bring with them different ideas and
their definitions of success are different
from the rest. Such a system promoted
the individual‘ definition instead of a
group definition, a society can evolve
because there is a natural level of
respect built into the process. One is
given the right to pursue life in his own
terms
5.It preserves human culture.
Humanity is a very diverse set of
thoughts, traditions, ideas and practices.
Over time, the traditions of humanity are
set aside so that a set of standards can
be appeased.
Under the theory of cultural relativism,
such an appeasement may not be
necessary. It wouldn‘t even be a
consideration.
6.It creates a society without judgement. 6.It could limit moral progress.
We are so trained to judge others in
today‘s world that we don‘t even give it a
second thought. Under the theory of
cultural relativism, judgment goes away.
The only person that judges you is
yourself. People who might disagree
with you are able to set their own codes
and standards for their own
individualistic bubble. Instead of
25
Many people strive to do good every day
and most want to have the chance to
seek happiness in some way. This makes
cultural relativism inviting. However,
people are not perfect. We are forgetful,
we lie, in other words, we backslide.
Without a group moral code in place to
govern decisions, anything could happen
when we experience these moments of
imperfection.
4.It could promote a lack of diversity.
Cultural relativism promotes an
individualistic point of view, which at first
glance seems to promote diversity but in
reality it removes one from a society. The
only standards that are in place are those
which are set by then individual involved,
which means everyone is pursuing one‘s
own position of strength. Diversity cannot
be created when the emphasis of a
society in individualistic gain that can
come at the expense of others.
5.It draws people away from one another.
Cultural relativism can both promote
people coming together to share their
strengths and can encourage people to
draw apart from one another. Because
each person is uncertain of what codes
and standards another is following, the
natural inclination for self-preservation
causes people to draw away. One might
desire to develop a close-knit community
at first, but each demon causes people to
back away instead of closing ranks.
The idea of moral progress makes one
more inclusionary than exclusionary. This
inclusion is reflected in the laws and
customs of the culture. In cultural
relativism, everyone would be left to
one‘s own choice without exception and
there would be complete agreement in
either choice. Within the society, either
choice could be seen as a moral
 26

worrying about others, you only worry progress, but in reality, it could hold
about yourself. people back.

7.It can be excluded from cultural 7.It could limit humanity‘s progress.
relativism.
Cultural relativism is often seen as
Under the theory of cultural relativism, progression but it is not always that way.
each culture can be treated as an When the ability to judge one standard
individual. Moral codes of a culture can from another is removed, then the
be defined and an expectation comparative process of placing a current
implemented that people follow it. society or culture is removed as well. No
Although other cultures may not set up definition of success can be implemented
such a restriction, and others might say because each is successful in its own
such a restriction is not a form of cultural way.
relativism, people in such a system can
do what makes sense to them. You are
focusing on the customs of a culture not
the morality that is imposed upon those
customs.

8.We can create personal moral codes 8.Cultural relativism can turn perceptions
based on societal standards with ease. into truth.

To determine if a decision is right or In the world of cultural relativism, that

wrong, cultural relativism allows bias becomes a truth that can be acted
individuals to consult with the standards upon. The decision to act becomes a
of their society or culture. It is a simple righteous one because of the individual
test to determine the course that a truth that the culture allowed through the
person should take in such a bias it perpetrates.
circumstance. By consulting with the
moral code of the culture, one question
must be asked: does the action conform
to the cultural moral code? If the answer
is positive, then the action is permitted.

9. It stops cultural conditioning.

People tend to adapt their attitudes,

thoughts and beliefs to the people they
are with on a regular basis. This is a
cultural conditioning and it prevents
people from, having an individualistic
perspective. Cultural relativism stops it.

The advantages and disadvantages of cultural relativism presented above are based
on the theoretical implementation of such a system. Originally proposed by Franz Boas in
18887, it is an idea that has never been implemented on a large scale. Moral standards
make sense in a person‘s culture. By creating individualized cultures on a singular or larger
 27

scales, it becomes easier to keep and embrace the traditions that humanity has developed
with the passage of time.

The call perhaps for us today is to be more multi-culturally literate. And we can do the
same by:

1. Learn about other cultures. The first step to multi-culturalism is to know about cultures
other than your own. For it follows that if we do not know others‘ culture, the less welcoming
and tolerant we become.

2. Familiarize oneself with how discrimination and prejudice appear in one‘s own culture.
We need to be able to spot and identify and confront patterns of discrimination and prejudice
in our own lives.

3. As you are, so you will behave. The key to genuine multicultural literacy is core values,
that is- what one really believes about people who are different from us.

ASSESSMENT

On a separate sheet of paper, answer the following activities.

A. Complete the following statements.

The three things that I realized from this lesson are…

The two things that challenged me in this lesson are...

One thing I want to ask in this lesson is …

B. On a table write five of the advantages and disadvantages of cultural relativism that
appeal to you. Provide an example from your own experience.

C. Essay

How do I show my appreciation of other cultures?

REFERENCES

Alata, E.J., & Ignacio, E.J. (2019). Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the
Curriculum. Rex Book Store.

Lanuza, G., &Raymundo S. (2016). Understanding Culture, Society and Politics. Rex Book
Store

Leaño, Jr., Roman D., et al. (2018). Ethics for College Students. Mindshapers Co., Inc.
 28

CHAPTER 7: THE FILIPINO WAY

We all are born into a culture. In our case, it is the Filipino culture. We had been
brought up by this culture and the way we look at things and how we relate with one another
speak volumes of who we are and what we had been through.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you will be expected to:
1. analyze crucial qualities of the Filipino moral identity in their own moral experiences;
2. evaluate elements that need to be changed; and
3. feel proud of one‘s heritage.
Activity
On a separate sheet of paper, fill up a T-chart on the strength and weaknesses of the
Filipino.
Introduction
Our culture is a big reflection of our great and complex history. It is product of the
interaction we had from the different people we have interacted with as a nation. A blend of
the Malayo- Polynesian and Hispanic culture with the influence from Chinese, Indians, Arabs
and other Asian cultures really contribute to the customs and traditions of the Philippines.
Our culture is unique compared to other Asian countries and beliefs applied everyday
in the life of the Filipinos reveal how rich and blessed the culture, we Filipinos have.
One way to understand better our Filipino culture, it is proper and fitting that we take
stock of ourselves by taking a look at our characteristics and see how these can strengthen
the good in our cultural values and correct what is excessive in them and supply for their
deficiencies.
By asking ourselves these questions we will be able to see the light of the why and
how of our being Filipinos: From whom do we draw our self-identity? Where do we find the
deepest meaning in our lives? How do we react to suffering? How do we commit ourselves
to our ideals of life? What is our view of the world in all its depth and hidden reality?
1. Filipino’s self-identity
We are family-oriented. The anak-magulang relationship is of primary importance to
us Filipinos. Ama, ina, anak are culturally and emotionally significant to us Filipinos who
cherish our filial attachment not only to our immediate family, but also to our extended family
(ninongs, ninangs, etc). This family-centeredness supplies a basic sense of belonging,
stability and security. It is from our families that we Filipinos draw our sense of identity.
2. Meaning in Life
We are meal-oriented. (salu-salo, kainan). Because Filipinos consider almost
everyone as part of the family (parang pamilya), we are known for being gracious hosts and
grateful guests. Serving our guests with the best we have is an inborn value to Filipinos, rich
and poor alike. We love to celebrate any and all event with a special meal. Even with
unexpected guests, we Filipinos try our best to offer something, meager as it may be, with
the traditional greeting: Tuloy po kayo at kumainmunatayo.
 29

3. Sufferings in Life
We Filipinos are kundiman-oriented. The kundiman is a sad Filipino song about
wounded love. Filipinos are naturally attracted to heroes sacrificing everything for love. We
are patient and forgiving to a fault (magpapaka-alipinakonangdahilsaiyo). This acceptance of
suffering manifests a deep, positive value of Filipinos‘ kalooban.
4. Life-Commitment
We Filipinos are bayani-oriented. A bayani is a hero. We Filipinos are natural hero-
followers. For all our patience and tolerance, we will not accept ultimate failure and defeat.
We tend instinctively to always personalize any good cause in terms of a leader, especially
when its object is to defend the weak and the oppressed. To protect this innate sense of
human dignity, Filipinos are prepared to lay down even their lives.
5. World-View
We Filipinos are spirit-oriented. We are often said to be naturally psychic. We have a
deep-seated belief in the supernatural and in all kinds of spirits dwelling in individual
persons, places and things. Even in today‘s world of science and technology, Filipinos
continue to invoke the spirits in various undertakings especially in faith-healings and
exorcisms.
Characteristics of Filipino Culture
To the student: On a piece of paper, attach a cut-out picture on the following
characteristics of the Filipino culture. Beside it, write a three-sentence description of it.

1. The Filipino people are very resilient. 6. Filipinos have the longest Christmas
2. Filipinos are very religious. celebration.
3. Filipinos are very respectful. 7. Filipinos love art and architecture.
4. Filipinos help one another. 8. Filipinos are hospitable people.
5. Filipinos value traditions and culture.

Filipino Family Values

To the student: On a piece of paper, describe the following Filipino Family Values in
the way you experience these with your own families.
1. Paggalang 5. Hiya
2. Pakikisama 6. Damayan
3. Utang naLoob 7. Compassionate
4. PagpapahalagasaPamilya 8. Fun-loving trait

Weaknesses of the Filipino Character

To the student: On a piece of paper, suggest one or two courses of action for every
weakness of the Filipino character.
1. Passivity and lack of initiative 6. Lack of discipline
2. Colonial Mentality 7. Lack of self-analysis and reflection
3. Kanya-kanya syndrome 8. Ningas cogon
4. Extreme personalism 9. Gaya-gaya mentality
5. Extreme family centeredness
 30

ASSESSMENT
On a separate sheet of paper, do the following activities..

1. Make an analysis of the song Ako ay Pilipino on the qualities of the moral identity of the
Filipino.

2. Describe the elements of the Filipino way of living as described in Horacio de la Costa‘s
―Jewels of the Pauper.‖

3. Create a poem/free verse/song, draw a symbol or make an essay on your pride as a

Filipino and on your promise to propagate the Filipino culture wherever you may go.

REFERENCES
Abesamis, J.T., & Franco, M. (2014). Society and Culture A Liberal Approach to
Understanding Humanity. Mutya Publishing House, Inc.

Philippines, C. C. P. C. O. T., Catholic Church. Plenary Council of the Philippines, & Catholic
Church. Bishops‘ Conference of the Philippines. (2004). Acts and Decrees of the Second
Plenary Council of the Philippines. Penguin Random House.

Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (2008). Catechism for Filipino Catholics.
Manila: Phoenix Publishing House.

Leaño, Jr., Roman D., et al. (2018). Ethics for College Students. Mindshapers Co., Inc.
 31

CHAPTER 8: UNIVERSAL VALUES

Embedded in our personality are universal values enshrined in our hearts by the
Creator. These values are of paramount importance in one‘s life. These are what one
cherish and treasure such that they provide motivation and guidance to one‘s actions.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After undergoing the lesson, you are expected to:

1. describe human values;

2. explain that human values are necessary for human survival; and

3. strive to live a value-laden life

Activity

On a sheet of paper, draw a big circle with your name on it. Around your name, write
the values that you cherish most in life.

Universal Values Defined

Values represent aspirations and goals: the motives and purposes we seek. They are
emotionally charged. They give power to our ideas and understandings such that they
constitute the driving force behind individual and group behaviors. The term is also used to
designate the moral characteristics that are inherent in a subject such as piety,
responsibility, secularism and respect among others.Universal, however is an adjective that
is related to what belongs or which relates to the universe. The concept refers to the set of
all things created and what is common to all its kind.

These concepts enable us to approach the notion of universal value. Universal

values are formed byimplied behavioral standards that are necessary to live in a harmonious
and peaceful society. It is a notion that is associated with morality and ethics. All people
have certain values that come from their depths and guide their actions. Because humans
do not think all the same way, values can vary from one person to the next. However,
universal values have to be socially shared. Universal values are acquired from family
upbringing and education because the process of socialization involves the internalization of
timeless concepts.

Schwartz’s Concept of Universal Values

The results of a 44 countries study conducted by S. H. Schwartz and his colleagues

suggest that there are fifty-six specific universal values and ten types of universal values
surveyed from a wide range of different cultural types. Below are each of the value types
with the specific related values alongside:

1. Power – social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources

2. Achievement – personal success by demonstrating competence according to social

standards

3. Hedonism – pleasure or sensuous gratification of oneself

4. Stimulation – excitement, novelty and challenge in life

 32

5. Self-direction – independent thought and action – choosing, creating and exploring

6. Universalism – understanding, appreciation, tolerance and protection for the welfare of

all people and for nature

7. Benevolence – preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one
is in frequent personal contact

8. Tradition – respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that
traditional culture or religion provide

9. Conformity – restraint of actions, inclinations and impulses likely to upset or harm others
and violate social expectations or norms

10. Security – safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships and of self

Interestingly, Schwartz tested an eleventh possible universal value which was

spirituality or the goalof finding meaning in life, however, he found out that not all cultures
seem to recognize it.

UN Charter of Universal Values

The values enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations (UN) states that respect
for fundamental human rights, social justice and human dignity, and respect for the equal
rights of men and women serve as overarching values to which suppliers of good and
services to the UN are expected to adhere.

The former UN Secretary General, Khofi Ann in a speech in Germany emphasized

that certain fundamental values are essential to international relations in the 21st century and
probably beyond. These are: progress, equal rights, human dignity, freedom, equality,
solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility.

Basic Human Values

The function of most of these basic values is to make it possible for every human
being to realize or maintain the highest level or most basic universal values of life, love and
happiness. Here are some of the basic universal human values:

BASIC UNIVERSAL HUMAN VALUES DEFINITION

1. Happiness 1. reward for a religious life by an afterlife

in paradise

2. ultimate value of religious people

3. Peace 4. basic condition for freedom and

happiness

5. not just the absence of war

6. Love 7. feelings or experience of deep

connectedness or oneness with
another human being, any animal,
plant, tree or unnamable
 33

8. experience of something far beyond

any comprehension and totally
indescribable

9. may happen when one opens to the

beauty and nature of other people or to
the beauty and mystery of nature in
general or even beautiful things

10. Freedom 11. experience of the unrestricted

12. independent of the social pressure of

another

13. related with empathy, integrity, and

respect

14. Safety 15. free of threat, fear and survival-stress

16. freedom form emotional fear,

helplessness and anxiety

17. Intelligence 18. capacity for logic, understanding, self-

awareness, learning, emotional
knowledge, reasoning, planning,
creativity and problem solving

19. ability to perceive or infer information

and retain it as knowledge to be
applied towards adaptive behaviors
within an environment or context

20. Respect 21. comes basically out of the

understanding that deep down the
other person is the same as we are
ourselves

22. the most basic principle of any social

communication coming out of our
perception, empathy and awareness
that the other is basically as we are
ourselves

23. Equality 24. originated from old French or Latin

words as aequalis, aequus, aequalitas
(even, level, equal)

25. right to claim equal liberties with others

26. absence of discrimination

 34

27. Justice 28. proper administration of the law

29. fair and equitable treatment of all

individuals under the law

30. needed to realize and maintain our

highest human values of freedom,
peace, love and happiness

31. Nature 32. understanding our physical

dependence of nature

33. awareness of being a part of the whole

system of the created world

34. Health 35. state of complete physical, mental and

social well-being and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity

36. resource for everyday life not the

objective of living

37. positive concept emphasizing social

and personal resources as well as
physical capacities

ASSESSMENT

On a separate sheet of papers, do as directed.

1. Write a cinquain describing any of the basic human values explained in the lesson.

2. Compose a diamante poem on any of the basic human values explained in the lesson.

3. Make a three-column chart on the eleven basic human values. On the first column fill it
up with the 11 Basic Human Values. On the second column, relate how this value is being
applied today. On the third column, make your personal commitment how you will live out
these values in your daily living.

REFERENCES

Bulaong, O., et. al (2018). Ethics Foundation of Moral Valuation. Rex Book Store.

Leaño, Jr., Roman D., et al. (2018). Ethics for College Students. Mindshapers Co., Inc.

Quisumbing, L., &Baybay, M.L. (2009). Learning to Know for a Peaceful and Sustainable
Future. UNESCOAPCEIU.

Quisumbing, L., & de Leo, J. (2005). Learning to Do Values to Learning and Working
Together in a Globalized World. UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical
and Vocational Education and Training
 35

CHAPTER 9: UNIVERSAL VALUES and HUMAN SURVIVAL

A value is a universal value if it has the same value or worth for all. Universal values
apply across the world (across country, culture and religion).

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

1. understand the ideas of universal values;

2. determine the process on the uncovering of the universal values; and

3. value the importance of universal values.

Activity

Write something about yourself in detail. What are the goals in your life? How do you
set your goals in your life? How do you differentiate between right and wrong? What have
been your achievements and shortcomings in your life?

Introduction

The term ―value‖ means something that an individual or community believes has a
worth that merits it being pursued, promoted, or privileged. This can be a thing (money, food,
art), a state of mind (peace, security, certainty) or a behavior that results from those things or
states of mind (protecting innocents, telling the truth, being creative). A value is not the same
as a desire. To desire something means wanting a thing without much reflection on it; that is,
a desire might come from an instinct, urge, or physical need. A value may originate in a
desire or a series of desires, but a value arises after reflection on whether or not the thing I
desire is good. Philosophers focus on how we get from our desires to our values often by
focusing on the word good. One philosopher, G. E. Moore (1873-1958), argued that the word
―good‖ cannot really be defined because there is no standard against which we can discover
what goodness means. He called this inability to define evaluative terms ―the naturalistic
fallacy‖ because it assumes that there is something in nature or in reality that evaluative
terms can match. He argued that good was a non-naturalistic quality, because it cannot be
verified by science (Baldwin, 2010).

Every individual will value certain things, states of minds or behaviours as these
relate to his or her upbringing and social context. Every community will privilege certain
things, states and behaviours as a result of its geographical location, historical trajectory, or
ideational background. To claim that there are universal values, however, means seeking to
uncover something that applies across all persons and communities as a result of their very
humanity. Such universal values might be derived from scientific investigation, social science
testing, or philosophical reflection. They might also arise from more nefarious methods, such
as imperial practices, ideological and religious proselytizing, or economic exploitation.

To explore universal values, then, requires attention not only to the values
themselves but the ways in which they have appeared in the current global order. Values are
the subject of ethical investigation. Sometimes the terms ethics, morality and values are
conflated into one subject. In English, it is common to use these terms interchangeably, but
philosophers distinguish them in the following way. Values and morals are closely related,
 36

though morals and morality, according to most philosophers, result from rationality, while
values might arise from social contexts, emotional dispositions, or rationality. As noted
above, a value is different from a simple desire, for the former is something that we want
after some reflection upon whether it is actually a good thing.

Ethics, on the other hand, is the study of morals, including their origins, their uses,
their justifications, and their relationships. There have been efforts to articulate universal
human values. Professor Hans Kung, a Catholic theologian who teaches at the University of
Tubingen in Germany, helped to create a Parliament of World Religions which issued a
Declaration Toward a Global Ethic. The Hindu spiritual leader Sri Ravi Shankar also issued a
Universal Declaration of Human Values. Both of these documents emphasize values, and
overlap in many important ways. How can we find universal values? There are many ways to
investigate the existence of such values. Those approaches can perhaps be organized into
three broad categories: scientific, historical, and dialectic.

These categories can be represented by three different philosophers: Aristotle,

Mencius, and Jürgen Habermas. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) is considered one of the three
great philosophers of Ancient Greece. From Macedonia, he moved to Athens as a young
man where he became a student of Plato, another great philosopher (428-348 B.C.), who
himself was a student of Socrates (470-399 B.C.), perhaps the greatest Greek philosopher
of antiquity. Socrates did not write anything down, but interrogated the people of Athens
about what they valued. In those interrogations, he would often raise more questions than
answers, pointing out how established traditions do not really reflect what is good for the
human person. Plato, who wrote many dialogues using the person of Socrates as his main
character, argued that ethics and values should be understood through the idea of virtues, or
the standard of excellence within particular activities as a guide for how to act. For example,
being a good captain means ensuring that a ship does not crash, E4J University Module
Series: Integrity & Ethics Module 2: Ethics and Universal Values 4 that its goods and people
arrive safely at port, and that a ship remains seaworthy. When it comes to universal values,
however, we are talking about what it means to be not just a good pilot but a good human
being.

Aristotle took Plato‘s main idea about the virtues and tried to ground it in empirical
observations; hence, he took a scientific approach to finding out what is good and what is a
universal value. Aristotle did this by comparing people to other non-human animals and
comparing different political communities. So, for Aristotle, to understand the virtue of the
human person means looking for those activities which the best people do and which make
them happy. He argued that there are two activities that differentiate human beings from all
other animals: humans think and humans live in political communities. We do know that
other animals have some ability for critical reflection, such as other primates and dolphins.
And, we know that some other animals live in what look like organized political communities,
such as primates, dolphins, and even ants. But no other animals use language, giving
humans the ability to reflect critically on what they are thinking and doing. The Greek word
logos means both language and reason, and it is that word that provides Aristotle the key to
finding the good and value for the human person. Humans are defined by the combination of
these two sets of activities. Aristotle concluded that the best possible person is one who
engages in two types of activity: critical reflection and political activity. He called the first set
of activities the intellectual virtues and the second set of activities the practical virtues.
 37

Aristotle believed that people need to be educated into the virtues. Individuals might
desire many things which they believe will make them happy, such as wealth, food, drink,
sex, or power. Each of these is important, according to Aristotle, but all of them, on
reflection, need to be enjoyed in moderation in order to become truly valued. Only by using
our rationality for thinking and creating a community in which thinking is encouraged, and in
which education is valued, can universal values flourish (Shields, 2016). A second approach
to discovering universal values is to focus on history and tradition. The Chinese philosopher
Mencius (372-289 B.C.) lived at roughly the same time as Aristotle. Just as Aristotle was a
student of Plato who studied under Socrates, so Mencius was a disciple of the great Chinese
philosopher, Confucius (551- 479 B.C.). Some believe that Mencius studied under the
grandson of Confucius, though this is disputed. Mencius is sometimes called the ―second
great Confucian scholar‖, as he developed and improved upon the ideas of Confucius in
important ways. Confucius, perhaps the most famous Chinese philosopher, argued for a
moral theory based on virtues. One virtue in particular was the most important; ren, or
benevolence to others. But this compassion was not directed at all people, but rather to
those within certain social systems, beginning with the family. This means that being a good
person means understanding one‘s place in society and understanding the traditions and
rules that arise from that place. A central principle of Confucius is respect for one‘s elders.

Universal or Core Ethical Values

Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship — are six

core ethical values. Using core ethical values as the basis for ethical thinking can help detect
situations where we focus so hard on upholding one value that we sacrifice another — e.g.
we are loyal to friends and so do not always tell the truth about their actions.

1. Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness concerns a variety of behavioral qualities — honesty, integrity,

reliability and loyalty.

Honesty

There is no more fundamental ethical value than honesty. We associate honesty with
people of honor, and we admire and trust those who are honest.

Honesty in communications is about intent to convey the truth as best we know it

and to avoid communicating in a way likely to mislead or deceive.

There are three dimensions:

Truthfulness — truthfulness means not intentionally misrepresenting a fact (lying).

Intent is the crucial distinction between truthfulness and truth itself. Being wrong is not the
same thing as being a liar, although honest mistakes can still damage trust.

Sincerity/non-deception — a sincere person does not act, say half-truths, or stay

silent with the intention of creating beliefs or leaving impressions that are untrue or
misleading.

Frankness — In relationships involving trust, honesty may also require us to

volunteer information that another person needs to know.
 38

Honesty in conduct prohibits stealing, cheating, fraud, and trickery. Cheating is not
only dishonest but takes advantage of those who are not cheating. It‘s a violation of trust and
fairness. Not all lies are unethical, even though all lies are dishonest. Occasionally
dishonesty is ethically justifiable, such as when the police lie in undercover operations or
when one lies to criminals or terrorists to save lives. But occasions for ethically sanctioned
lying are rare – e.g. saving a life.

Integrity

There are no differences in the way an ethical person makes decisions from situation
to situation - no difference in the way they act at work and at home, in public and alone. The
person of integrity takes time for self-reflection so that the events, crises and the necessities
of the day do not determine the course of their moral life. They stay in control.

The four enemies of integrity are:

• Self-interest — Things we want

• Self-protection — Things we don‘t want

• Self-deception — A refusal to see a situation clearly

• Self-righteousness — The end-justifies-the-means attitude

Reliability

When we make promises or commitments to people our ethical duties go beyond

legal obligations. The ethical dimension of promise-keeping imposes the responsibility of
making all reasonable efforts to fulfill our commitments.

It is also important to:

Avoid bad-faith excuses — Honorable people don't rationalize noncompliance or

create justifications for escaping commitments.

Avoid unwise commitments — Before making a promise consider carefully

whether you are willing and likely to keep it. Think about unknown or future events that could
make it difficult, undesirable or impossible to keep your commitment. Sometimes, all we can
do is promise to do our best.

Avoid unclear commitments — Since others will expect you to live up to what they
think you have promised to do, be sure that, when you make a promise, the other person
understands what you are committing to do.

Loyalty

Loyalty is about promoting and protecting the interests of certain people,

organizations or affiliations. Some relationships — husband-wife, employer-employee,
citizen-country — create an expectation of loyalty.

Prioritizing Loyalties. Because so many individuals and groups make loyalty claims
on us, it is often impossible to honor them all simultaneously. Consequently, we must rank
our loyalty obligations in some rational fashion. In our personal lives, for example, it‘s
perfectly reasonable, and ethical, to look out for the interests of our children, parents and
 39

spouses even if we have to subordinate our obligations to other children, neighbors, or co-
workers in doing so.

Safeguarding Confidential Information. Loyalty requires us to keep secrets or

information learned in confidence.

Avoiding Conflicting Interests. Employees and public servants have an additional

responsibility to make all professional decisions on merit not personal interests. Their goal is
to maintain the trust of the public.

2. Respect

Respect is about honoring the essential worth and dignity of all people, including
oneself. We are morally obligated to treat everyone with respect, regardless of who they are
and what they have done. We have a responsibility to be the best we can be in all situations,
even when dealing with unpleasant people.

Respect focuses on:

Civility, Courtesy and Decency - A respectful person is a good listener. The

respectful person treats others with consideration, conforming to accepted notions of taste
and propriety, and doesn‘t resort to intimidation, coercion or violence except in extraordinary
and limited situations to teach discipline, maintain order or achieve social justice.

Tolerance - An ethical person accepts individual differences and beliefs and judges
others only on their character.

3. Responsibility

Life is full of choices. Being responsible means being in charge of our choices and
therefore our lives. It means being accountable for what we do and who we are. It also
means recognizing that what we do, and what we don‘t do, matters.

Accountability

An accountable person is not a victim and doesn‘t shift blame or claim credit for the
work of others.

Pursuit of Excellence

The pursuit of excellence has an ethical dimension when others rely upon our
knowledge, ability or willingness to perform tasks safely and effectively.

Diligence. Responsible people are reliable, careful, prepared and informed.

Perseverance. Responsible people finish what they start, overcoming rather than
surrendering to obstacles and excuses.

Continuous Improvement. Responsible people look for ways to do their work

better.
 40

Self-Restraint

Responsible people exercise self-control, restraining passions and appetites (such as

lust, hatred, gluttony, greed and fear). They delay gratification if necessary and never feel it‘s
necessary to "win at any cost."

4. Fairness

Fairness is a tricky concept. Disagreeing parties tend to maintain that there is only
one fair position - their own. But while some situations and decisions are clearly unfair,
fairness usually refers to a range of morally justifiable outcomes rather than discovery of one
fair answer.

Process

A fair person uses open and unbiased processes for gathering and evaluating
information necessary to make decisions. Fair people do not wait for the truth to come to
them; they seek out relevant information and conflicting perspectives before making
important decisions.

Impartiality

Decisions should be unbiased without favoritism or prejudice.

Equity

It is important not to take advantage of the weakness, disadvantage or ignorance of

others. Fairness requires that an individual, company, or society correct mistakes, promptly
and voluntarily.

5. Caring

Caring is the heart of ethics. It is scarcely possible to be truly ethical and not
genuinely concerned with the welfare others. That is because ethics is ultimately about our
responsibilities toward other people. Sometimes we must hurt those we care for and some
decisions, while quite ethical, do cause pain. But one should consciously cause no more
harm than is reasonably necessary.

6. Citizenship

The concept of citizenship includes how we ought to behave as part of a community.

The good citizen knows the laws and obeys them - but they also volunteer and stay informed
on the issues of the day. Citizens do more than their "fair" share to make society work, now
and for future generations. Citizenship can have many expressions, such as conserving
resources, recycling, using public transportation and cleaning up litter.

Universal Values are necessary for human survival

The universal values are clear that we need for us human beings to survive because
it informs us our thoughts, actions, and words. Universal values are helping us to grow our
everyday as a dignified person, it help us also to develop our skills, talents and human
dignity. Universal values also helping us to create better future. Each one of us are entitled
and well involved in making right decisions every day.
 41

Our values inform our thoughts, words and actions.

Our values are important because they help us to grow and develop. They help us to
create the future we want to experience.

Every individual and every organization is involved in making hundreds of decisions

every day. The decisions we make reflect our values and beliefs, and they are always
directed towards a specific purpose. That purpose is the satisfaction of our individual or
collective (organizational) needs.

When we use our values to make decisions, we make a deliberate choice to focus on
what is important to us. When values are shared, they build internal cohesion in a group.
There are four types of values that we find in an organizational setting: individual
values, relationship values, organizational values and societal values.

Individual values
Individual values reflect how you show up in your life and your specific needs-the
principles you live by and what you consider important for your self-interest. Individual values
include enthusiasm, creativity, humility and personal fulfilment.

Relationship values
Relationship values reflect how you relate to other people in your life, be they friends,
family or colleagues in your organization. Relationship values
include openness, trust, generosity and caring.

Organizational values
Organizational values reflect how your organization shows up and operates in the
world. Organizational values include financial growth, teamwork, productivity and strategic
alliances.

Societal values
Societal values reflect how you or your organization relates to society. Societal
values include future generations, environmental awareness, ecology and sustainability.

ASSESSMENT

On a sheet of paper answer the following:

1. Show your understanding of universal values through a drawing or a collage.

2. Determine the process on how universal values can be uncovered.

3. Why is universal value important? Explain.

 42

REFERENCES

George Edward Moore (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Summer 2010 Edition). (2004,

March 26). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2010/entries/moore/

Edward N. Zalta, ed. Available fromhttps://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2010/entries/moor

 43

CHAPTER 10
DEVELOPMENT AND STAGES OF MORAL CHARACTER
Morals are principles and values based on what a person or society believes are the
right, proper, or acceptable ways of behaving. Values of a person or group are the moral
principles and beliefs that they think are important in life and that they tend to live their lives
by such values as guiding principles.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:

a. analyze the meaning and importance of moral character formation,

b. describe the stages of moral development,
c. value the importance of knowing the stages of moral development.

Activity
On a piece of paper in three to five sentences, discuss the need to know the difference
between right from wrong and vice versa.

Introduction

Morality is a system of beliefs about what is right and good compared to what is
wrong or bad. Moral development refers to changes in moral beliefs as a person grows older
and gains maturity. Moral beliefs are related to, but not identical with, moral behavior: it is
possible to know the right thing to do, but not actually do it. It is also not the same as
knowledge of social conventions, which are arbitrary customs needed for the smooth
operation of society. Social conventions may have a moral element, but they have a
primarily practical purpose. Conventionally, for example, motor vehicles all keep to the same
side of the street (to the right in the United States, to the left in Great Britain). The
convention allows for smooth, accident-free flow of traffic. But following the convention also
has a moral element, because an individual who chooses to drive on the wrong side of the
street can cause injuries or even death. In this sense, choosing the wrong side of the street
is wrong morally, though the choice is also unconventional.

Biographical introduction

An outstanding example of research in the Piagetian tradition is the work of

Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg has focused on moral development and has proposed a stage
theory of moral thinking which goes well beyond Piaget's initial formulations.

Kohlberg, who was born in 1927, grew up in Bronxville, New York, and attended the
Andover Academy in Massachusetts, a private high school for bright and usually wealthy
students. He did not go immediately to college, but instead went to help the Israeli cause, in
which he was made the Second Engineer on an old freighter carrying refugees from parts of
Europe to Israel. After this, in 1948, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he
scored so high on admission tests that he had to take only a few courses to earn his
bachelor's degree. This he did in one year. He stayed on at Chicago for graduate work in
psychology, at first thinking he would become a clinical psychologist. However, he soon
 44

became interested in Piaget and began interviewing children and adolescents on moral
issues. The result was his doctoral dissertation (1958a), the first rendition of his new stage
theory.

Kohlberg is an informal, unassuming man who also is a true scholar; he has thought
long and deeply about a wide range of issues in both psychology and philosophy and has
done much to help others appreciate the wisdom of many of the "old psychologists," such as
Rousseau, John Dewey, and James Mark Baldwin. Kohlberg has taught at the University of
Chicago (1962-1968) and, since 1968, has been at Harvard University.

Piaget's stages of Moral Judgment

Piaget studied many aspects of moral judgment, but most of his findings fit into a
two-stage theory. Children younger than 10 or 11 years think about moral dilemmas one
way; older children consider them differently. As we have seen, younger children regard
rules as fixed and absolute. They believe that rules are handed down by adults or by God
and that one cannot change them. The older child's view is more relativistic. He or she
understands that it is permissible to change rules if everyone agrees. Rules are not sacred
and absolute but are devices which humans use to get along cooperatively.

At approximately the same time--10 or 11 years--children's moral thinking undergoes

other shifts. In particular, younger children base their moral judgments more on
consequences, whereas older children base their judgments on intentions. When, for
example, the young child hears about one boy who broke 15 cups trying to help his mother
and another boy who broke only one cup trying to steal cookies, the young child thinks that
the first boy did worse. The child primarily considers the amount of damage--the
consequences--whereas the older child is more likely to judge wrongness in terms of the
motives underlying the act (Piaget, 1932).

There are many more details to Piaget's work on moral judgment, but he essentially
found a series of changes that occur between the ages of 10 and 12, just when the child
begins to enter the general stage of formal operations.

Intellectual development, however, does not stop at this point. This is just the
beginning of formal operations, which continue to develop at least until age 16. Accordingly,
one might expect thinking about moral issues to continue to develop throughout
adolescence. Kohlberg therefore interviewed both children and adolescents about moral
dilemmas, and he did find stages that go well beyond Piaget's. He uncovered six stages,
only the first three of which share many features with Piaget's stages.

Kohlberg's method

Kohlberg's (1958a) core sample was comprised of 72 boys, from both middle- and
lower-class families in Chicago. They were ages 10, 13, and 16. He later added to his
sample younger children, delinquents, and boys and girls from other American cities and
from other countries (1963, 1970).
 45

The basic interview consists of a series of dilemmas such as the following:

Heinz Steals the Drug

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that
the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town
had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging
ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000
for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew
to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $ 1,000 which is half of what it
cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him
pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money
from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug-for his wife.
Should the husband have done that? (Kohlberg, 1963, p. 19)

Kohlberg’s morality of justice

One of the best-known explanations of how morality of justice develops was

developed by Lawrence Kohlberg and his associates (Kohlberg, Levine, & Hewer, 1983;
Power, Higgins, & Kohlberg, 1991). Using a stage model similar to Piaget‘s, Kohlberg
proposed six stages of moral development, grouped into three levels. Individuals experience
the stages universally and in sequence as they form beliefs about justice. He named the
levels simply preconvention, conventional, and (you guessed it) post conventional.

Preconventional justice: Obedience and Mutual Advantage

The preconventional level of moral development coincides approximately with the

preschool period of life and with Piaget‘s preoperational period of thinking. At this age the
child is still relatively self-centered and insensitive to the moral effects of actions on others.
The result is a somewhat short-sighted orientation to morality. Initially (Kohlberg‘s Stage 1),
the child adopts an ethics of obedience and punishment—a sort of ―morality of keeping out
of trouble.‖ The rightness and wrongness of actions is determined by whether actions are
rewarded or punished by authorities such as parents or teachers. If helping yourself to a
cookie brings affectionate smiles from adults, then taking the cookie is considered morally
―good.‖ If it brings scolding instead, then it is morally ―bad.‖ The child does not think about
why an action might be praised or scolded; in fact, says Kohlberg, he would be incapable at
Stage 1 of considering the reasons even if adults offered them.

Eventually the child learns not only to respond to positive consequences, but also
learns how to produce them by exchanging favors with others. The new ability creates Stage
2, an ethics of market exchange. At this stage the morally ―good‖ action is one that favors
not only the child, but another person directly involved. A ―bad‖ action is one that lacks this
reciprocity. If trading the sandwich from your lunch for the cookies in your friend‘s lunch is
mutually agreeable, then the trade is morally good; otherwise it is not. This perspective
introduces a type of fairness into the child‘s thinking for the first time. But it still ignores the
larger context of actions—the effects on people not present or directly involved. In Stage 2,
for example, it would also be considered morally ―good‖ to pay a classmate to do another
student‘s homework—or even to avoid bullying or to provide sexual favors—provided that
both parties regard the arrangement as being fair.
 46

Conventional justice: Conformity to peers and society

As children move into the school years, their lives expand to include a larger number
and range of peers and (eventually) of the community as a whole. The change leads to
conventional morality, which are beliefs based on what this larger array of people agree on—
hence Kohlberg‘s use of the term ―conventional.‖ At first, in Stage 3, the child‘s reference
group are immediate peers, so Stage 3 is sometimes called the ethics of peer opinion. If
peers believe, for example, that it is morally good to behave politely with as many people as
possible, then the child is likely to agree with the group and to regard politeness as not
merely an arbitrary social convention, but a moral ―good.‖ This approach to moral belief is a
bit more stable than the approach in Stage 2, because the child is taking into account the
reactions not just of one other person, but of many. But it can still lead astray if the group
settles on beliefs that adults consider morally wrong, like ―Shop lifting for candy bars is fun
and desirable.‖

Eventually, as the child becomes a youth and the social world expands even more,
he or she acquires even larger numbers of peers and friends. He or she is therefore more
likely to encounter disagreements about ethical issues and beliefs. Resolving the
complexities lead to Stage 4, the ethics of law and order, in which the young person
increasingly frames moral beliefs in terms of what the majority of society believes. Now, an
action is morally good if it is legal or at least customarily approved by most people, including
people whom the youth does not know personally. This attitude leads to an even more stable
set of principles than in the previous stage, though it is still not immune from ethical
mistakes. A community or society may agree, for example, that people of a certain race
should be treated with deliberate disrespect, or that a factory owner is entitled to dump
waste water into a commonly shared lake or river. To develop ethical principles that reliably
avoid mistakes like these require further stages of moral development.

Postconventional justice: Social Contract and Universal Principles

As a person becomes able to think abstractly (or ―formally,‖ in Piaget‘s sense), ethical
beliefs shift from acceptance of what the community does believe to the process by which
community beliefs are formed. The new focus constitutes Stage 5, the ethics of social
contract. Now an action, belief, or practice is morally good if it has been created through fair,
democratic processes that respect the rights of the people affected. Consider, for example,
the laws in some areas that require motorcyclists to wear helmets. In what sense are the
laws about this behavior ethical? Was it created by consulting with and gaining the consent
of the relevant people? Were cyclists consulted and did they give consent? Or how about
doctors or the cyclists‘ families? Reasonable, thoughtful individuals disagree about how
thoroughly and fairly these consultation processes should be. In focusing on the processes
by which the law was created, however, individuals are thinking according to Stage 5, the
ethics of social contract, regardless of the position they take about wearing helmets. In this
sense, beliefs on both sides of a debate about an issue can sometimes be morally sound
even if they contradict each other.

Paying attention to due process certainly seems like it should help to avoid mindless
conformity to conventional moral beliefs. As an ethical strategy, though, it too can sometimes
fail. The problem is that an ethics of social contract places more faith in democratic process
than the process sometimes deserves, and does not pay enough attention to the content of
 47

what gets decided. In principle (and occasionally in practice), a society could decide
democratically to kill off every member of a racial minority, for example, but would deciding
this by due process make it ethical? The realization that ethical means can sometimes serve
unethical ends leads some individuals toward Stage 6, the ethics of self-chosen, universal
principles. At this final stage, the morally good action is based on personally held principles
that apply both to the person‘s immediate life as well as to the larger community and society.
The universal principles may include a belief in democratic due process (Stage 5 ethics), but
also other principles, such as a belief in the dignity of all human life or the sacredness of the
natural environment. At Stage 6, the universal principles will guide a person‘s beliefs even if
the principles mean disagreeing occasionally with what is customary (Stage 4) or even with
what is legal (Stage 5).

Gilligan’s Morality of Care

As logical as they sound, Kohlberg‘s stages of moral justice are not sufficient for
understanding the development of moral beliefs. To see why, suppose that you have a
student who asks for an extension of the deadline for an assignment. The justice orientation
of Kohlberg‘s theory would prompt you to consider issues of whether granting the request is
fair. Would the late student be able to put more effort into the assignment than other
students? Would the extension place a difficult demand on you, since you would have less
time to mark the assignments? These are important considerations related to the rights of
students and the teacher. In addition to these, however, are considerations having to do with
the responsibilities that you and the requesting student have for each other and for others.
Does the student have a valid personal reason (illness, death in the family, etc.) for the
assignment being late? Will the assignment lose its educational value if the student has to
turn it in prematurely? These latter questions have less to do with fairness and rights, and
more to do with taking care of and responsibility for students. They require a framework
different from Kohlberg‘s to be understood fully.

One such framework has been developed by Carol Gilligan, whose ideas center on a
morality of care, or system of beliefs about human responsibilities, care, and consideration
for others. Gilligan proposed three moral positions that represent different extents or breadth
of ethical care. Unlike Kohlberg, Piaget, or Erikson, she does not claim that the positions
form a strictly developmental sequence, but only that they can be ranked hierarchically
according to their depth or subtlety. In this respect her theory is ―semi-developmental‖ in a
way similar to Maslow‘s theory of motivation (Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Taylor, Gilligan, &
Sullivan, 1995).

Position 1: Caring as Survival

The most basic kind of caring is a survival orientation, in which a person is

concerned primarily with his or her own welfare. If a teenage girl with this ethical position is
wondering whether to get an abortion, for example, she will be concerned entirely with the
effects of the abortion on herself. The morally good choice will be whatever creates the least
stress for herself and that disrupts her own life the least. Responsibilities to others (the baby,
the father, or her family) play little or no part in her thinking.

As a moral position, a survival orientation is obviously not satisfactory for classrooms

on a widespread scale. If every student only looked out for himself or herself, classroom life
might become rather unpleasant! Nonetheless, there are situations in which focusing
 48

primarily on yourself is both a sign of good mental health and relevant to teachers. For a
child who has been bullied at school or sexually abused at home, for example, it is both
healthy and morally desirable to speak out about how bullying or abuse has affected the
victim. Doing so means essentially looking out for the victim‘s own needs at the expense of
others‘ needs, including the bully‘s or abuser‘s. Speaking out, in this case, requires a
survival orientation and is healthy because the child is taking caring of herself

Position 2: Conventional Caring

A more subtle moral position is caring for others, in which a person is concerned
about others‘ happiness and welfare, and about reconciling or integrating others‘ needs
where they conflict with each other. In considering an abortion, for example, the teenager at
this position would think primarily about what other people prefer. Do the father, her parents,
and/or her doctor want her to keep the child? The morally good choice becomes whatever
will please others the best. This position is more demanding than Position 1, ethically and
intellectually, because it requires coordinating several persons‘ needs and values. But it is
often morally insufficient because it ignores one crucial person: the self.

In classrooms, students who operate from Position 2 can be very desirable in some
ways; they can be eager to please, considerate, and good at fitting in and at working
cooperatively with others. Because these qualities are usually welcome in a busy classroom,
teachers can be tempted to reward students for developing and using them. The problem
with rewarding Position 2 ethics, however, is that doing so neglects the student‘s
development—his or her own academic and personal goals or values. Sooner or later,
personal goals, values, and identity need attention and care, and educators have a
responsibility for assisting students to discover and clarify them.

Position 3: Integrated Caring

The most developed form of moral caring in Gilligan‘s model is integrated caring,
the coordination of personal needs and values with those of others. Now the morally good
choice takes account of everyone including yourself, not everyone except yourself. In
considering an abortion, a woman at Position 3 would think not only about the consequences
for the father, the unborn child, and her family, but also about the consequences for herself.
How would bearing a child affect her own needs, values, and plans? This perspective leads
to moral beliefs that are more comprehensive, but ironically are also more prone to
dilemmas because the widest possible range of individuals are being considered.

In classrooms, integrated caring is most likely to surface whenever teachers give

students wide, sustained freedom to make choices. If students have little flexibility about
their actions, there is little room for considering anyone’s needs or values, whether their own
or others‘. If the teacher says simply: ―Do the homework on page 50 and turn it in tomorrow
morning,‖ then the main issue becomes compliance, not moral choice. But suppose instead
that she says something like this: ―Over the next two months, figure out an inquiry project
about the use of water resources in our town. Organize it any way you want—talk to people,
read widely about it, and share it with the class in a way that all of us, including yourself, will
find meaningful.‖ An assignment like this poses moral challenges that are not only
educational, but also moral, since it requires students to make value judgments. Why? For
one thing, students must decide what aspect of the topic really matters to them. Such a
decision is partly a matter of personal values. For another thing, students have to consider
 49

how to make the topic meaningful or important to others in the class. Third, because the time
line for completion is relatively far in the future, students may have to weigh personal
priorities (like spending time with friends or family) against educational priorities (working on
the assignment a bit more on the weekend). As you might suspect, some students might
have trouble making good choices when given this sort of freedom—and their teachers
might therefore be cautious about giving such an assignment. But the difficulties in making
choices are part of Gilligan‘s point: integrated caring is indeed more demanding than the
caring based only on survival or on consideration of others. Not all students may be ready
for it.

Character Development: Integrating ethical understanding, care, and action

The theories described so far all offer frameworks for understanding how children
grow into youth and adults. Those by Maslow, Kohlberg, and Gilligan are more specific than
the one by Erikson in that they focus on the development of understanding about ethics.
From a teacher‘s point of view, though, the theories are all limited in two ways. One problem
is that they focus primarily on cognition—on what children think about ethical issues—more
than on emotions and actions. The other is that they say little about how to encourage
ethical development. Encouragement is part of teachers‘ jobs, and doing it well requires
understanding not only what students know about ethics, but also how they feel about it and
what ethical actions they are actually prepared to take.

Many educators have recognized these educational needs, and a number of them
have therefore developed practical programs that integrate ethical understanding, care, and
action. As a group the programs are often called character education, though individual
programs have a variety of specific names (for example, moral dilemma
education, integrative ethical education, social competence education, and many more).
Details of the programs vary, but they all combine a focus on ethical knowledge with
attention to ethical feelings and actions (Elkind & Sweet, 2004; Berkowitz & Bier, 2006;
Narvaez, 2010). Character education programs goes well beyond just teaching students to
obey ethical rules, such as ―Always tell the whole truth‖ or ―Always do what the teacher tells
you to do.‖ Such rules require very little thinking on the part of the student, and there are
usually occasions in which a rule that is supposedly universal needs to be modified, ―bent,‖
or even disobeyed. (For example, if telling the whole truth might hurt someone‘s feelings, it
might sometimes be more considerate—and thus more ethical—to soften the truth a bit, or
even to say nothing at all.)

Instead, character education is about inviting students to think about the broad
questions of his or her life, such as ―What kind of person should I be?‖ or ―How should I live
my life?‖ Thoughtful answers to such broad questions help to answer a host of more specific
questions that have ethical implications, such as ―Should I listen to the teacher right now,
even if she is a bit boring, or just tune out?‖ or ―Should I offer to help my friend with the
homework she is struggling with, or hold back so that learns to do it herself?‖ Most of the
time, there is not enough time to reason about questions like these deliberately or
consciously. Responses have to become intuitive, automatic, and embodied—meaning that
they have to be based in fairly immediate emotional responses (Narvaez, 2009). The goal of
character education is to develop students‘ capacities to respond to daily ethical choices not
only consciously and cognitively, but also intuitively and emotionally. To the extent that this
goal is met, students can indeed live a good, ethically responsible life.
 50

Schoolwide programs of Character Education

In the most comprehensive approaches to character education, an entire school

commits itself to developing students‘ ethical character, despite the immense diversity
among students (Minow, Schweder, & Markus, 2008). All members of the staff—not just
teachers and administrators, but also custodians, and educational assistants—focus on
developing positive relationships with students. The underlying theme that develops is one of
cooperation and mutual care, not competition. Fairness, respect and honesty pervade class
and school activities; discipline, for example, focuses on solving conflicts between students
and between students and teachers, rather than on rewarding obedience or punishing
wrong-doers. The approach requires significant reliance on democratic meetings and
discussions, both in classrooms and wherever else groups work together in school.

ASSESSMENT

On a sheet of paper, write the letter of the correct answer.

1. How many main stages of moral development are there?

a. 1 b. 3
c. 5 d. 7
2. How many levels of moral development are there in each stage?
a. 2 b. 4
c. 6 d. 8
3. Does everyone achieve the last stage of moral development?
a. YES b. NO
4. On this stage, children are good so that they can be seen as good to other people.
a. Preconventional/Premoral b. Conventional
c. Post Conventional d. None of the above
5. If a child is good because they do not want to avoid punishment, which stage are the
students in?
a. Preconventional/Premoral b. Conventional
c. Post Conventional d. None of the above
6. On this stage, individual judgment is based on individual rights and justice for the greater
good.
a. Preconventional/Premoral b. Conventional
c. Post Conventional d. None of the above
7. On this stage, the child is aware of wider rules of society. At this point, a student is good
because of what society says.
a. Preconventional/Premoral b. Conventional
c. Post Conventional d. None of the above
8. A child at this stage begins to understand that different individuals have different
viewpoints. In other words, they may understand that what ―dad‖ thinks is right and may be
different from what his/her teacher thinks is right.
a. Preconventional/Premoral b. Conventional
c. Post Conventional d. None of the above
 51

9. People at this stage develop their own set of moral guidelines that may or not fit into the
law. Things like human rights, justice, and equality are most important even if they have to
go against society and have to face consequences.
a. Preconventional/Premoral b. Conventional
c. Post Conventional d. None of the above

10. According to Kohlberg, most people will reach the highest stage of moral development.
a. TRUE b. FALSE

REFERENCES

Berkowitz, M., & Bier, M. (2006). What works in character education: A Research-driven
Guide for Educators. MO: Center for Character and Citizenship.

Brown, L., & Gilligan, C. (1992). Meeting at the crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girls’
Development. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

Elkind, D. & Sweet, F. (2006). How to do character education. Retrieved February 1, 2011
from http://www.goodcharacter.com/Article_4.html.

Kohlberg, L., Levine, C., Hewer, A., &Nucci, L. (1983). Moral Stages: A Current Formulation
and a Response to Critics (Contributions to Human Development, 10.

Minow, M., Shweder, R. A., & Markus, H. R. (2010). Just Schools: Pursuing Equality in
Societies of Difference. Russell Sage Foundation.

Narvaez, D. (2010). Moral Complexity. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(2), 163–

181. DOI: 10.1177/1745691610362351

Taylor, G. J. M. (1995). Between Voice and Silence. Women and Girls, Race & Relationship.
Harvard University Press.

.
 52

CHAPTER 11: PERSONAL GROWTH AND STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Moral development focuses on the emergence, change and understanding of
morality from infancy through adulthood. Morality develops across a lifetime and it is
influenced by an individual experience and their behavior when faced with moral issues
through different period‘s physical and cognitive development. In short, morality concerns an
individual growing sense of what is right and wrong: it is for this reason that young children
have different moral judgement and character than that of a grown adult. Morality in itself is
often a synonym for ―rightness‖ or ―goodness‖. It refers to a certain code of conduct that is
derived from ones culture, religion or personal philosophy that guides one‘s action, behavior
and this term is related to psychology. There are other types of development such as
social development, physical development and cognitive development.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. examine the ethical dimensions of the stages of moral development;

2. differentiate the stages of moral development; and

3. recognize the implications of personal growth and stages of moral development.

Activity

On a sheet of paper, make a timeline on your personal journey as a student.

Highlight the important decisions you made.

Introduction

The following classificatory variables are used for Reidenbach and Robin‘s model of
corporate moral development. ―Management philosophy and attitudes, evidences of ethical
values manifested in the business‘s culture, and the existence and proliferation of
organizational cultural ethics and artifacts.

There are five stages thatcomprise themodel:amoral,legalistic,responsive,emerging

ethical, and ethical. The model is inspired by Lawrence Kohlberg‘s stages of Moral
development. Redenbacher and Robin assert that a direct application of Kohlberg models
not possible since individuals do not develop in the same manner as organization. Briefly,
Kohlberg model is as follows:

Level 1: Pre Conventional Morality

Stage 1: Obedience and punishment: Behavior driven by avoiding punishment

Stage 2: Individual Interest: Behavior driven by interest and awards

Level 2: Conventional morality

Stage 1: Interpersonal:Behavior driven by social approval

Stage 2: Authority: Behavior driven by obeying authority and conforming to social

order.
 53

Level 3: Post Conventional Morality

Stage 1. Social Contract: Behavior Driven by balance of social order and individual
rights.

Stage 2: Universal Ethics: Behavior driven by internal moral principles

Kohlberg‘smodel shows how an individual moral development progresses from being

based on external factors to one that is funded upon internal moral motivation. Just as not
all individual pass through the six stages, the same holds true for business organizations,
according to Reidenbach and Robin. In addition, corporate moral development is not
necessarily a continuous process. As new management or new mergers occur, an
organization experiences a sudden change in ethical climate that signifies either progression
or regression in its moral development.

The stages of moral development

Stage 1. The amoral organization

This type of organization is defined by a ―winning at any cost‖ attitude. Ethics is the
least of its concerns. It is an enterprise completely absorbed in productivity and probability.
It only thinks about ethics when it gets caught in some wrong doing. For this this type of
organization, the only social responsibility of a business is to make a profit. Top
management rules by power and authority and power through a reward system which
supports a go along type of behavior. Those who obey the rules without questions are
rewarded, while those who dare to question management are ultimately punished by
expulsion from the organization. Employees are treated as mere means for productivity and
profit for the enterprise.

Stage 2. The legalistic corporation

Firms in stage two‖ exhibit compliance with the letter of the law as opposed to the
spirit of the law. An organization in this state of moral development exhibits a respect for
laws, codes and regulations. This firm is concerned with following state rules, placing a
premium on the legality of an action over the morality of it. It places a great deal of
responsibility on its legal team to make sure that corporate policies are executed in
accordance with the laws of the state, so as to avoid any legal complications. From this
perspective, what is legal corresponds to what is right. While It shares the principality of the
profit motive with stage one stage two is concerned with the legality of the way by which
profit is gained.

Stage 3. The responsive corporation

This type of corporation begins to acquire values other than profitability and legality.
These firms have it in their interest to do right, but it considers more as an expediency rather
than an end in itself. In other words, these types of corporations are inclined to give in to
societal demands, therefore, realize that business has an obligation to operate with society
in mind. They have a code pf ethics that seeks to align corporate goals with societal
demands. This nascent concern is not motivated by a sense of doing right s sake but rather
 54

is a recognition of the organizations greater social role. At this stage, doing well is a matter
of expediency.

Stage 4. The emergent ethical organization

This type of organization actively seeks greater balance between profit and ethics. It
recognizes the existences of social contact between business and society. The ethical
consequences of any corporate decisions are given weight along with its potentiality for
profitability. Various instruments are designed to make sure that the firm and its various
agents conduct business ethically. Reidenbach and Robin give the example of Boieng and
General Mills to illustrate what happens at this stage. Boieng facilitate ethics training
programs that has installed a toll-free number for employees to report ethical violations.
General Mills recruits individuals that share the same cultural and ethical values with the
company. It also has a set of guidelines for dealing with vendors, competitors and
customers. However, Reidenbach and Robin note that, while responsive corporations begin
to develop ethical mechanisms to increase the probability of the ethical behavior, these
organizations are not yet fully comfortable with their implementation.

In other words, although stage four firmsrecognize the value of ethics, they lack the
necessary proficiency in administering and maximizing the potential of ethical mechanisms.
Nonetheless, there is a real effort in making sure that profits are earned morally.

Stage 5. The ethical organizations

At this stage, normative moral theories are used as guide fordesigning various
organizational activities. There is also a continuing ethical training program that is integrated
with the employee‘s technical training program. This kind of culture has a deep sense of duty
and obligations to what is right and fair. The main difference between stage four and stage
five is the level of dedication the company exhibits in funneling its resources towards the
goal of making the firm truly ethical in all aspect. These five stages illustrate how
corporations vary in their understanding and appreciation of ethics and its relation to the
profit motive. As firms progress up the stages, ethics becomes more integrated in their
operations. This stages help one understand how different companies try to inculcate ethical
behavior in their various dealing with various stakeholders.

ASSESSMENT

On a sheet of paper, do the following:

1. Discuss the five stages of moral development.

2. Assess yourself on what stage of moral development you are experiencing right now. See
if the descriptions fit you. Discuss.
 55

REFERENCES

Hasnas, J. (1998). The Normative Theories of Business Ethics: A Guide for the Perplexed.
Business Ethics Quarterly, 8(1), 19–42. DOI: 10.2307/3857520

Reidenbach, R. E., & Robin, D. P. (1991). A conceptual model of corporate moral

development. Journal of Business Ethics, 10(4), 273–284. DOI:10.1007/bf00382966

Velasquez, M. G. (2011). Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases (7th Edition) (7th ed.).
Pearson.
 56

CHAPTER 12: REASON AND IMPARTIALITY AS REQUIREMENTS FOR

ETHICS

Impartiality is sometimes treated by philosophers as if it were equivalent to moral

impartiality. Or, at the very least, the former word is often used, without the qualifying
adjective ‗moral‘, even when it is the particularly moral concept that is intended. This is
misleading, since impartiality in its broadest sense is best understood as a formal notion,
while moral impartiality in particular is substantive concept- and one concerning which there
is considerable dispute. This entry will be predominantly concerned with moral impartiality-
the sort of impartiality that is, that commonly features in the normative moral and political
theories. Impartiality (also called even handedness or fair mindedness) is a principle of
justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than thebasis of
bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one over another for improper reasons.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:

1. define impartiality as fair, equitable, unprejudiced, unbiased to a certain situation;

2. recall immediate response to moral dilemmas; and

3. explain the total importance of impartiality.

Introduction

A right to good administration:

Every person has the right to have his or her affairs handled impartially, fairly and
within a reasonable time by the institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies of the union.

A right to an effective remedy and a fair trial:

Everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an

independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law.

Principle of impartiality

1. The general principle of impartiality – members must ensure that their professional
judgement is not compromised, and cannot reasonably be seen to compromised, by bias,
conflict of interest, or the undue influence of others

2. Exercising Professional judgement- A member exercising professional judgment will

need to do so, in a way which is free from bias (actual or perceived) and that ensures they
are able to give advice which is independent of any personal interest or feelings.

3. Resolve desist from acting- Members may be exposed to situations that risk impairing
their objectivity. If the circumstances of an instruction, relationship with a user and or other
factors increase the risk of compromising the impartiality of a members professional
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judgement over the course of a piece of work, then the member may be better not to accept
the instruction. If, having accepted an instruction, a member identifies circumstances that
compromise, or are seen to compromise, their professional judgement. The member will
need to desist from acting: this may involve explaining the situation to the user and helping
them make alternative arrangement

4. What would a fair minded observer think? - When thinking about impartiality, members
will need to ask themselves whether there is any conflict between the advice which they are
giving, and decisions which they are making.

1. Ethical bias – members can mitigate the risk of acting in a way which is biased by being
aware of the potential for bias and taking this into account when making decisions or
providing advice to ensure they are acting impartiality

2. Institutional bias or group think-A further threat to impartiality that members ought to
be aware of is the potential influence of ‘Group think‖ in their decision-making. Groupthink is
defined as, - the tendency for one‘s own judgement to be influenced by the apparent
consensus view of assumptions, methods, processes or approaches leading to a reduction
in the variety of ideas in the market.

One of the danger of group think is that it has potential to result in poor conduct or
systematic business failures brought on by working environment in which perspective are not
challenged and people act in the same way as others do without sufficient justification.

3. Conflict of interest- can be complex and require use of professional judgement. This
guide is intended to assist members with understanding their responsibilities in relation to
conflicts of interest and help with that exercise of professional judgement.

ASSESSMENT

On a sheet of paper, answer the following:

1. Define the following terms as discussed in the lesson:

1.1 Fair

1.2 Equitable

1.3 Unprejudiced

1.4 Unbiased

2. What is your stand on the moral dilemmas of impartiality?

3. What is the importance of impartiality and objectivity?

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REFERENCES

Impartiality (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). (2017, February 6). Impartiality (Stanford

Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Retrieved June 23, 2020 from
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/impartiality/

The Actuaries’ Code Principle 5 - Speaking Up | Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. (n.d.).
Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Retrieved September 1, 2020, from
https://www.actuaries.org.uk/upholding-standards/standards-and-guidance/actuaries-
code/actuaries-code-principle-5-speaking