INTRODUCTION:

KEY CONCEPTS
IN ETHICS
 Is a branch of
philosophy Speaks of a code or
that studies system of behavior
Ethics morality or the Morality
in regards to
standards of right or
rightness or wrong behavior
wrongness of
human conduct
 The word ‘ethics’ is
derived from Greek,
ethos, which means
‘character’, or, in plural,
‘manners’.
 400 B.C
Socrates introduced the concept of
teaching ethics and acceptable standards
of conduct in 400 B.C. and has had a
profound and lasting impact on the course
of Western philosophy and history ever
Socrates
Philosopher since. He believed virtue was found
primarily in human relationships, love and
friendship, not through material gains.
The Importance of Rules to Social Beings

Rules refer to explicit or

understood regulations or
principles governing conduct
within a specific gravity or sphere.
A. Rules protect social beings by regulating behavior

Rules build boundaries that place limits

on behavior. Rules are usually coupled
with means to impose consequences on
those who violate them.
KILLING
B. Rules help to guarantee each person certain rights and freedom

Rules form frameworks for society.

Nations are generally nations of laws
and the governing principles are
outlined in what is called institution.
C. Rules produce a sense of justice among social beings

Rules are needed in order to keep the

strong from dominating the weak, that is, to
prevent exploitation and domination.
D. Rules are essential for a healthy economic system

Without rules regulating business, power

would centralize around monopolies and
threaten the strength and competitiveness
for the system.
In short, society could not
soundly function without
rules and regulations.
Moral vs. Non-moral
Non-moral standards refer to
rules that are unrelated to moral
Standards
and ethical considerations.
 A. Moral standards involve serious
wrongs or significant benefits

Moral standards deal with matters which can

seriously impact, that is, injure or benefit
human beings. It is not the case with many
non-moral standards.
 B. Moral standards ought to be
preferred to other values.

Moral standards have overriding

character or hegemonic authority. If a
moral standard states that a person has
the moral obligation to do something,
then he/she is supposed to do that even
if it conflicts with other non-moral
standards, and even with self-interest.
 C. Moral standards are not
established by authority figures.

Moral standards are not

invented, formed, nor generated
by authoritative bodies or
persons such as nations'
legislative bodies.
D. Moral standards have the trait
of universalizability.

Simply put, it means that everyone

should live up to moral standards. To
be more accurate, however, it entails
that moral principles must apply to
all who are in the relevantly similar
situation.
E. Moral standards are based on
impartial considerations.

Moral standard does not evaluate

standards on the basis of the interests of
a certain person or group, but one goes
beyond personal interests to a universal
standpoint in which each person's interest
are impartially counted as equal.
Impartiality is usually depicted as
being free of bias or prejudice.
Impartiality in morality requires that
we give equal and/or adequate
consideration to the interests of all
considered parties.
 F. Moral standards are associated with
special emotions and vocabulary.

Prescriptivity indicates the practical or

action-guiding nature of moral
standards. These moral standards are
generally put forth as injunction or
imperatives (such as, 'Do not kill,' 'Do no
unnecessary harm,' and 'Love your
neighbor').
3. Dilemma and Moral Dilemma
The term 'dilemma' refers to a situation in which a tough
choice has to be made between two or more options,
especially more or less equally undesirable ones. Not all
dilemmas are moral dilemmas.

Also called 'ethical dilemmas,' moral dilemmas are

situations in which a difficult choice has to be made
between two courses of action, either of which entails
trangressing a moral principle.
What is common to moral dilemmas is conflict.
In each ethical dilemma, an agent regards
himself as having moral reasons to do each of
two actions, but doing both actions seems to be
ethically not possible.
The key features of a moral dilemma are these:
(a) the agent is required to do each of two (or more)
actions;
(b) (b) the agent can do each of the actions; but the
agent cannot do both (or all) of the actions. In a
moral dilemma, the agent thus seems condemned to
moral failure; no matter what he does, he will do
something wrong, or fail to do something that he
ought to do.
 sopher Jean-Paul
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b. Organizational Dilemma

- Organizational moral dilemma refer to

ethical cases encountered and resolve by
social organization. This category includes
moral dilemmas in business, medical field
and public sector.
Example
A medical Institution which believes that
human life should not be deliberate. lt
shortened and that unpreventable pain
should not be tolerated encounters a
conflict resolving whether to withdraw
life support from a dying patient. This is
a common dilemma faced by health-
care organizations.
 c. Structural Dilemma
- Structural moral dilemma refer to cases
involving network of institutions and operative
theoretical paradigms. As they usually
encompass multi-sectoral institutions and
organizations, they may be larger in scope
and extent than organizational dilemmas.
Example
Case in point is the prices of
the medicine in the
Philippines which are higher
compared to other countries
in Asia and in countries of a
similar economic status
 6. Freedom as a foundation of morality
One of the reasons animals cannot be truly
ethical is that they are not really autonomous or
free. Likewise, a robot, no matter how beneficial its
functions may be, cannot be said to be moral, for it
has no freedom or choice but to work according to
what is commanded based on its built-in program.
Basically, morality is a question of choice.
Morality, practically, is choosing ethical
codes, values, or standards to guide us in our
daily lives. Philosophically, choosing is
impossible without freedom.
 Practically, the sum of our
choices can be said to define
our specific 'morality'. This
principle in ethics applies
even when the motive is pure.
 7. Minimum Requirement for Morality:
Reason and Impartiality
The late philosophy professor James Rachels (1941-
2003) holds that moral judgments must be backed up by
sound reasoning and that morality requires the impartial
consideration of all parties involved (Rachels, 1999). It is
thus submitted that reason and impartiality compose the
"minimum conception" of morality or, as some put it, the
minimum requirement for morality.
Reason as a requirement for morality entails that
human feelings may be important in ethical
decisions, but they ought to be guided by reason.
Sound reasoning helps us to evaluate whether our
feelings or intuitions about moral cases are
correct and defensible.
Impartiality, on the other hands, involves the
idea that each individual’s interests and point
of view are equally important. Also called
evenhandedness or fair-mindedness.