Chapter 1

THE ETHICAL DIMENSION OF

HUMAN EXISTENCE
EXTERNAL SOURCES OF AUTHORITY
1. LAW – what is right or wrong is what is mandate d
or prohibited by human positive law.
2. RELIGION – what is right or wrong is whether or
not it is dictated or forbidden by religious codes.
3. CULTURE – what is right or wrong dependent
upon what is socially acceptable or unacceptable
relative to one’s culture.
LAW as a Source of Authority
• It is supposed that law is one’s guide to ethical
behaviour.
• POSITIVE LAW – rules and regulations affirmed or
put in place by an authority figure and enforced by
way of a system of sanctions which externally
compels individuals to obey.
• ETHICS is simply FOLLOWING WHAT THE LAW SAYS.
LAW as a Source of Authority
ETHICS LAW ?
LAW as a Source of Authority
1. THE PROHIBITIVE NATURE OF LAW
• Tells us what we should not do
• Does not tell us what we should do
• Cannot tell us what to pursue.
• Tells us happens when we do not follow
• Minimalist approach to morality
LAW as a Source of Authority
2. WHAT IS LEGAL MAY NOT BE ETHICAL
• Breaking a promise is not illegal but unethical
• Before, slavery was legal, but it is never ethical
• In India, marital rape is legal, but is it ethical?
• Lying to the dean to have an excused admission
• Firing an employee without prior notice and valid
reason
LAW as a Source of Authority
3. WHAT IS ILLEGAL MAY BE ETHICAL
• Stealing food when you are extremely hungry
• Acts of civil disobedience against unjust laws
• Beating the red light or driving without a license to
rush a critical person to the hospital.
• A chief-of-staff refusing the unjust or unconstitutional
order of the president, the commander-in-chief
LAW as a Source of Authority
LAW as a Source of Authority

ETHICS LAW
• There is more to ethics than law.
• "The law sets minimum standards of
behavior while ethics sets maximum
standards of behavior."
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
• People of religious sensibility find themselves obliged
to obey their God in all things for God is the author of
everything including morality.
• DIVINE COMMAND THEORY – a theory which seeks to
explain the nature of right and wrong as dependent on
God’s commands.
• An action is right because God commands us to do it
and wrong because He forbids it.
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
• Advantage of religion to law:
1. is not simply prohibitive but provides ideals to
pursue.
2. Provides not only sets of commands but also a
SUPREME AUTHORITY which inspires and compels
obedience.
• ETHICS is simply OBEYING WHAT GOD COMMANDS.
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
ETHICS RELIGION ?
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
1. PROBLEM OF CONFLICTING RELIGIOUS MORAL CODES
• Religious differences—diversity of religion with varying
religious codes and practices
• Are we to judge other religions negatively given their
different religious moral beliefs?
• Are we to convert them to our own faith?
• If religion is the basis of morality, how about those who
are irreligious or non-religious?
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
2. IS SOMETHING RIGHT BECAUSE GOD COMMANDS IT?
• If what is right or wrong simply depends on God’s
commands, then there is no such thing as inherently
right or wrong.
• What is right or wrong becomes arbitrary.
• God commands an action because it is in itself right.
• God forbids an action because it is in itself wrong.
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
• If we acknowledge that there are actions which are by
nature right or wrong, then there are moral standards
independent of God commanding it.
• OBJECTIVE MORAL STANDARDS – standards based on
the object itself independent of the mind and will of
subjects—God or human beings.
• Objective moral standards do not necessarily require
belief in God in order to abide by them.
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
ETHICS RELIGION
• There is more to ethics than religion.
• “God commands an act because it is in
itself good or right and God forbids an act
because it is in itself bad or wrong."
RELIGION as a Source of Authority

ETHICS RELIGION
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
• CULTURAL DIVERSITY – cultural beliefs and
practices are varied and diverse.
1. Aesthetic differences
2. Religious differences
3. Etiquette differences
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
• Cultural diversity results to moral diversity
• Honor killings. Members of some groups think that if an
unwed woman becomes pregnant, it is the obligation of
her family to kill her to restore family honor.
• Parricide. Anthropologists report that many cultures
practice parricide—killing one’s parents—once the parents
become aged. It is a practice that members of the
community, including the parents, take to be morally
permissible and perhaps even morally required.
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
• Premarital sex and wife sharing. Some cultures do not think
that there is anything wrong with premarital sex; indeed, it is
condoned as an important and normal part of courtship.
Moreover, in some cultures, it is considered a great honor if
one’s wife engages in sexual relations with other men.
• Cannibalism. There are numerous documented cases of
cultures that engage in the eating of human flesh. Members
of such cultures think the practice not only morally
permissible but in some cases obligatory.
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
• ADVANTAGES OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM
1. In accordance with our experience of differences of
moral code and valuations among cultures.
2. One’s own culture provides the standards in making
moral valuations.
3. Teaches tolerance—respect for the beliefs of others. We
are not in the position to judge other cultures.
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
• MORAL RELATIVISM – a moral view which asserts
that there is no single universal standard of morality
and what is morally right or wrong is relative to the
moral code of one’s culture.
• An action is right if it is required by cultural moral
code or wrong if prohibited by cultural moral code.
• ETHICS is CONFORMITY TO CULTURE.
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
ETHICS CULTURE ?
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
• PROBLEMS WITH CULTURAL (MORAL) RELATIVISM
1. Differences or disagreements do not necessarily mean
nobody is objectively correct and there is no objective
truth about the matter in question.
2. Cultural practices are not perfect and not beyond
question and correction including our own culture.
3. The concept of culture is never static, rigid, and bounded
but flexible, dynamic, and open.
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
• On the positive side, cultural relativism promotes a
sense of humility and respect.
• On the negative side,
1. cultural relativism stifles the human capacity for
rational reflection, questioning, and critical thinking.
2. cultural relativism undermines cultural sharing and
cultural boundary crossing.
CULTURE as a Source of Authority
ETHICS CULTURE
• There is more to ethics than culture.
• “While specific manifestations of human nature vary
between cultures and between individuals in the same
culture, human nature is universal. All value systems have
to make some of the same concessions to the natural
world of which human nature is a part.”—anthropologist Clyde
Kluckhohn
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• SUBJECTIVISM – a philosophical view that
knowledge and value are dependent on and limited
by individual subjective experience rather than
objective standards.
• Moral statements reflect sentiments, personal
preferences and feelings rather than objective facts.
• An act is good because I approve of it and an act is
bad because I disapprove of it.
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• “No one can tell me what is right or wrong.”
• CRITIQUE:
• No one has absolute knowledge over her own
situation and of herself in that situation.
• We can be mistaken in our judgment and decision;
hence, nobody is immune to error and correction.
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• “No one knows my situation better than myself.”
• CRITIQUE:
• No situation is open only to one perspective: the
individual perspective, the perspective of the agent.
• No one has the monopoly of any situation, as if no
one has ever been in that situation except oneself.
• Many human experiences are common.
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• “I am entitled to my own opinion.”
• CRITIQUE:
• Entitlement does not mean and equate to
correctness.
• No one is immune to criticism and correction.
• Are all opinions right?
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM – a theory which
maintains that all human actions are fundamentally
motivated by self-interest (one’s own welfare).
• “Human beings are naturally self-centered, so all
our actions are always already motivated by self-
interest.”
• It is a descriptive theory.
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• The self has its desires and interests, and all our
actions are geared toward satisfying these interests.
• I eat in order to satisfy my hunger.
• I go to work in order to get paid or get
promoted.
• We do things in pursuit of our own self-interest all
the time and in a day-to-day basis.
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• But what about acts of ALTRUISM – the belief
and practice of disinterested and selfless concern
for the interest and welfare of others?
• A motorist who stops to help someone who a vehicle
breakdown.
• A person who gives money to charity.
• A soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect
others from the explosion.
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• STRONG POINTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM:
1. It is simple. It has a single and direct basis for
explanation.
2. It is plausible. It is easy to see how our daily life
is governed by self-interest.
3. It is irrefutable. It can always be explained that
whatever we do, we are always motivated by
self-interest.
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• CRITIQUE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM:
• Irrefutability does not mean acceptability.
• Even if everything is governed by self-interest,
there are such things as noble and inclusive self-
interest and vain and narrow self-interest.
• Psychological egoism leads to a cynical view of
humanity which renders it useless for ethics.
RELIGION as a Source of Authority
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• ETHICAL EGOISM – a theory which maintains that
human beings ought to pursue their own self-
interest and they have no obligation to promote
the interest of others.
• “My own self-interest is my utmost concern,
while the interest of others is none of my
concern.”
• It is a normative theory.
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
• One should consider her own self as top priority.
• CRITIQUE:
• Making oneself as one’s own top priority does not
mean trampling on the interest of others.
• Prioritizing oneself is not an obligation exclusive to
oneself but an obligation inclusive to everyone.
• Plato’s Ring of Gyges illustrates why one should not
only care about one’s own interest.
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF
INTERNAL SOURCES OF MORAL AUTHORITY:
SENSES OF THE SELF