Crs4 – Professional Conduct

and Ethical Issues

 What is ethics?
 At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how
people make decisions and lead their lives.

 Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and
is also described as moral philosophy.

 The term is derived from the Greek word “ethos” which can mean
custom, habit, character or disposition.
Ethics covers the following dilemmas:

 how to live a good life

 our rights and responsibilities
 the language of right and wrong
 moral decisions - what is good and bad?
 Our concepts of ethics have been derived
from religions, philosophies and
cultures. They infuse debates on topics
like abortion, human rights and
professional conduct.
Excerpt from Universal Declaration of Human
rights – United Nations
 Art. 1- Human beings are born free and equal in dignity and right
 Art. 18 – Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
 Art. 19 – Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion
 Art. 23 – Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and
favorable conditions of work
 Art. 26 – Everyone has the right to education
Grounding principles of moral system

 Religion
- murder is wrong because it offends God
- hard to apply in pluralistic society
 Law
- murder is wrong because it violates the law
- in theory “laws equally apply to all members of the society
- in actual “ laws are not uniform boundaries ; some laws are morally
wrong ex. Death penalty
Approaches to ethical issues

 Deontological theories
 Utilitarian theories
 Contractarial theories
 Ethical Egoism
Deontological theories

 Immanuel Kants moral theory

 The belief that peoples actions are to be guided by moral laws and
that these moral laws are universal.
 Cited as the basis for most laws
 Utilitarian theory

 The belief that if the action is good it benefits someone and an

action is bad if it harms someone
 Act Utilitarianism – is the belief that an action is good if its overall
effect is to produce more happiness than unhappiness
 Rule utilitarianism – the belief that we should adopt a moral rule if
followed by everybody, would lead to a greater level of overall
happiness
Contractarial theories

 Social contract – the concept that for a society to arise and maintain
order a morality based set of rules must be agreed upon
 Ethical Egoism

 Nicollo Machiavaeli
 “the end justifies the means”
 Ethical position that moral agents ought to do what is in their own
self interest .
Four Disciplines / Divisions in Philosophy:
Why do we need ethics ?
 What use is ethics?
If ethical theories are to be useful in practice, they need to affect
the way human beings behave.
Some philosophers think that ethics does do this. They argue that if
a person realises that it would be morally good to do something then it
would be irrational for that person not to do it.
But human beings often behave irrationally - they follow their 'gut
instinct' even when their head suggests a different course of action.
However, ethics does provide good tools for thinking about moral
issues.
Ethics guides us like a map
Where does ethics come from?
 Philosophers have several answers to this question:

 God and religion

 Human conscience and intuition
 a rational moral cost-benefit analysis of actions and their effects
 the example of good human beings
 a desire for the best for people in each unique situation
 political power
Police behavior