INTRODUCTION

TO ETHICS

Lecture No. 01
Objectives
 Introduction of the topic
 Defining Ethics
 How Ethics are different from Law?
 How Ethics and Compliance are related?
 How Ethics and Morality are related?
What is Ethics?
Sometime back, a sociologist asked a group of people,
"What does ethics mean to you?"
Some of the replies were:
 "Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell
me is right or wrong.“
 "Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs.“
 "Being ethical is doing what the law
requires.“
 "Ethics consists of the standards of behavior
our society accepts.“
 "I don't know what the word means."

These replies might be typical of our own.

The meaning of "ethics" is hard to pin down,
and the views many people have about
ethics are shaky.
What, then, is ethics?
Ethics is two things.
First, ethics refers to well based standards of right
and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do,
usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to
society, fairness, or specific virtues.
Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that
impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from
stealing, rape, murder, assault, slander, and fraud.
Ethical standards also include those that enjoin
virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty.
And, ethical standards include standards relating to
rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom
from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards
are adequate standards of ethics because they are
supported by consistent and well founded reasons.
Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development
of one's ethical standards. As mentioned above,
feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from
what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly
examine one's standards to ensure that they are
reasonable and well-founded.
Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of
studying our own moral beliefs and our moral
conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the
institutions we help to shape, live up to standards
that are reasonable and solidly-based.
Ethics Vs Law
Illegal & Legal &
Ethical Ethical

Illegal & Legal &

Unethical Unethical
What is Ethics and Morality?

 Ethos (Greek) and Mores (Latin) are terms having to

do with “custom,” ”habit,” and “behavior.
 Ethics is the study of morality.
 This definition raises two questions:
 (a) What is morality?
 (b) What is the study of morality?
 What is Morality?

 Morality can be defined as:

a system of rules for guiding human conduct, and
principles for evaluating those rules.

 Two points are worth noting in this definition:

(i) morality is a system; and
(ii) it is a system comprised of moral rules and
principles.
 Moral rules can be understood as "rules of conduct,"
which are very similar to "policies."
Summary
• Ethics:
– Study of morality
– Branch of Philosophy

• Morality
– System of Rules
– Rules of conduct
 Roadblocks to Moral Discourse

 People disagree about morality; so how can we

reach agreement on moral issues?
 Who am I/Who are we to judge others and to impose
my/our values on others?
 Isn't morality simply a private matter?
 Isn't morality simply a matter that different cultures
and groups should determine for themselves?
Ethics is Simply a Private Matter
 Moralityis essentially personal in nature
and therefore a private matter

 “Private
morality" is essentially an
oxymoron or contradictory notion.

 Morality is a public phenomenon (Gert).

Morality is “relative”
A Matter for Individual Cultures to
Decide
A moral system is dependent on, or relative
to, a particular culture or group.
 Ethical Relativism.
 Need to distinguish between:
Cultural relativism Different cultures have
different beliefs about what constitutes
morally right and wrong behavior.
Moral relativism no universal standard of
morality is possible because different people
have different beliefs about what is right and
wrong.
Conclusion