Overview of Ethics

and Philosophy
Descriptive Ethics
Describing how people behave.
“What do people think is right?”
 Normative Ethics
-establishing norms or typical appropriate behaviors people
should perform
(schoulds, oughts, need tos)
 Meta-ethics
-looking at how people determine for themselves what norms
to follow
“What does right even mean?”
 Applied Ethics
-applying ethics to real-world problems:
“How do we take moral knowledge and put into practice?”
 Ethical Theories and
Principles
Ethical theories - foundations of ethical analysis because they
are the viewpoints from which guidance can be obtained
along the pathway to a decision

-Ethical principles – common goals that each theory tries to

achieve in order to be successful.
 Common Goals
1. Beneficence – to do what is good
2. Least harm /non-maleficence – to do the least harm
possible and to do harm to the fewest, or doing no harm
at all
3. Respect for autonomy – to allow people to reign over
themselves and to be able to make decisions that apply to
their lives
4. Justice – to prescribe actions that are fair to those
involved.
 Moral Vs. Non-moral
Standards
-moral standards are norms that we have about the type of action
we believe to be morally acceptable and morally unacceptable

-non-moral standards are rules that are unrelated to moral or

ethical considerations
 Characteristics of moral
standards

1. Moral standards involve serious wrongs or significant benefits

2. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values.
3. Moral standards are not established by authority figures.
4. Moral standards have the trait of universalizability
5. Moral standards are based on impartial considerations.
6. Moral standards are associated with special emotions and
vocabulary.
 Examples of Moral
Standards

1. Do not steal
2. Treat someone with kindness and compassion
3. Respect the rights of others
4. “Golden Rule” -Do not do unto others what you don’t others to
do unto you
 Examples of Non-Moral
Standards

1. Table manners
2. Wearing a formal attire
3. Classroom procedures and routines
4. Submission of report every end of the month
 Human Acts vs.
Acts of Man
Human acts are actions that are proper for humans and reveal the
value of responsibility or accountability

Acts of Man are actions that we do without free will and intellect;
some are done by instinct
 Essential Qualities of
Human Acts

1. Knowledge
2. Freedom
3. Voluntariness
 Examples of Human Acts Examples of Acts of Man

1. Studying 1. dreaming

2. Eating healthy foods 2. breathing

3. Praying 3. sleepwalking
 Material vs. Non-material
Objects of Ethics

Material objects –the moral agent, usually a human being who is

endowed with reason and freedom; the doer of moral acts and the
cause of his actions

Non-material objects – the actions done by a moral agent (e.g.

telling the truth (or lying), obeying the law (or violating it)
The End