CRUCIAL QUESTIONS IN ETHICS
 What is to be a moral person?
 What is the nature of morality?
 Why do we need morality?
 What function does it pay?
 What is the good, and how shall I know it?
 Are moral principles absolute, or are they simply relative to social
groups or individual decision?
 Does morality, like beauty, lie in the eye of the beholder?
 Is it always in my interest to act immorally?
 How do we justify our moral beliefs?
 What is the basis of morality?
 Which ethical theory best justifies and explains the moral life?
 What relationship does morality have with religion, law and
etiquette?
FUNDAMENTALS IN ETHICS
THE TERM ETYMOLOGY MEANING...
Ethics (Greek) Ethos Custom, habit
Morals/Morality (Latin) Mores or character
First, Ethics refers to the well base standards of right or
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 rape, stealing, murder,
assault, slander and fraud.
Secondly, Ethics refers to the study and development of
one's ethical standards. 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.
ACADEMIC DEFINITION
"Ethics is the science and art of the morality of/in human actions."
It refers to the standards of conduct, standards that
indicate how one should behave based on moral duties and virtues
which themselves are derived from the principles of right or wrong.
TWO ASPECTS OF ETHICS
1. Theoretical Aspect
It involves the ability to discern right from wrong, good
from evil, and propriety from impropriety.
2. Practical Aspect
It involves the commitment to do what is right, good and
proper. Ethics is an action concept; It is not simply an idea to think
and argue about.
PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS
 Philosophy is the science of all things through their
ultimate causes, reasons, and principles under the light of
human reason alone.
 It involves everything (including nothing), thus tackling
ethical concepts such as good, evil, values, morality,
freedom, power, justice, equality, laws,God, afterlife, etc.
putting all of them in the position of reflective, critical and
creative thinking.
 In Philosophy, if life is considered to possess any meaning
at all, then it must necessitate that actions and experiences
must have values that causes, effectuates or least motivate
their being/activity.
 Ethics, or moral philosophy is thus praxeology - the
science of actions
ALL ETHICAL QUESTIONS ARE PHILOSOPHICAL PER SE...
Ballon, Escalona, Genodia, Lao, Ugay 2EPH
 What is the purpose of being good?
 If promises are good, why then do promise-breakers aren't
punished?
 If God exists, why does evil exists too?
 If there is no afterlife, should it then be possible for me to kill the
bf/gf of my crush?
 What are the conditions from which I am obligated to do the good
for others?
 Am I free or capable to do the good?
 If the president and God poses two different conflicting ideas
about death penalty, who then should I follow?
 If polygamy is alright to some cultures and religion, should "two-
timing" be natural?
SOME PEOPLE WOULD SAY THAT...
 "Ethics has something to do with what my feelings tells me
what is right or wrong."
 "Ethics has something 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."
"THE MEANING OF ETHICS IS HARD TO PIN DOWN AND THE
VIEWS MANY PEOPLE HAVE ABOUT ETHICS ARE DUBIOUS AND
QUESTIONABLE."
1. Ethics has something to do with what my feeling tells me
whether it is right or wrong
(On the Difference Between Ethics and Psychology)
 Many people tend to equate ethics with their feelings and
thus with behavior.
 But being ethical is clearly not a matter of following one's
feelings and the behavior they express
 A person following his or her feelings may recoil from doing
what is right. In fact, feelings frequently deviate from what
is ethical.
2. Ethics has something to do with my religious beliefs. (On the
Difference Between Ethics and Religion)
 We should NOT identify ethics with religion!
 Most religions, of course, advocate high ethical standards.
Yet if ethics were confined to religion, then ethics would
apply only to religious peoples. But ethics applies as to that
of the saint.
 Religion can set high ethical standards and can provide
intense motivations for ethical behavior. Ethics, however,
cannot be confined to religion nor it is the same as religion.
3. Being ethical is doing what the law requires.
(On the Difference Between Ethics and Law)
 Being ethical is also NOT THE SAME as following the law!
 The law often incorporates ethical standards to which most
citizens subscribe. But laws, like feelings, can deviate from
what is ethical.
 Our own pre-Civil War slavery laws and the apartheid law
of present-day South Africa are grotesquely obvious
examples of laws that deviate from what is ethical.
 It doesn’t mean that if something is legally acceptable it is
necessarily morally permissible.
 Therefore, not all legal laws are moral/ethical. The
foundation of all legal/political laws is and must be
ethics/morality.
4 Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts.
(On the Difference Between Ethics and Etiquette)
  Finally, being ethical is NOT THE SAME as doing “whatever
society accepts.”
 In any society, most people accept standards that are, in
fact, ethical. But standards of behavior in society can
deviate from what is ethical.
 An entire society can become ethically corrupt. Nazi
Germany is a good example of a morally corrupt society
during the time of Adolf Hitler.
Traits of moral principles
A central feature of morality is the moral principle.
Although there is no universal agreement on the traits a moral
principle must have, there is a wide consensus about these five traits.
1. Prescriptivity
2. Universalizability
3. Overridingness
4. Publicity
5. Practicability
1. Prescriptivity
 Refers to the practical, or action-guiding, nature of
morality
 Moral principles are generally put forth as imperatives (For
example, "Do Not Kill", "Love your neighbor")
 They are intended for use, to advise people and influence
action.
 Retroactively, this trait is used to appraise behavior, assign
praise and blame, and produce feelings of satisfaction or
guilt.
3.) Overridingness
 Moral principles have hegemonic authority.
 They are not the only principles, but they take precedence
over other considerations, including aesthetic, prudential,
and legal ones.
 There are principles that have higher value over other
things to consider.
 For example, life over fame; health over wealth;
relationship over solitary life, etc.
4.) Publicity
 Moral principles must be made in public in order to guide
our actions.
 Because we use principles to prescribe behavior, give
advice, and assign praise and blame, it would be self-
defeating to keep them a secret.
 Therefore, mutual consensus and civic concordance is
necessary in the application of moral principles.
5.) Practicability
 A moral theory must be workable or doable.
 John Rawls speaks of the “strains of commitment” that
overly idealistic principles may cause in average moral
agents.
 Practicability may cause the difference between ethical
standards over time and place.
 For example, the discrepancy between the Old Testament
and New Testament about the issue of divorce.
A right act is an act that is permissible for you to do. It may either be
a) optional or b)obligatory
a. An optional act is an act that is neither obligatory nor
wrong to do
b. An obligatory act is one that morality requires you to do
A wrong act is an act you have an obligation, or a duty to refrain from
doing. It is an act you ought not to do; it is not permissible to do it.
Consequences
 Theories that focus primarily on consequences in
determining moral rightness and wrongness are called
teleological ethical theories.
- “Telos” (Greek) – goal-directed/purpose/end
Character
 According to Aristotle, it is most important to develop
virtuous character, for if and only if we have good people
can we ensure habitual right action
 Although it may be helpful to have action-guiding rules, it
is vital to empower character to do good
Motive
 For a full assessment of any action, it is important to take
the agents intention into account
 A full moral description of any act will take motive into
account as a relevant factor
"Why be moral?”
Purposes of Morality
1. To keep society from falling apart
2. To ameliorate human suffering
3. To promote human flourishing or happiness
4. To resolve conflicts of interest in just and orderly ways
5. To assign praise and blame, reward and punishment, and
guilt
What is an ethical issue/ problem?
● A situation which requires a person or organization to
choose between alternatives that must be evaluated as
right (ethical) or wrong (unethical)
What is an ethical dilemma?
● A situation that will often involve apparent conflict
between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would
result in transgressing the other
● Also called Ethical Paradox. When there’s a conflict
between 2 or more parties where one is benefitting at the
expense of another
Steps to be followed when analyzing an ethical dilemma
1. State the facts.
2. Identify the factors, reasons, or values involved
3. Ascertain the moral issues.
4. Clarify and examin one’s moral choice
5. Resolve the dilemma

Domains of Ethical Assessment

Domain Evaluative Terms
Action Right, wrong, obligatory,
optional
Consequences Good, bad, indifferent
Character Virtuous, vicious, neutral
Motive Good will, evil will, neutral

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