After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. identify the ethical aspect of human life and the

scope of the ethical thinking;
2.define and explain the terms that are relevant to
ethical thinking;and
3.evaluate the difficulties that are involved in
maintaining certain commonly-held notions on ethics
 VALUE
Ethics generally speaking, is about
matters such as the good thing that we
should pursue and the bad thing that we
should avoid; the right ways in which we
could or should act and the wrong ways
of acting.
CLARIFICATIONS AND TERMINOLOGY

Recognizing the notions of good and

bad, and right and wrong, and the primary
concern of ethics.
 KINDS OF VALUATION
• Our first point of clarification is to recognize that there are
instance when we make value judgment that are not
considered to be part of ethics.

• The word aesthetics is derived from the Greek word

“aisthesis” (“sense” or “feeling” ) and refers to the
judgements of personal approval or disapproval that we
make about what we see, hear, smell, or taste
 KINDS OF VALUATION
• Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates
expectations for social behavior according to
contemporary conventional norms within a society, social
class, or group.
 MORALS ETHICS
• from the the latin word “mos” which • from the greek word “ethos” which
means mores means custom or character

• “practice”, rightness o wrongness of • “theory” of right action and the

human action; prescriptive greater good; systematic study

• the practice of “ethics' • the science of “morals”

 Our second point of clarification is on the use of the words “ethics” and
“morals”
MORALS ETHICS
• The term “morals” may be used to • The term “ethics” can be spoken of as
refer to specific beliefs or attitude that the discipline of studying and
people have or to describe acts that understanding ideal human behavior
people perform. and ideal ways of thinking.

• Ethics is acknowledged as an
intellectual discipline belonging to
philosophy.
 DESCRIPTIVE AND NORMATIVE
Our third point of clarification is to distinguish between a descriptive and
a normative study of ethics.
Descriptive study
A descriptive study of ethics reports how
people, particularly groups, make their
moral valuations without makingany
judgment either for or against these
valuation
Normative study
A normative study of ethics, as is often
done in philosophy or moral theology,
engages the question: what could or
should be considered as the right way of
acting? In the other words, a normative
discussion prescribes what we ought to
maintain as our standards or bases for
moral valuation
 Moral Issue
A problem or situation that
requires a person or
organization to choose between
alternatives that must be
evaluated as right (ethical) or
wrong (unethical).
Moral decision
A moral decision is a choice
made based on a person's
ethics, manners, character and
what they believe is proper
behavior. These decisions tend
to not only affect your well-
being, but also the well-being of
others.
 Moral judgments refer
to judgments that have moral
content; they are used to
evaluate situations, courses
of action, persons, behavior,
etc.
A moral dilemma is a conflict
in which you have to choose
between two or more actions
and have moral reasons for
choosing each action.
 REASONING
• reasoning is the process in which an individual tries to
determine what is right and what is wrong.

• reasoning applies critical analysis to specific events to

determine what is right or wrong, and what people ought to
do in a particular situation
SOURCES OF
AUTHORITY
 LAW
• the law may be understood as the systematic set of
universally accepted rules and regulation created by an
appropriate authority such as government, which may be
regional, national, international, etc. It is used to govern the
action and behavior of the members and can be enforced,
by imposing penalties.

• the term positive law refers to the different rules and

regulations that are posited or put forced by an authority
figure that require compliance
 RELIGION
• Religion is a fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed
upon by a group of people. These set of beliefs concern the cause,
nature, and purpose of the universe, and involve devotional and ritual
observances. They also often contain a moral code governing the
conduct of human affairs.

• It expresses a claim that many people of a religious sensiblity find

appealing and immediately valid: this idea that one is obliged to obey
her God in all things. As a foundation for ethical values, this is referred
to as the divine command teory
 RELIGION
• Divine command theory (also known as theological
voluntarism) is a meta-ethical theory which proposes that
an action's status as morally good is equivalent to
whether it is commanded by God.
 CULTURE
• Culture refers to the outlook, attitudes, values, goals, and
practices shared by a group, organization, or society
• Cultural relativism is the idea that a person's beliefs, values,
and practices should be understood based on that person's
own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of
another.
• Culture reflects the moral values and ethical norms
governing how people should behave and interact with
others
 SUBJECTIVISM
• Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity
is the only unquestionable fact of our experience"
instead of shared or communal, and that there is no
external or objective truth.

• Subjectivism is the recognition that the individual

thinking person(the subject) is at the heart of all moral
valuation.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM
• Psychological egoism is the view that humans are always
motivated by self-interest and selfishness, even in what seem to
be acts of altruism. It claims that, when people choose to help
others, they do so ultimately because of the personal benefits
that they themselves expect to obtain, directly or indirectly, from
so doing. This is a descriptive rather than normative view, since
it only makes claims about how things are, not how they ought
to be. It is, however, related to several other normative forms of
egoism, such as ethical egoism and rational egoism.
 PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM
• Psychological egoism is the thesis that we are always
deep down motivated by what we perceive to be in our
own self-interest.
• Psychological egoism which is the teory that describes the
underlying dynamics behind all human action
 ETHICAL EGOISM
• Ethical egoism is the normative ethical position that moral
agents ought to act in their own self-interest. It differs from
psychological egoism, which claims that people can only act in
their self-interest. Ethical egoism also differs from rational
egoism, which holds that it is rational to act in one's self-
interest.
 ETHICAL EGOISM
• Ethical egoism holds, therefore, that actions whose
consequences will benefit the doer can be considered
ethical in this sense.

• Ethical egoism prescribes that we should make our own

ends, our own interest, as the single overriding concern
 REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette
https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-moral-decision-definition-examples-quiz.html
https://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/glossary/moral-judgment/
https://study.com/academy/lesson/moral-dilemma-definition-examples-quiz.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjectivism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-management/chapter/ethics-an-overview/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_egoism
https://www.iep.utm.edu/psychego/
https://www.allaboutreligion.org/meaning-of-religion-faq.htm
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/ethical-issue.html