What is ethics?

ETHICS- is the branch of philosophy that

studies morality or the rightness or
wrongness of human conduct. Morality
speaks of a code or system of behavior in
regards to standards of right or wrong
behavior. In fact word ethics derived from
Greek “ethos’ which means character or in
plural manners.
IMPORTANCE OF RULES TO SOCIAL
BEING
 Rules protect social beings by
regulating behavior.
 Rules help to guarantee each person
certain rights and freedom.
 Rules produce a sense of justice
among social beings.
 Rules are essential for a healthy
economic system.
MORAL VS NON – MORAL STANDARDS

Morality – refers to the standards that a

person or a group has about what is right
and wrong or good and evil.
Moral standards – involve the rules
have about the kinds of actions they
believe are morally right and wrong as
well as the values they place on the
kinds of objects they believe are
morally good and morally bad.
Non- moral standards - refer to rules
that are unrelated to moral or ethical
considerations.
Characteristics of moral
standards further
differentiate them from non-
moral standards.
Moral standards involve serious
or significant benefits – It deals with
matters which can seriously impact that
is injure or benefit human being.
Moral standards ought to be
preferred to other values – Moral
standards have overriding character or
hegemonic authority. If a moral
standard states that a person has the
moral obligation to do something, then
he/she is supposed to do that even if it
conflicts with other non-moral
standards, and even with self-interest.
Moral standards are not established
by authority figures – Moral standards
are not invented, formed or generated by
authoritative bodies or persons such as
nations legislative bodies. Ideally, these
values ought to be considered in the
process of making laws. In principle
therefore, moral standards cannot be
changed nor nullified by the decisions of
particular authoritative body.
Moral standards have the trait of
universalizability – it is an extension
of the principle of consistency that is
one ought to be consistent about one’s
value judgment.
Moral standards are based on
impartial considerations –
Impartiality is usually depicted as
being free of bias or prejudice.
Impartiality in morality requires that
we give equal and or adequate
consideration to the interest of all
concerned parties.
Moral standards are associated with
special emotions and vocabulary –
These moral standards are generally put
forth as injunction or imperatives such
as ‘Do not kill’ Do no unnecessary harm’
and ‘Love your neighbor ‘.These
principles are proposed for use to advise
and to influence to action.
Dilemma and Moral Dilemma
Dilemma - refers to situation in which a
tough choice has to be made between two
or more options, especially more or less
equally undesirable ones.
Moral dilemma – are situation in which a
difficult choice has to be made between
two or course of action, either of which
entails transgressing a moral principle.
The three levels of Moral
Dilemmas
 Personal Dilemmas
 Organizational Dilemmas
 Structural Dilemmas
Only Human Beings can be ethical
 Only human beings are rational
autonomous and self – conscious – The
qualities of rationality autonomy and self-
consciousness are believed to confer a full
and equal moral status to those that
possess them as these beings are the only
ones capable of achieving certain values
and goods. These values and goods are
something that outweigh the types of values
and goods that realizing.
 Only human beings can act morally or
immortally - This is very important in
ethics that only human beings that can
act morally can be required to sacrifice
their interests for the sake of others. Not
able to truly act morally animals could
not really sacrifice their own good for the
sake of others, but would even pursue
their good at the expense of others.
 Only human beings are part of the
moral community – The so called
moral community is not defined in terms
of the intrinsic properties that beings
have but rather in terms of the essentials
social relations that exist between or
among beings. Distinctively, only human
beings can possess or practice values
such as love ,honor, social relationships,
forgiveness, compassion, and altruism.
Freedom as a Foundation of Morality
Basically morality is a question of
choice. Morality, practically, is
choosing ethical codes, values or
standards to guide us in our daily
lives. Philosophically, choosing is
impossible without freedom. Morality
requires and allows choice which
means the right to choose even
differently form our fellows.
In their daily lives, people make the
choice to give to charities, donate
time and money to schools, mentor
children, open businesses, or
protect against animal cruelty
Minimum Requirements for
Morality: Reason and
Impartiality
The late Philosophy professor James
Rachels (1941 – 2003) holds that a
moral judgment must be backed by
sound reasoning and that morality
requires the impartial consideration of
all parties involved ( Rachels, 1999). It is
thus submitted that reason and
impartiality compose the minimum
conception of morality or as some put it,
the minimum requirements for morality.
Impartiality on the hand involves the
idea that each individuals interest and
point of view are equally important. Also
called evenhandedness or fair-
mindedness, impartiality is a principle of
justice holding that decisions ought to
be based on objective criteria, rather
than on the basis of bias, prejudice or
preferring the benefit to one person over
another for improper reasons.
 CULTURE IN MORAL BEHAVIOR

Culture: Some Definition

It is commonly said that culture is

all around us. Practically, culture
appears to be an actual part of our
social life as well as our personality.
other definitions of the
term culture (“culture
Definition,” n.d.):
a. Culture refers to the cumulative
deposit of knowledge, experience,
beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings,
hierarchies, religion, notions of time,
roles, spatial relations, concepts of the
universe, and material objects and
possessions acquired by a group of
people in the course of generations
through individual and group striving.
b. Culture consists of patterns, explicit and
implicit, of and for behavior acquired and
transmitted by symbols, constituting the
distinctive achievement of human groups,
including their embodiments in artifacts;
the essential core of culture consists of
traditional ideas and especially their
attached values; culture systems may, on
the one hand, be considered as products of
action, on the other hand, as conditioning
influences upon further action.
c. Culture is the sum total of the
learned behavior of a group of
people that are generally considered
to be the tradition of that people
and are transmitted from generation
to generation.
d. Culture in its broadest sense is
cultivated behavior; that is the
totality of a person’s learned,
accumulated experience which is
socially transmitted, or more briefly,
behavior through social learning.
e. Culture is symbolic communication.
Some of its symbols include a group’s
skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and
motives. The meanings of the symbols
are learned and deliberately
perpetuated in a society through its
institutions.