ethics 3

• Ethics comes from the Greek word ethos, which means character, customs or habit
• In ancient Greece, ethics was concerned with the development of a virtuous and moral character
• Socrates, a great Greek moralist, was the first to recognize the value of questions that affect how a person should live
• The Socratic method consists of asking people questions about ideas they presumably know about
• The Socratic method aims to stimulate critical thinking and illuminate ideas
• Ethics is also often called moral philosophy.
• The word of moral from the Latin word mores which also means customs and habits.
• Ethics is defined as the study of the methods and principles used to distinguish good from bad, right from wrong actions
• Ethics is the science of customs or habits in society
• Man is a rational being, meaning he acts with purpose unlike brutes who act out of instinct and reflex
• Man is a free being, with the power to act, speak, or think according to his will and without restraints
• The doer of an act and the act done by the doer are two different objects of Ethics
• The doer of an act is the physical object of ethics (moral agent)
• Physical object of ethics can refer to a person, institutions (business firm, government), and other forms of social organization (nongovernmental organizations, clubs, fraternity associations, etc.)
• Involuntary Natural Acts:

  • Involuntary, intuitive or reflex acts exhibited by man, such as blinking of the eye, beating of the heart, sneezing, yawning, breathing, scratching, and others
• Human Acts:

  • Actions that are conscious, deliberate, intentional, voluntary and are within the preview of human value judgement
  • Human acts are either moral or immoral
• Moral or Ethical acts:

  • Human acts that observe or conform to a standard or norm of morality
• Immoral or Unethical acts:

  • Human acts that violate or deviate from a standard of morality
• Classification of human acts:

  1. Moral or ethical acts
  2. Immoral or unethical acts
• Two general forms of Acts;

  1. Act of a man 1. Involuntary Natural Acts
  2. Human acts
• Descriptive Ethics:

  • Suited to empirical sciences like sociology, psychology, or political science
  • Aims to discover moral beliefs held by a society, social group, or social organization
• Normative Ethics:

  • Many philosophers believe ethics is primarily a normative study
  • Normative study is not just a description of what people find morally good
• Consequentialist (Teleological) Ethics:

  • Morality of an action is determined solely by its consequences
  • Example: Utilitarianism
• Nonconsequentialist (Deontological) Ethics:

  • Morality of an action depends on its intrinsic nature, motives, or accordance with rules or principles, not its consequences
  • Examples: Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative
• Ethical situations involve:

  • Moral agent: Responsible for action, the doer or actor to which praise or blame is assigned
  • Action: Result of the moral agent's decision-making process
  • Consequences: Result from action
  • Recipient: Receives the consequences of the moral agent's actions
• Practical Ethics:

  • Primarily concerned with answering matter-of-fact questions posed by situations
  • Essentially normative, prescribing courses of action for moral issues where clear answers are lacking
• Theoretical Ethics:

  • Aims to study the meaning of ethical concepts like good, right, fairness
  • Studies moral acts, investigates what makes a right action, and determines the relation between facts and values
• Personal Ethics:

  • Focuses on how a person should act in relation to themselves
• Social Ethics:

  • Concerned with how a person should act in relation to others
  • Differentiates between duties to oneself and duties to others