Ethics

• Ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos which means Moral Character.
• Ethics is also called moral philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior; thus, ethics is sometimes referred to as the study of morality.
• Ethics is a subject matter with content. It is a discipline with a body of knowledge
• Ethics is a process of decision-making because it is a thinking skill leading to actions that we perform coupled with accountability
• Ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.
• Ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards.
• Ethics involves the study and application of “right” conduct
• Feelings frequently deviate from what is ethical.
• If ethics were confined to religion, then ethics would apply only to religious people. But ethics applies as much to the behavior of the atheist as to that of the saint.
• An entire society can become ethically corrupt. If being ethical were doing "whatever society accepts," then to find out what is ethical, one would have to find out what society accepts.
• The law often incorporates ethical standards to which most citizens subscribe. But laws, like feelings, can deviate from what is ethical. What is legal is not necessarily ethical; but what is ethical is necessarily worth legalizing.
• Moral actions are events are those which require the goodness of the object chosen, the intention or the end in view, and of the circumstances together
• Immoral actions are events are those actions or areas of interest where moral categories do apply and are considered to be evil, sinful, or wrong according to the code of ethics.
• Amoral actions are actions or areas of interest exhibiting indifference.

  these are manifested in the absence of knowledge, freedom and voluntariness on the part of the acting agent
• Moral dilemma is a situation in ethics where the human person is to choose between two possible alternatives and the options become limited.
• Moral dilemma happens when we cannot make a distinction between what is a good act from an evil act.
• ACTS OF MAN

  bodily actions performed without deliberation and in the absence of the will.
• Human acts are the fundamental foundation of morality. Acts which are under the control of the will and therefore done knowingly and willingly.
• Human Act requires moral responsibility that is derived from a person. If responsibility is a coined term of “response” and “ability” then the ability to response is important in ethics because “no one can give what s/he does not have.”
• A personal conviction of what is “right and wrong” becomes a social duty and such duty must be put into action. This makes ethics an axiology, or what philosophy calls praxis, the emphasis on the practical application of ethical ideas.
• The word “ethos” comes from the Greek word meaning character. It refers to the set of values and principles by which people live their lives.
• The three-fold elements of Human Acts are knowledge, freedom of the will, and voluntariness
• KNOWLEDGE

  awareness or being conscious of one’s actions including its possible consequences.
• knowledge provides a framework for deliberating about the most appropriate technique(s) by which the good can be attained.
• FREEDOM OF THE WILL

  the power which human beings have in determining their actions according to the judgment of their reasons.
• Freedom of the Will This always involves a choice or an option of whether to do or not to do a certain action.
• VOLUNTARINESS

  act of consenting or accepting a certain action whether it is done whole-heartedly, half-heartedly, or non-heartedly.
• Agapay’s Four Mode of Voluntariness are perfect, imperfect, conditional, and simple voluntaries
• The two types of simple voluntariness are positive and negative voluntariness
• Imperfect Voluntariness is seen in a person who acts without the full awareness of his action or without fully intending the act.
• Conditional Voluntariness is manifested by a person who is forced by his circumstances beyond his control to perform an action which he would not do under

  normal condition.
• Simple Voluntariness is exhibited by a person doing an act willfully regardless of whether he likes to do it or not.
• positive simple voluntariness when the act requires the performance of an act.
• negative simple voluntariness when the act does not require the performance of an act.
• Object Chosen

  This is a good toward which the will deliberately directs itself. The chosen object resides out the acting subject. The object chosen morally specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges it to be or not to be in conformity with the true good.
• THE INTENTION

  This is a movement of the will toward the end. It is concerned with the goal of the activity. The end is the first goal of the intention and indicates the purpose pursued in the action.
• THE CIRCUMSTANCES

  Including the consequences, are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts.
• The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the three "sources" of the morality of human acts.
• The object chosen morally specifies the act of willing accordingly as reason recognizes and judges it good or evil. "An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention"
• A morally good act therefore requires the goodness of its object, of its end, and of its circumstances together.