ETHICS

• Ethics comes from the Greek worD ETHOS , meaning character, or a “characteristic way of acting.”
• Morality comes from the Latin word, MORALIS, meaning customs or manners.
•      Business ethics is concerned primarily with the relationship between business goals and techniques to specifically human ends.
•        A human act is one that proceeds from the deliberate free will of man. It is an act that is deliberately and knowingly performed by one having the use of reason.
•     An act of man is one that is not dependent upon intellect and free will. It is done by a human person but is nor proper to him as a person because it does not stem from those faculties which are peculiar to man, namely; intellect and will.  
• The act itself. It will be seen rather easily that, to judge the morality of a human act, we must first consider the act itself.
• For an act to be considered a human act, it must possess the following essential attributes:

  1.     Performing by a conscious agent who is aware of what he is doing and of its consequences.

  2.     Performing by an agent who is acting freely, that is, by his volition and powers.

  3.     Performing by an agent who decides willfully to carry out the act.     
• ELEMENTS DETERMINING MORALITY

  1. The act itself
  2. Purpose
  3. Circumstances