Ethics

• Morality


  The set of standards an individual person or society has about what is right and wrong
• Ethics


  A sub-branch of philosophy that examines the validity, soundness, or reasonableness of the moral standards that a person or society has
• Morality develops in our toddler or childhood stage and primarily originates from what our parents, immediate social circle, and the culture we are born into taught us to believe and uphold
• We practice ethics when we put our pre-conceived moral standards into question and examination
• Plato: 'Plato’s Allegory of the Cave'
• Understanding Ethics through Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

  1. ETHICS is an activity of wondering, questioning, and critically and rationally examining the validity, soundness, and reasonableness of our personal or society’s moral standards

  2. ETHICS entails hard work and difficulties (bewilderment, confusion, discomfort of putting into question and challenging the validity of our personal and social long-held moral standards)

  3. ETHICS aims for autonomy (freedom) from dogmatism
• Areas of Philosophy


  • Meta-ethics
  • Normative Ethics
  • Applied Ethics
• Meta-ethics


  Looks into the nature, meaning, scope, and foundations of morality and moral discourses by attempting to shed light on the basic ideas, concepts, and assumptions that underlie our moral beliefs and judgements
• Normative Ethics


  Involves the formulation and critical examination of the moral standards that can serve as the basis of the kind of actions, institutions, and ways of life we should pursue
• Theories of Normative Ethics

  • Consequentialism (consequence-based)
  • Deontology (rules-based)
  • Virtue Ethics
• Ethics involves the formulation and critical examination of the moral standards that can serve as the basis of the kind of actions, institutions, and ways of life we should pursue
• Theories proposed to answer what moral standards should govern human action

  • Consequentialism
  • Deontology
  • Virtue Ethics
• Applied Ethics


  Examines particular issues in both personal and social spheres that are matters of moral judgement
• Specializations in applied ethics

  • Bioethics
  • Business Ethics
  • Environmental Ethics
• Ethics as Moral Philosophy vs. Descriptive Ethics


  Ethics prescribes what moral standards should be followed, while Descriptive Ethics describes what is the moral standards being practiced
• Ethics as moral philosophy will investigate the soundness of moral reasoning in each developmental stage and prescribe the ideal moral standards
• In psychology, Lawrence Kohlberg describes the six (6) developmental stages of moral reasoning of humans: Reward and punishment; Individualism and exchange; Interpersonal Conformity; Social Order; Social Contract and individual rights; Universal Principle stage
• Jolo S. Rian, LPT: 'GEC 18 PART-TIME INSTRUCTOR'
• Characteristics of morality


  • Moral standards deal with matters that can seriously harm or benefit human beings (and other moral persons)
  • Moral standards have universal validity
  • Moral standards are generally thought to have particularly overriding importance
  • Moral standards are not established by authoritarian bodies or solely determined by appealing to consensus or tradition
• Etiquette


  Refers to the set of rules or customs that determine the appropriateness of behaviors in a particular social group
• Etiquettes


  • In eating out, one should wait until all people on the table have been served before one starts eating
  • Follow certain etiquettes during occasions and/or situations such as weddings, funerals, riding public transportation, meetings, and communicating
• Etiquette is different from Morality


  • Etiquette is concerned with proper/appropriate behavior or manners while morality is concerned with good/right conduct
  • Etiquette is more arbitrary and culture-based than morality
  • Violating etiquettes can lead society to consider you ill-mannered, impolite, or even uncivilized but not necessarily immoral
• Scrupulous observance of rules of etiquette can camouflage moral issues
• Once etiquette is deeply embedded in the culture

  The practice takes on the importance of a moral rule, subsumed under the wider principle of showing respect to people
• Morality vs. Law


  • In many cases, laws are based on morality
  • Breaking the law is not always an immoral act, just as following the law is not necessarily doing what is right
• Examples of law and morality differences

  • Over-speeding when rushing someone to the hospital is illegal, but not immoral
  • Following laws that persecute Jewish people during WWII is legal, but not the right thing to do
  • Abortion in some countries is legal, but the question of whether it is morally right to commit abortion
• Over-speeding when rushing someone to the hospital

  Illegal, but not immoral
• Following the laws that persecute Jewish people during WWII

  Legal, but not the right thing to do
• Abortion in some countries


  Legal, but the question of whether it is morally right remains an issue
• Socrates to Euthyphro: '“Do Gods love goodness because it is good, or is it good because the Gods love it?”'
• Law codifies a society’s moral ideals and values, but what is lawful and what is moral are not identical
• Law cannot cover a wide variety of possible individual and group conduct, and in many situations, it is too blunt an instrument to provide moral guidance (Shaw, 2002, 6)
• Religion is often identified with morality, and religion is generally perceived to be the basis of morality
• God is the source of goodness; living a moral life is achieved by adhering to God’s will
• Although religion gives moral basis and direction to people, thinking that morality depends on religion raises some problems (Evangelista & Mabaquiao, 2020, 11-12)
• The moral directives given by the world’s great religions are general and imprecise, leading to moral dilemmas in specific situations that demand specific moral precepts
• There are different religions with conflicting answers to moral questions, necessitating a basis of morality that transcends religious boundaries for objective rational discourse
• As rational beings, basing judgement of right and wrong solely on religion may be limiting, and the faculty of reason should be utilized for moral decision-making
• Jolo S. Rian, LPT: 'FREEDOM AS FOUNDATION OF MORAL ACTS'
• Freedom


  The quality or ability of thinking, feeling, and acting without coercion or constraint