ETHICS REVIEWER

• Ethics


  Matters such as the good thing that we should pursue and the bad things that we should avoid; the right ways in which we could or should act and the wrong ways of acting
• Ethics


  About what is acceptable in human behaviour
• Ethics


  May involve obligations that we are expected to fulfil, prohibitions that we are required to respect, or ideals that we are encouraged to meet
• Kinds of valuation

  • Aesthetics
  • Etiquette
  • Technical valuation
• Aesthetics


  Judgments or personal approval or disapproval that we make about what we see, hear, smell, or taste
• Etiquette


  Concerned with right or wrong actions, but those might be considered not quite grave enough to belong to a discussion on ethics
• Technical valuation


  There is no right and wrong technique of doing things
• Morals


  May be used to refer specific beliefs of attitudes that people have or to describe acts that people perform
• Ethics


  The discipline of studying and understanding ideal human behavior and ideal ways of thinking
• Descriptive ethics


  Study of ethics that reports how people, particularly groups make their moral valuation without making any judgment either for or against these valuations
• Normative ethics


  Study of ethics that engages the questions of what could or should be considered as the right way of thinking
• Ethical concepts


  • Moral issue
  • Moral decision
  • Moral judgment
  • Moral dilemma
• Moral issue


  Matter of ethics (and not just law) insofar as it involves the questions of respect of one's property
• Moral decision


  When one is placed in a situation and confronted by the choice of what act to perform
• Moral judgment


  When a person is an observer who makes an assessment on the actions or behaviour of someone
• Moral dilemma


  When an individual can choose only one from a number of possible actions, and there are compelling ethical reasons for the various choices
• Sources of authority for ethics

  • Law
  • Religion
  • Culture
• Positive law


  The different rules and regulations that are posited or put forward by an authority figure that require compliance
• New American Bible, Deut 11:1: '"Love the Lord, Your God, therefore, & always heed his charge: his statutes, decrees, and commandments."'
• Divine command theory


  The idea that one is obliged to obey their Creator in all things as a foundation for ethical values
• Culture


  The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time
• Diversity of culture

  • Aesthetic differences
  • Religious differences
  • Etiquette differences
• Cultural relativism


  The idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of another
• What is ethically acceptable or unacceptable is relative to, or that is to say, dependent on one's culture
• Cultural relativism is premised on the reality of difference
• Under cultural relativism, we are in no position to render any kind of judgment on the practices of another culture
• Under cultural relativism, we are in no position to render judgment on the practices of even our own culture
• Cultural relativism requires following the presumption of culture as a single, clearly-defined substance or as something fixed and already determined
• Subjectivism


  The starting point is the recognition that the individual thinking person (the subject) is at the heart of all moral valuations
• Psychological egoism


  Human beings are naturally self-centered, so all our actions are always already motivated by self-interest
• A psychological egoist would argue that a soldier sacrifices his life for the sake of his country only to avoid the guilt he would have if he did not
• Psychological hedonism


  The theory that all voluntary human actions are motivated by a desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain
• Psychological egoism rejects every act of altruism as having a selfish motive behind it
• Ethical egoism


  It prescribes that we should make our own ends, our own interests, as the single overriding concern
• Utilitarianism


  An ethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure and the determination of right behavior based on the usefulness of the action's consequences
• Principle of utility


  The motivation of our actions as guided by our avoidance of pain and our desire for pleasure
• Pleasure is good if, and only if, they produce more happiness than unhappiness
• Utilitarianism: Principle of greatest number


  Utilitarianism is interested with everyone's happiness, in fact, the greatest happiness of the greatest number
• Justice (in utilitarianism)


  Respect for rights directed toward society's pursuit for the greatest happiness of the greatest number
• Rights (in utilitarianism)


  Valid claim on society and are justified by utility