Ethics

• Philosophy - The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.
• Etymological - Comes from the Greek words “philo” (love) and “sophia” (wisdom) and so is literally defined as “the love of wisdom”. The term was first coined by Pythagoras.
• Concepts of Love

  o Eros - sexual desire, “erotic”

  o Philia - friendship and loyalty to family and polis-one’s political community, job, or discipline.

  o Agape - paternal love of God for man, extended to include a brotherly love for all humanity.
• Philia is the love that seeks the truth, whether the truth of the other, of person, or of reality.
• Philosophy, then, is the love that devotes itself in attaining what is true of reality.
• Essential/Classical - Philosophy is the “search for meaning”, to look for something more, to probe, to go beyond.
• Philosophy and Science - both discuss the fundamental truths about the universe. These fields study nature and life.
• Philosophy and History - History serves as the breeding ground of philosophy. Philosophy, on the other hand, defines history and interprets its existence for better understanding of the past.
• Philosophy and Mathematics - The approaches involved are methodical and systematic giving emphasis in proving theoretical concepts and formulating standard of truth in order to accept as general or universal foundation of learning.
• Philosophy and Religion - Religion is generally a philosophical culmination of basic and complex ideas about almost everything both justifiable or not, while philosophy is a religious context that tries to concretize divine beliefs, ideas, opinions, facts and supposition in order that the world will be aware of it and believe in it.
• IMPORTANCE OF PHILOSOPHY

  -    To develop holistic view of life that may help one to come up with right decision, better understanding of fellow humans and that of one’s self.
• MAJOR DISCIPLINES IN PHILOSOPHY

  · Logic - the study of right and sound reasoning.

  · Epistemology - the study of validity of knowledge.

  · Metaphysics - seeks to explain the fundamental concept of being.

  · Aesthetics - the philosophical study of beauty.

  · Cosmology - deals with the study of real things in the universe.

  · Theodicy - the study of God and His nature.

  · Social Philosophy - the study of human and their relation to society.

  · Ethics - the science of the morality of human acts.
• Ethics is derived from the Greek word “ethos”, which means “way of living”.
• Ethics is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with human conduct, more specifically the behaviour of individuals in society, also known as “moral philosophy”.
• Ethics examines the rational justification for our moral judgments; it studies what is morally right or wrong, just or unjust.
• Imperative of Ethics

  > Human Freedom

  > Existence of God

  > Immortality of Soul
• Human Freedom - Freedom is an inherent human power to act or not to act that makes them responsible for their actions.

  
  

  RESPONSIBILITY = HUMAN + FREEDOM
• 13 Freedom

  
• Existence of God - God’s presence is a salient factor that makes sense in the study of ethics. Without God’s existence that postulates human’s belief, they (humans) find no reason to do good and avoid evil.

  GOOD = REWARD, EVIL = PUNISHMENT
• Immortality of the Soul - It is a cornerstone in ethics. If there is no life after earth where the soul believed to perpetuate life beyond, then good deeds are not rewarded nor evil doers are punished.

        IMMORTALITY = NO REWARD, NO PUNISHMENT
• 5 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

  > Truthfulness / Honesty

  > Loyalty

  > Respect

  > Fairness

  > Intergrity
• Truthfulness / Honesty - among the basic principles of the natural moral law, and people everywhere recognize that honesty in dealings with others is a prerequisite for societal order and well-being.
• Loyalty - the willing and practical and throughgoing devotion of a person to a cause, promotes the realization of an agreement by directing behavior so that the other party’s reasonable expectations will be met.
• Respect - rests on the unique capability of human beings to behave as rational agents, that is, self-aware and capable of objective thought and the ability to reason
• Fairness - characterized by equity, respect, justice and stewardship of the shared world.
• Integrity - imposes an obligation on all individuals to be straightforward and honest in all professional and business relationships
• MORALS

  -    Refers to the social, cultural and religious beliefs of values practiced overtime by an individual or group which direct people to do what is customarily allowable as right or refrain from those that society prohibits as “taboo” or wrong.
• MORALS

  -    Rules and standards made by the society or culture which is to be followed by us while deciding what is right.
• Moral standards are those laws or commands that allow specifics actions to be committed or those that disallow actions contrary to these norms.
• MORAL STANDARDS

  -       percepts to follow based on mores or traditional norms and practices that allow actions as good in specific time and place
• ETHICS vs. MORALS

  
• MORAL EXPERIENCE

  -    Any encounter wherein a person understands that the values he or she believes to be important are either realized or thwarted
• Moral experiences happen everyday based on moral standards.
• A moral standard is a code of what is right or wrong without reference to a specific behaviors or beliefs. (O’Connor & Lynn, 1997
• A moral standard refers to the norms which we have about the types of actions which we believe to be morally acceptable and morally unacceptable.
• moral standards deal with matters which can either seriously harm or seriously benefit human beings.
• DILEMMA

  -        It is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more  alternatives, especially those that are equally undesirable ones.
• •    Three Levels of Moral Dilemma

  o Personal Moral Dilemma

  o Organizational Dilemma

  o Structural Moral Dilemma
• o Personal Moral Dilemma - there is a moral conflict caused by your own, another person, or a group of people’s potential harm.
• o Organizational Dilemma - happens when member/s of organization or a group of people has/have to make a moral decision that can be potentially harmful to some members or the whole organization