ethics 1 to 3

• Ethics


  The branch of philosophy that studies morality or the rightness or wrongness of human conduct
• Morality


  A code or system of behavior in regards to standards of right or wrong behavior
• Ethics and morality are often used interchangeably
• Ethics


  • Stands to queries about what there is reason to do
  • Concerned with character
• This unit will expound on moral standards and how it differs from other rules of life
• This unit will cover topics about moral dilemma and its three levels, the importance of freedom in making moral decisions and the advantages of owning moral standards
• Ethics


  The science of the morality of human acts
• Morality


  The standards that a person or group has about what is right and wrong or good and evil
• Moral distinctions


  • Moral actions
  • Immoral actions
  • Amoral actions
• Moral standards


  Those concerned with or relating to human behavior, especially the distinction between good and bad behavior
• Characteristics of moral standards


  • Involve serious wrongs or significant benefits
  • Ought to be preferred to other values
  • Not established by authority figures
  • Have the trait of universalizability
  • Based on impartial considerations
  • Associated with special emotions and vocabulary
• Classification of moral standards

  • Consequence
  • Non-consequence
• Non-moral standards


  Rules that are unrelated to moral or ethical considerations
• Dilemma


  A situation in which a tough choice has to be made between two or more options, especially more or less equally undesirable ones
• Moral dilemma


  Situations in which a difficult choice has to be made between two courses of actions, either of which entails transgressing a moral principle
• Features of moral dilemma


  • The agent is required to do each of two actions
  • The agent can do each of these actions
  • The agent cannot do both of the actions
• Levels of moral dilemma

  • Individual
  • Organizational
  • Structural
• Types of structural moral dilemmas

  • Differential vs. Integration
  • Gap vs. Overlap
  • Lack of clarity vs. Lack of creativity
  • Flexibility vs. Strict adherence to rules
• Freedom


  The foundation of moral acts. It pertains to opportunities wherein we can choose.
• Culture


  The cumulative deposit of knowledge, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving
• Culture's role in moral behavior is significant as it is a way of life that includes moral values and behaviors
• Culture


  The sum total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation
• Culture


  Cultivated behavior; the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted behavior through social learning
• Culture's role in moral behavior


  • Moral values and behaviors, along with knowledge, beliefs, symbols that are accepted without thinking about them and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next
• Moral development through culture


  1. Children grow up in society and discover how their parents and others around them interpret the world

  2. Classify and perform different kinds of acts

  3. Evaluate what is morally good and bad

  4. Judge when an unusual action is appropriate or inappropriate
• Social learning


  The process by which individuals acquire knowledge from others in the groups to which they belong
• Enculturation or socialization


  The process by which infants and children socially learn the culture, including morality
• Cultural relativism


  A theory in ethics which holds that ethical judgments have their origins either in individual or cultural standards
• Moral relativism


  Fundamentally believes that no act is good or bad objectively and there is no single objective universal standard through which we can evaluate the truth of moral judgments
• Universal values


  • Values generally shared by cultures, which is proof that cultural relativism is wrong
• Biological values


  Necessary to the physical survival of man as an organism
• Social values


  Necessary to the sensual needs and fulfillment
• Rational values


  Necessary to the functions and fulfillment of intellect and will
• Moral values


  Those that directly pertain to the function of intellect and will: those choices, decisions and actions by which man's rational faculties are involved and perfected
• Moral agent


  A being who is capable of those actions that have moral quality and which can be properly denominated good or evil in a moral sense
• Moral character


  Refers to the existence or lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty and loyalty
• Character


  Derived from the Greek word "charakter", it came to mean a distinct mark by which one thing was distinguished from others
• Moral character


  Refers to having or lacking moral virtue. If one lacks virtue, he may have any of the moral vices, or he may be marked by a condition somewhere in between virtue and vice
• Circular relations of acts and character

  1. Acts that build character and moral character itself

  2. A person's actions determine his moral character, but moral character itself generates acts that help in developing either virtue or vice
• Moral character traits


  Characteristically understood as behavioral and affective dispositions. Moral character traits are those dispositions of character for which it is suitable to hold agents morally responsible