For Midterm Examination

• Ethics


  This subject will not tell you what is right and wrong; it will help you in determining it for yourself
• Ethics


  • It is about matters such as the good thing that we should pursue, and the bad thing we should avoid
  • It is about the right ways in which we could or should act and the wrong ways of acting
  • It is about what is acceptable and unacceptable in human behavior
  • It may involve obligations that we are expected to fulfill, prohibitions that we are required to respect, or ideals that we are encouraged to meet
  • Discipline of studying and understanding ideal human behavior and ideal ways of thinking
• Kinds of Valuation

  • Aesthetics
  • Etiquette
  • Technique/Technical/Technical Valuation
• Aesthetics


  • Derived from the Greek word "aiesthesis" meaning "sense" or "feeling"
  • Refers to the judgments of personal approval or disapproval that we make about what we see, hear, smell, or taste
• Etiquette


  • A customary code which indicates the proper and polite way to behave in society
• Technique/Technical/Technical Valuation


  • Refer to a proper way of doing things
  • Right and wrong technique of doing things
• Morals


  • Refer to specific beliefs or attitudes that people have or to describe acts that people perform
  • If he falls short from behaving properly, this can be described as timmoral
• Ethics vs Moral


  Writers and thinkers were not able to arrive to a consensus on how to make a distinction between ethics and morals. So, we will use the term ethics and moral interchangeably
• Study of Ethics

  • Descriptive Study
  • Normative Study
• Descriptive Study


  • Reports how people, particularly groups, make their moral valuations without making judgment either or against these valuations
  • Often the work of social scientist: Historian, Sociologist or Anthropologist
• Normative Study


  • Often done in Philosophy or Moral Theology and it engages the question: What could or should be considered as the right way of acting?
  • Prescribes what we ought to maintain as our standards or bases for moral valuation
• Situations that calls for moral valuation

  • Moral Issue
  • Moral Decision
  • Moral Judgment
  • Moral Dilemma
• Moral Issue


  Often used to refer to those particular situations that are often the source of considerable and inconclusive debate
• 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 behavior 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
• Reasoning is important in the study of ethics
• Beyond rewards and punishments, it is possible for our moral valuation-our decisions and judgments-to be based on a PRINCIPLE
• Principles


  Rationally established grounds which one justifies and maintains her moral decisions and judgments
• Moral Theory


  • A systematic attempt to establish the validity of maintaining certain moral principles
  • Insofar as a theory is a system of thought or of ideas, it can also be referred to as a framework
• Framework


  As a theory of interconnected ideas, and at the same time, a structure through which we can evaluate our reasons for valuing a certain decision or judgment
• By studying frameworks, we can reconsider, clarify, modify, and ultimately strengthen our principles, thereby informing better both our moral judgments and moral decisions
• Socrates: 'It is the greatest good for a person to spend time thinking about and discussing with others these questions on goodness and virtue'
• Sources of Authority


  • Law
  • Religion
  • Culture
• Positive law


  Refers to different rules and regulations that are posited or put forward by an authority that require compliance
• • The law does not tell us what we should do; it works by constraining us from performing acts that we should not do
  • The law cannot tell us what to pursue, only what to avoid
• There are certain ways of acting which are not forbidden by law, but essentially questionable to us
• Religion


  • Love the Lord, Your God, therefore, and always heed his charge: his statutes, decrees, and commandments
• Someone may maintain a radical form of DIVINE COMMAND THEORY. They claim that God "Spoke" to her directly to instruct her what to do
• Religion is not simply prohibitive, but it also provides ideals to pursue
• Religion as basis of Ethics


  • It has the advantage of providing us with not only a set of commands but also a Supreme Authority that can inspire and compel our obedience in a way that nothing else can
  • The Divine can command absolute obedience on one's part as the implications of her actions involve her ultimate destiny
• Problems of Religion IN THE CONTEXT OF ETHICS

  • On the practical level
  • On conceptual level
• Practical Level


  • By reason of multiplicity of religions, each faith demands differently from its adherents. As a result, it would result to conflicting ethical standards
  • Are we then compelled to judge others negatively given their different morality?
  • Are we called upon to convert them forward our own faith?
  • How about the problem of realizing that not everyone is devout or maintains a religious faith? Would you be compelled to admit then that if religion is the basis morality, some people would simply have no moral code?
  • Differences, however, are not confined to being problematic of varying religious tradition. Experience teaches us that sometimes even within one and the same faith, difference can be a real problem
• Conceptual Level


  • Where one requires the believer to clarify her understanding of the connection between ethics and divine
  • This was elucidated in the history if thought by Plato in his dialogue titled Euthyphro
• Euthyphro: 'But I would certainly say that the holy is what all the gods love and that the opposite, what all the gods hate, is unholy'
• Socrates: 'Well, Euthphyro, should we examine this in turn to see if it is true? Or should we let it go, accept it from ourselves or anyone else without more ado, and agree that a thing is so if only someone says it is? Or should we examine what a person means when he says something?'
• Euthyphro: 'Of course. I believe, that this time what I say is true?'
• Socrates: 'Perhaps we shall learn better, my friend. For consider: Is the Holy loved by the gods because it is holy? Or is it holy because it is loved by the gods?'
• If we presume that taking another's life is wrong, is it because God commanded it, or is it because it killing is wrong in itself?
• History reveals many sad instances of people believing that God so wills it, allowing them to kill their fellow human beings in His name. Can we be satisfied with this idea that the divine will could be arbitrary?