Ethics

• Ethics


  A universal decision making tool that may be used by any person from any religion and even atheists
• Religion


  A system of beliefs and practices that promotes proper social behavior based on the teachings of a deity or a Supreme Being
• Ethics


  Ensures a generally agreed work-related behavior that empowers professionals to foster moral values through their work
• Ethics


  Gives a sense of justification in one's judgment, and helps ensure that decisions at work are not made based on purely subjective factors
• Ethics


  Without the study of ethics, the practice of one's profession will prey to vastly conflicting individual interpretations
• Ethics


  Closely related to morals
• Ethics


  Refers to specific rules, actions and behaviors
• Morals


  Refers mainly to guiding principles
• Morality


  A system of beliefs about what is right behavior and wrong behavior
• Morality


  Deals with how a person relates with others and with the world to promote what is good
• Morality


  The effort to guide one's conduct by reason - to act based on the best reasons for doing - while giving equal weight to the interests of each individual affected by one's decision
• Moral experience


  Any encounter wherein a person understands that the values he or she believes to be important are either realized or thwarted
• Moral experience is not limited to situations fraught with ethical questions, but happens even in mundane (very ordinary) everyday settings wherein you take action based on your moral standards
• Rule


  A statement that tells you what is or is not allowed in a particular situation
• Rules


  • Traffic rules
  • Sports rules
• Rules are in place to manage harmful behaviors and aim to encourage stability
• Moral standard


  A code of what is right or wrong without reference to specific behaviors or beliefs
• Moral standard is already present in children and continually undergoes revisions as the child matures and is influenced by his/her surroundings
• Moral standard


  Deals with matters that the person thinks have serious consequence, based on good reason and impartial considerations overriding interest
• Moral standards


  • Involve behaviors that seriously affect other people's well-being
  • Take a more important consideration than other standards including self-interest
  • Do not depend on any external authority but in how the person perceives the reasonableness of the action
  • Believed to be universal
  • Based on objectivity
  • Associated with vocabulary that depicts emotions or feelings
• Non-moral standards


  Relative standards by which something or someone is judged as either good or bad, depending on the guidelines agreed by a particular group
• Non-moral standards


  • Technique
  • Fashion
  • Grammar
• Etiquette


  A set of rules on how an individual should responsibly behave in the society
• Policy


  A clear, simple statement of how an organization plans to handle its services, actions, or business
• Law


  A rule created and enforced by the government and its agencies to maintain order, resolve disputes, and protect a person's liberty and rights
• Commandment


  A rule that is to be strictly observed because it was said to be set by a divine entity
• Dilemma is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives especially equally undesirable ones (Dictionary. Com. 2017).

  A moral dilemma is a situation where:

  1. There are two or more actions that you can possibly do.

  2. There is a moral reason/s for doing such actions.

  3. You cannot do all the possible actions presented to you. You only need to choose one.
• Three levels of moral dilemma

  • Personal moral dilemma
  • Organizational moral dilemma
  • Structural moral dilemma
• Personal moral dilemma


  Your decision in a situation where there is moral conflict is the cause of either your own; that of another person; or a group of people's potential harm
• Organizational moral dilemma


  A member or members of the organization is in a situation where there is a moral conflict and the decision will potentially harm either some members of the group or the entire organization such as company, cooperative, and associations itself
• Structural moral dilemma


  A person or group of persons who holds high level positions in the society faces a morally conflicting situation wherein the entire social system is affected
• Controversy at DepEd and CHED

  • Whether the Senior High School will be abolished or retained and Tertiary Education will be for two years only Instead of four, that all General Education Subjects will be offered in Senior High and all Board Examination subjects will be in the tertiary level
• Freedom is a condition in which people have the opportunity to speak, act, and pursue happiness without unnecessary external restrictions.

  Freedom is important because it leads to enhanced expressions of creativity and original thought, increased productivity, and an overall high quality of life.
• Why Only Humans Beings Can Be Ethical?

  • Immanuel Kant, Rene Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, Peter Caruthers and various religious theories believe that only humans can be ethical (Wilson, 2017).
• Fundamental difference between animal ethics and human ethics

  Animals behave instinctively while humans behave rationally
• Instinctive Behavior

  Hard-wired, inborn, characteristic response to specific environmental stimuli
• Rational behavior

  • is a decision-making process where the person acts in ways that best achieve his/her needs in accordance with his/her set preferences, priorities, and principles (Information Resources Management Association, 2015). 
  • Rational behavior is tied to moral standards. Moreover, the human person in his/her decision making process is free to decide what to do and free to act on his/her decisions. Thus, only human beings can be ethical because only humans have the capacity for free moral judgment.
• Instinctive Behavior

  • Altruistic behavior (unselfish) of social animals
• The animal's intent of self-sacrifice is more on ensuring reproductive success called kin selection rather than out of true self-less motive
• Instinctive Behavior


  • Suicidal attacks of worker honeybees in defense of their colony against intruders