ETHICS - midterms

• Ethics


  • Provides a framework for making moral decisions and evaluating actions
  • Helps individuals and organizations maintain integrity and build trust
  • Promotes fairness, justice, and respect for others
• Ethics


  • Helps individuals develop a strong moral character and make decisions aligned with their values
  • Guides individuals in making ethical choices in their personal lives
  • Enhances personal relationships and contributes to personal growth and well-being
• Ethics in Professional Life


  • Ensures ethical conduct and decision-making
  • Helps professionals maintain professional integrity and reputation
  • Promotes a positive work environment and fosters trust among colleagues and clients
• Ethics in Society


  • Plays a vital role in shaping a just and fair society
  • Helps in creating laws and regulations that protect the rights and well-being of individuals
  • Promotes social responsibility and encourages individuals to contribute positively to society
• Ethics is crucial in professional settings to ensure ethical conduct and decision-making
• Ethics plays a vital role in shaping a just and fair society
• Ethics promotes social responsibility and encourages individuals to contribute positively to society
• Reason


  • A cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event
  • The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; for consciously making sense of things
• Impartiality


  • Involves the idea that each individual's interests and point of view are equally important
  • A principle of justice holding that decisions ought to be based on objective criteria
• Importance of Reason and Impartiality

  • Guiding Ethical Decision-Making
  • Resolving Ethical Dilemmas
  • Promoting Accountability and Fairness
  • Fostering Ethical Dialogue and Debate
• Examples of Reason and Impartiality

  • Criminal Justice System
  • Distribution of Goods
  • Public policy formulation
• Reason and Impartiality are considered requirements for morality because they help ensure that moral principles are based on logic and fairness, rather than personal biases or emotions
• Reason allows us to analyze and evaluate moral principles in a logical and consistent way, while impartiality ensures that moral principles apply to all individuals and groups, regardless of their personal characteristics or circumstances
• Together, reason and impartiality help ensure that moral principles are objective and fair, rather than subjective or arbitrary
• Moral Courage


  Doing the right thing even at the risk of inconvenience, ridicule, punishment, loss of job or security or social status
• Developing Will and Moral Courage

  1. Develop and practice self-discipline

  2. Do mental strength training

  3. Draw inspiration from people of great courage

  4. Repeatedly do acts that exhibit moral courage and will. Practice makes perfect

  5. Avoid deeds that show lack of moral courage and will
• Laws that Govern Moral Life

  • Divine Law
  • Natural Law
  • Man-made Law
• Divine Law


  Any law or rule that is believed to come directly from God. It is the law of God.
• Divine Law


  • Source: originates from religious texts, teachings, or revelations from a divine entity. In monotheistic religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, divine law is often associated with the will of God.
  • Authority: have absolute authority and is not subject to human alteration. It is believed to be unchanging and eternal.
  • Application: guides believers in matters of morality, ethics, and behavior. It often covers a wide range of issues, including personal conduct, social interactions, and religious rituals.
• Divine Law


  • The Ten Commandments
  • Sharia law in Islam
  • The Five Precepts
• Natural Law


  That asserts the existence of a universal and objective moral order inherent in nature or the human condition. It suggests that certain principles of morality are intrinsic to human nature and can be discerned through reason and observation.
• Natural Law


  • Source: believed to be inherent in the nature of the world and human beings. It is considered to be discernible through human reason and observation, rather than being revealed by a divine entity.
  • Authority: derives its authority from its perceived alignment with objective reality and human nature. It is often viewed as a basis for critiquing or evaluating human-made laws and societal norms.
  • Application: Natural law provides a framework for determining objective moral principles and ethical guidelines that apply to all individuals, regardless of their religious beliefs. It covers topics such as justice, human rights, and basic human goods.
• Natural Law


  • The preservation of life
  • Justice
  • The pursuit of knowledge
• In summary, divine law is rooted in religious beliefs and is considered to be dictated by a divine source, while natural law is based on the idea of an objective moral order inherent in nature and discoverable through reason. These concepts have played significant roles in the development of moral and ethical thought throughout history.
• Dilemma


  Refers to a situation in which a tough choice must be made between two or more options
• Dilemma


  • Choosing a school
  • Choosing a career
• Moral Dilemma

  Situations in which a difficult choice must be made between two courses of action which involves transgressing moral principles
• Moral Dilemma


  • The Trolley Problem: A person must decide whether to divert a runaway trolley onto a different track, potentially saving multiple lives but causing the death of one individual on the other track
  • The Soldier's Dilemma: A soldier is ordered to carry out a mission that involves harming innocent civilians. The soldier must decide whether to follow orders and obey their superiors or refuse to participate in actions that violate their moral principles
• Moral Dilemma


  • Robin Hood
• Solving Moral Dilemma


  1. Examine the background and the action in relation to the agent/doer

  2. Determine the consequences of the acts

  3. Identify the intention of the acts

  4. Decide in accordance to the Divine laws and natural laws which govern moral life
• Consequentialism


  Whether something is good or bad depends on its outcomes. An action that brings about more benefit than harm is good, while an action that causes more harm than benefit is not
• Divine Law


  • Any law or rule that is believed to come directly from God. It is the law of God
  • Source: originates from religious texts, teachings, or revelations from a divine entity. In monotheistic religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, divine law is often associated with the will of God
  • Authority: have absolute authority and is not subject to human alteration. It is believed to be unchanging and eternal
  • Application: guides believers in matters of morality, ethics, and behavior. It often covers a wide range of issues, including personal conduct, social interactions, and religious rituals
• Divine Law


  • The Ten Commandments
  • Sharia law in Islam
• Natural Law


  • Set of rights inherent to existence and quite different from the human created legal systems. It also suggests that humans possess intrinsic values that control their reasoning and behavior
  • Source: believed to be inherent in the nature of the world and human beings. It is considered to be discernible through human reason and observation, rather than being revealed by a divine entity
  • Authority: derives its authority from its perceived alignment with objective reality and human nature. It is often viewed as a basis for critiquing or evaluating human-made laws and societal norms
  • Application: Natural law provides a framework for determining objective moral principles and ethical guidelines that apply to all individuals, regardless of their religious beliefs. It covers topics such as justice, human rights, and basic human goods
• Natural Law


  • The preservation of life, justice, and the pursuit of knowledge are examples of principles often associated with natural law
• Give a MORAL dilemma that you have encountered and how did you confront it.