[M1] UNDERSTANDING ETHICS AND MORALITY

• Ethics

  • Came from the Greek word "ETHOS" meaning custom or a particular behavior
  • Conformity to accepted standards of conduct
  • May refer to rules provided by an external source
  • Ethics are external standards provided by institutions, groups, or culture to which an individual belongs
  • Studied for over a thousand years and its distinctions are important for ethicists
• Morality

  • Came from the Latin word MORALIS, mos, mor meaning 'CUSTOM'
  • Actual conformity of people's behavior to standards of right and wrong
  • One's ability and capacity to distinguish right from wrong
  • Refers to an individual's own principles regarding right and wrong
• Non-moral actions/events


  • Areas of interest where moral categories cannot be applied
  • Almost all examples involving human intention, volition, or behavior are described in terms of moral categories
  • Statements in the sciences (so-called "factual statements") are considered to be about nonmoral issues as well
• Immoral actions/events

  • Areas of interest where moral categories do apply and are such a kind as to be evil, sinful, or wrong according to some code or theory of ethics
• Characteristics of a moral person


  • Has INTELLECT/REASON (RATIONAL) – Knows the truth
  • Has WILL (FREEDOM) – Has FUNDAMENTAL OPTION – Can freely move towards the good
  • Has BODY AND SOUL (Is an EMBODIED SPIRIT)
  • Has CONSCIENCE (Has an inner LIFE AND CORE)
  • Has POWERS AND CAPACITIES (Has talents, abilities and can move towards self enhancement and growth)
• Reasons for ethics

  • We are NOT ALONE, we live with OTHERS (We affect them, they affects us)
  • There is THE OTHER that demands from us (We create standards for stable functioning)
  • It brings about Peaceful co- existence in the world
• Eudaimonia


  An objective standard of 'happiness,' based on what it means to live a human life well
• Applied Ethics

  The practical application of moral considerations in the areas of private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadership
• Teleology


  The practice of evaluating a decision against a criterion of whether outcome achieves the best result or goal

  • all things are designed for a purpose - what one "ought/has to be"
  • "Telos" - means purpose or end
• Early rules and guides followed by man

  • The 10 Commandments
  • The Sharia Laws of Islam
  • Torah: The Law of Moses
• Importance of Ethics to man and Society


  Ethics is a requirement of Human life. It is our means of deciding a course of action.

  The study of ethics is essential to the stable functioning of civilization.
• Morals

  as a noun the word was first used to translate Latin Moralia, the title of St. Gregory the Great's moral exposition of the Book of Job, and was subsequently applied to the works of various classical writers.
• Morals


  • rightness and wrongness of a human act

  • Actual conformity of people’s behavior to standards of right and wrong
• Amoral Actions


  those areas of interest exhibiting indifference to and not abiding by the moral rules or codes of society
• Ethics and Moral

  • Relate to “right” and “wrong” conduct. While they are sometimes used interchangeably, they are different.
  • By nature, Christians believe no man is moral or ethical, rather that we live in a constant struggle to become "moral”.
• Plato's theory of Soul

  • It also know as the Tripartite of the Soul. Drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, considered the psyche (ψυχή) to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how people behave.
  • He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being. Plato said that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think.
  • He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn (metempsychosis) in subsequent bodies.
• The Platonic soul consists of three parts which are located in different regions of the body

  • logos (λογιστικόν), or logistikon, - located in the head, is related to reason and regulates the other parts.
  • thymos (θυμοειδές), or thumetikon, - located near the chest region and is related to anger.
  • eros (ἐπιθυμητικόν), or epithumetikon, - located in the stomach and is related to one's desires.
• Ethics comes down to two basic things:

  -Eudaimonia

  -Arete
• Arete

  e is a philosophical term with deep meaning first used by Greeks. It roughly means moral virtue, and refers to an innate excellence in all things, and the striving toward that potential or purpose as a way of life
• Ethics vs Morals from the Christian

  For Christians, ethics and morals are based on God's character and law, yet are distinct terms with different actions and biblical Many Christians, however, define moral actions as either sinful action or God.
• Secular Perspective


  ethics change from group to group and society to society.
• Christian Perspective

  ethics should be concrete and governed by God
• 3 branches of ethics

  • Metaethics
  • Normative
  • Applied Ethics
• Normative Ethics

  • Sometimes referred to as ethical theory. Normative ethics is the study of ethical action.
  • It is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking
• Principles in Normative Ethics

  • Deontology
  • Teleology
• Meta-criterial Theories

  • The social theory
  • The gradient theory
• fill the blanks

  A) social theory

  B) social agreement

  
• fill the blanks

  A) degrees

  
• The social theory


  contends that personhood is a social construct or is a mere creation of society.
• The Gradient theory


  Claims that personhood comes in degrees since moral persons possess the defining features of personhood in varying degrees.
• Moral Agents


  Can be morally accountable for their actions towards moral patients.
• Accountability


  is the deservingness of blame or praise for the actions that we perform.
• fill theblanks

  A) moral patients

  B) blame

  C) praise