PHILO 23

• Ethics is from the Greek word ethos which means character
• Ethics tend to relate to business or professional use
• Ethics gives direction to answer the questions on how we should live and make choices
• Morality came from the Latin word moralis which means customs/manners
• Morality focuses on relationships between human beings and human conduct and values
• Morality is the very structure of human existence that dictates that we must make choices
• Philosophy means love of wisdom
• Philosophy came from the Greek words philia & sophia
• Philia means love or friendship
• Sophia means wisdom
• 5 Areas of Philosophy

  1. Epistemology
  2. Metaphysics
  3. Ethics
  4. Aesthetics
  5. Logic
• Epistemology is the study of knowledge or to know something
• Metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality
• Ethics is the study of morality to determine what is right and wrong
• Aesthetics is the study of values in art or beauty
• Logic is the study of argument and principles of correct reasoning
• Moral focuses on relationships
• Ethical focuses on character
• Good (moral) involves happiness and pleasure
• Bad (immoral) involves unhappiness and pain
• Right (ethical) vague; different standards and more emotional
• Wrong (unethical)
• Correct follows an accurate data
• Freedom is the ability to choose freely
• Hedonism is the view of what's good
• Malicious pleasures mean not everything that brings some satisfactions is necessarily good
• William Frankena states that whatever is good will probably involve "some degree of excellence"
• Excellence makes experiences better or worse than they would otherise be
• Knowledge & Power can be good but if not handled well will result to something bad
• Good results in harmony and creativity if an action can aid human beings in becoming creative and help bring about a harmonious integration
• Amoral means having no moral sense and no sense of right and wrong
• Amoral means not having any remorse or regret for what they have done
• Nonmoral is out of the realm of morality together
• Nonmoral are inanimate objects that are neither moral nor immoral
• Moral dilemmas are decisions that would involve a life of someone
• Decisions must be free from contradictions
• One must consider the following when making decisions on moral dilemmas:

  1. Stakeholders
  2. Relevant facts
  3. Available options
  4. Evaluate the options
  5. Determine the most appropriate action
  6. Double-checking the decision
• Available options - must have at least 3 options
• Available options - at this stage, reason struggles to transcend what we feel (rationality > what we feel)
• Principles

  1. Preservation of life - Natural law
  2. Dishonesty - Virtue
  3. Best for all - Utilitarianism
  4. Against rights - Kant