Ethics Foundations of Moral Kinds of Valuation
Valuation • Aesthetics – from the Greek word
“aesthesis” which means “sense” or “feeling”
Chapter I: The Ethical Dimensions and refers to the judgments of personal
of Human Existence approval or disapproval that we make about
• Value • Sources of Authority what we see, hear, smell, or taste
• Senses of Self • Etiquette – concerned with right or wrong
Chapter Objectives actions, but those which might be considered
After reading this chapter, you should be not quite grave enough to belong to a
able to: discussion on ethics
• Identify the ethical aspect of human life and • Technical – from the Greek word “techne”
the scope of ethical thinking; and refers to a proper way— (or right way) of
• Define and explain the terms that are doing things
relevant to ethical thinking; and Other Clarifications and Terminology Ethics
• Evaluate the difficulties that are involved in and Morals
maintaining certain commonly held notions
on ethics • “Morals” may be used to refer to specific
beliefs or attitudes that people have or to
INTRODUCTION describe acts that people perform. We also
have terms such as “moral judgment” or
In August 2007, newspapers reported what
“moral reasoning,” which suggest a more
seemed to be yet another sad incident of
rational aspect.
fraternity violence. Cris Anthony Mendez, a
20-year-old student at the University of the • “Ethics” can be spoken of as the discipline
Philippines (UP), was rushed to the hospital of studying and understanding ideal human
in the early morning hours, unconscious, behavior and ideal ways of thinking. Thus,
with large bruises on his chest, back, and ethics is acknowledged as an intellectual
legs. He passed away that morning, and the discipline belonging to philosophy.
subsequent autopsy report strongly
Other Clarifications and Terminology
suggested that his physical injuries were
Descriptive and Normative
most probably the result of “hazing” (the term
colloquially used to refer to initiation rites in • A descriptive study of ethics reports how
which neophytes may be subjected to people, particularly groups, make their moral
various forms of physical abuse). valuations without making any judgment
either for or against these valuations.
VALUE
• A normative study of ethics, as is often
• Ethics is about matters such as the good done in philosophy or moral theology,
thing that we should pursue and the bad engages the question: What could or should
thing that we should avoid; the right ways in be considered as the right way of acting? In
which we could or should act and the wrong other words, a normative discussion
ways of acting. prescribes what we ought to maintain as our
• Ethics as a subject for us to study is about standards or bases for moral valuation.
determining the grounds for the values Issue, Decision, Judgment, and Dilemma
with particular and special significance to
human life. • A situation that calls for moral valuation can
be called a moral issue.
• When one is placed in a situation and that there are ways of thinking and valuing
confronted by the choice of what act to that are different from our own, that there is
perform, s/he is called to make a moral in fact a wide diversity in how different
decision. people believe it is proper to act. Therefore,
what is ethically acceptable or unacceptable
• When a person is an observer making an
is relative to, or, dependent on one’s culture.
assessment on the actions or behavior of
This position is referred to as cultural
someone, s/he is making a moral
relativism.
judgment.
• When one is torn between choosing one of
SENSES OF THE SELF
two goods or choosing between the lesser of • Subjectivism – The starting point of
two evils, this is referred to as a moral subjectivism is the recognition that the
dilemma. individual thinking person (the subject) is at
the heart of all moral valuations. From this
Reasoning
point, subjectivism leaps to the more radical
• What reasons do we give to decide or to claim that the individual is the sole
judge that a certain way of acting is either determinant of what is morally good or bad,
right or wrong? or right or wrong.
• A person’s fear of punishment or desire for • Psychological Egoism – “Human beings
reward can provide him/her a reason for are naturally self-centered, so all our actions
acting in a certain way. are always already motivated by self-
interest.” – It points out that there is already
• The promise of rewards and the fear of
an underlying basis for how one acts. The
punishments can certainly motivate us to act
ego or self has its desires and interests, and
but are not in themselves a determinant of
all his/her actions are geared toward
the rightness or wrongness of a certain way
satisfying these interests.
of acting or of the good or the bad in a
particular pursuit. • Ethical Egoism – It prescribes that we
should make our own ends, our own
• Beyond rewards and punishments, it is
interests, as the single overriding concern.
possible for our moral valuation—our
We may act in a way that is beneficial to
decisions and judgments—to be based on a
others, but we should do that only if it
principle.
ultimately benefits us.
SOURCES OF AUTHORITY
LESSON SUMMARY
• Law – It is supposed that law is one’s guide
In this Chapter…
to ethical behavior. In the Philippines,
• We have established the scope and the
Filipinos are constrained to obey the laws of rationale for a discussion of ethics.
the land as stated in the country’s criminal
and civil codes. The law cannot tell us what • We explored various domains of valuation to
to pursue, only what to avoid. distinguish what makes a particularly grave
type of valuation a moral or ethical one.
• Religion – The divinity called God, Allah,
or Supreme Being commands and one is • We clarified some of the terms that will be
obliged to obey his/her Creator (Divine used in the study of ethics; and
Command Theory). • We have also explored a few problematic
ways of thinking of ethics; some give a too
• Culture – Our exposure to different
simplistic answer to the question of our
societies and their cultures makes us aware
grounds or foundations for moral valuation,
while others seem to dismiss the possibility of
ethics altogether.
