CHAPTER 1

REPORTERS
CHAPTER 1

Its Meaning, Nature and Scope Amahit , Mynrick

Bastaza , Jovahni
CHAPTER 1
Bastaza , Rodel
Macas, Cirilo III
Salamputan , Rosemarie
 Chapter Objectives

At the end of this chapter, the students should e able to:

1. define and explain the nature and scope of ethics as a philosophical discipline.
2. articulate the importance of studying ethics;
3. discuss and distinguish the different or norms or standards pertaining to right
4. describe the moral dimension of human existence; and
5. identify the various characteristic of moral principles.
Etymological Meaning of Ethics

The word ETHICS is derived from the reek word “ethos” (character)

Or a particular w ay and manner of acting and behaving.

The latin Equivalent for custom is “mos” or “mores”. It is from this root word that the term “moral” or “morality” is derived

(Agapay 2008). The two terms, ethics and morality, in this sense, therefore, have literally the same meaning.
 Ethics and Morality
Distinguished

Generally, both ethics and morality deal with the goodness or badness, rightness or wrongness
of the human act or human conduct. But in ethics, we specifically study morality. Morality
provides with a quality that determines and distinguishes right conduct from wrong conduct.
 Ethics: A philosophy of action
While ethics arms the person with a theoretical knowledge of the morality of human acts, so he/she may know what to do as well as how

knowing and doing, knowledge and action.

Knowledge, however, as anybody can readily attest in everyday experience, is not always performed. It does not automatically happen

that, as a person knows, then he/she does not necessarily follow that knowledge leads or result to practical action.

This would only mean that ethics, or make that “the learning” of ethics does not actually guarantee morality on the part of the person does

not necessarily do what he/she knows. It has been said that the farthest distance for a person to cross is the distance between the head

and the heart.

 Ethics:
A Practical Discipline

• tries to relate professional rules and clinical experience to the broader social context in which professionals practice, and to

the deeper moral assumptions on which professions depend.

• Practical ethics tries to relate professional rules and clinical experience to the broader social context in which professionals

practice, and to the deeper moral assumptions on which professions depend

• Practical Ethics, sometimes called Moral Philosophy or Applied Ethics, is a branch of philosophy that has developed out of

the study of Ethics, and aims to examine and define principles for moral behaviour and apply them to real world scenarios.
The Importance
of Studying
Ethics
 With what has been said so far, it is now clear why the study of ethics is very important to human life. Ethics is
indeed an area of knowledge which is indispensable in the living of life which is ”TRULY HUMAN”. It can be said
that “without moral perception, man is only an animal. Without morality, man as a rational [and free] being is a
failure” (Agapay 1991:3)

Studying ethics will improve your ability engage in difficult moral dialogue with people who have different
perspectives from you. It will help you live consistently with your values and think reflectively about those values
as you learn more about the world and your place in it.

Ethics is what guides us to tell the truth, keep our promises, or help someone in need. There is a framework of
ethics underlying our lives on a daily basis, helping us make decisions that create positive impacts and steering us
away from unjust outcomes.Aug 26, 2019

Still another important reason of studying ethics is that it will aid us to widen our horizon as to what is good and
bad.
The Difference between Ethics and Law
 There are some similarities between ethics and law:
1. As tools to set the order in society.
2. Learn and make human behavior as the object.
3. Give space limitation for the right authority of a person in social life in order not to adverse each other.
4. The source is from thought and experience.
5. Arouse human awareness.
Ethics and law differences are:

1. Ethics is not in written form, while law is in written form or recorded as state law.
2. Ethics is subjective and flexible, while law is objective and assertive.
3. Ethics does not require physical evidence in the verdict; law requires physical evidence in the verdict.
4. Ethics provides guidance, while law is demanding.
5. Ethics does not require tools to ensure the implementation; law requires enforcement agencies for implementation.
Similarities and Differences of Ethics and Religion
We already know that ethics and religion are fields that come to the principles of inter-human life as social beings associated with
morals.
Moral is an assessment of a person's actions, whether good or bad.
• Why do we still need Ethics if we have laws to guide us on how to be good? Are the laws enough to tell us what’s right and wrong? Is it
not that ethics essentially consist of rules concerning right or wrong, on what we ought to do and not do?

• Ethical rules are necessary even if we have the laws that are implemented by civil authorities since legality is not identical with morality.
We can be good in terms of what the law requires but we may still fall short of becoming a “moral” or “ethical” person.

• At times, what is legal is not always moral. At other times, what is moral is not always legal. Ethics is not identical with the law.

• Another reason why morality is still important even if we have laws to guide us in our daily conduct is that law’s are only concerned with
actions that are usually “public:” actions that in a way often harmed those around us. These types of actions are external ones that
society forbids because they are detrimental to the common good or the general public.

• Moreover, ethics goes beyond the concern and parameters of law, for it includes human motivations in its investigation.

• Ethics in this respect, includes the thoughts and feelings of individuals.

• Thus, morality goes beyond legality in this respect. Even actions that we do in private are covered under umbrella of ethics. Morality
includes things that we do that do not directly harm others or even ourselves.
 let us also be reminded that our laws are usually the product of a collective agreement of some
sort______ a kind of social contract where people come together and decide among themselves what’s
good or bad. This means that laws, more often than not are decided by a majority vote.

What is right is right even though no one is doing it. Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.

Lastly, we still need ethics even if we have laws because ethics serves as the very foundation of our
law’s. “it is because of ethics that we have laws in the first place, and we continue to need ethics to
refine and perfect our legal system” ( Ruggiero 2001:9)
The Distinction Between Ethics and Religion
Another important distinction that has to be made regarding ethics as a normative discipline is its intimate
relation with that is also normative, just like law. While many people identify morality with religion, both
being concerned with right and wrong behavior “in fact] most religions have a long story of internal
arguments and interpretations about the nature and content of the moral law.

Ethics as a philosophical discipline, as mentioned, solely relies on natural reason, logic and experience ,
especially in the justification and validation of certain theories and principles concerning good and bad.

Religion on the other hand relies primarily and mainly on supernatural reason, that is divine revelation or
divine authority.
Ethics and religion similarities:
1. On the target, put the foundation of the moral teachings so that people can tell which acts are good and which are
despicable.
2. In nature, both ethics and religion provide warning and not force.

Ethical and religion differences:

1. Ethics is a trust that does not contain dedication, while religion is belief that contains devotion to God.
2. Ethics discusses the human moral life in the world, whereas religion teaches two kinds of life that are world and
hereafter.
3. Ethics comes from the ideas and experience of people, while religion comes from God.
4. Not all of ethical teachings of religion are accepted, while religion may strengthen or complete the ethics teaching.
 Ethics: A Definition

• Philosophically, ethics is defined as the practical science of the morality of human act or conduct and of the good

life.

• Ethics is a body of knowledge systematically arranged and presented in such manner that is arrives at its

conclusions coherently and logically. Ethics as a branch of philosophy that deals with how we ought to live, with

the idea [and the pursuit ]of the good and with concepts as right’ and wrong’’’

• Ethics as a philosophical discipline, deals with ultimate principles and truth concerning the morality of human

conduct through the use of human reason and experience alone, without the aid of supernatural reason or divine

revelation.
Material Object of Ethics & Formal Object of Ethics

What is the meaning of object in ethics?

The object of a moral act is that to which the action tends by its very nature. For example, the object of murder is the
taking of the life of an innocent person. It is the object, so understood, that primarily specifies an action as morally good
or bad. This moral object makes the action to be good or bad as such.
 Division of Ethics
Ethics, as a specific field or branch of philosophy, is traditionally divided into two general areas or major parts:
• General Ethics
• Special (applied ethics)

General ethics

What is the general ethics?

Ethics examines the rational justification for our moral judgments; it studies what is morally right or wrong, just or
unjust. In a broader sense, ethics reflects on human beings and their interaction with nature and with other humans, on freedom, on
responsibility and on justice.

mainly deals with the morality of human acts(its major elements or constituents and modifiers, the norms of morality ( law and
conscience), and the specific determinants of morality( major sources of morality).
Special or Applied Ethics
essentially applies the specific and fundamental norms and principles of general ethics in various specific areas of

human life and activity, both in the individual and social domain( individual ethics and Social ethics), such as in the areas of

family, the state, the church, and the other societal issues and concern( rights and duties, ecology/environment, labor and

work ethics, sex and marriage, bioethics, politics and government, etc.)
• Applied ethics is a branch of ethics devoted to the treatment of moral problems, practices, and policies in personal life, professions, technology,
and government.

Applied ethics, also called practical ethics, is the application of ethics to real-world problems. Practical ethics attempts to answer the question
of how people should act in specific situations. For example, is it ethical for a business owner to bluff during negotiations with another company?

If applied ethics didn't exist, it would be hard to know what's right or wrong when you don't have an established set of moral values or principles.
Furthermore, applied ethics allows us to address specific moral issues that affect real people in real situations.
of applies ethics

Examples: the moral issues regarding… abortion euthanasia giving to the poor sex before marriage the death penalty gay/lesbian marriage
(or other rights) war tactics censorship so-called “white lies” etc
Kinds and Valuation and type of Norms

What is Norm?
examples:
Norm is here
respecting elders
understood as a rule, standard, or being kind to others
measure. Specially, it is shaking hands when you meet someone
something by which an act or
conduct is measured as good or
bad, right or wrong, moral or
immoral.

.
respecting elders
being kind to others
shaking hands when you meet someone
Four types of Norms

1. Technical Norm
-this refers mainly to man’s needs which come from his bodily space time limitations. This norm has to do with
survival, health and well-being. Thus norm is concerned with the techniques of how certain things pertaining to survival,
among others, should be done or not done and because of these every community then prescribes certain proper ways of
working or doing things.

Example:
there are right way of preparing the field for planting rice, the correct way of constructing the roof house, etc. because of this
technical norm certain community members are considered good meaning good workers, efficient and productive
, others considered lazy, good for nothing.
2. Societal Norm
-this particular type of norm has something to do with the need for group cohesion and for strengthening the bonds that
keep the community together.

In relation to this norm , for example certain manners or attire, certain ways of speaking or of conducting oneself, certain rituals

and ceremonies are considered ‘proper’ and fitting,’ ‘appropriate’ or ‘recommendable’, other ways of behavior are prescribed or

frowned upon because they are unmindful of or destructive of social relations.

Some specific example of the above type of norm are found in such expression as:

“you ought to knock first before you open the door,” “ one should not pick one’s nose in public,” :it’s not right to talk that way in

the presence of visitors,” “one ought to follow the rituals set forth by her fraternity when it comes to accepting new members ,”

These and other similar examples belong to the category of etiquette or what is known as “GMRC”
Everyday Social Norms

Shaking hands when greeting someone.

Saying "please" and "thank you"

Apologizing when one makes a mistake.

Standing up when someone enters the room.

Making eye contact during a conversation.

Ethical or Moral Norms

The moral or ethical norm refers to some ideal vision of a human person, an ideal stage of
perfection of his/her being, which serves as the ultimate goal and norm.
In relation to this kind of norm, the human person and his /her actions are judged to be right or wrong,
good or bad.

Ethical norms provide guidance for all organizations for behaving good
and keeping away from bad behaviors promotes ethical behaviors in
organizations, sets the stage for coherent working environment which
contains justice, honesty, neutrality, and responsibility.
Three basic principles, among those generally accepted in our cultural tradition, are particularly relevant to the ethics of research
involving human subjects:

The principles of:

Respect of persons,

Beneficence

Justice
The Moral Dimension of
Human Existence
 1. Reasonability

this means that primarily, moral judgments must be backed by good reasons or

arguments if we want to discover the truth about what’s good and bad, right and wrong we

must let our feelings and emotion be guided as much as possible by reason. This is the

essence of morality. Thus we can confident that something is right if it is “reasonable.” If it

does not appeal to reason and common sense/experience, then it has to be viewed

suspicion and reservation.

2. Impartiality

• This means that an ethical or moral rule should be neutral when it comes to thee question as to who are its
recipients.

• To be impartial is to treat everyone alike, no one gets special treatment, by contrast, to be partial is to show
favoritism.
3. Prescriptivity

• This refers to the practical, or action guiding nature of morality , this is also the commanding aspect of
morality. Moral principles are generally put forth as some kind of commands or imperatives” sinse
they are intended to direct people on what to do and to avoid.

• Examples:

• Do not kill,” do no harm to your fellowmen,” love your neighbor,” “Do not steal, “tell the truth,”
among others.
4. Overridingness

• Moral standards must have hegemony. This means that they should reign supreme over all the other standards
or norms of valuation, whatever they may be.

• They have predominant authority and override other kinds of principles,”

5. Autonomous from Arbitrary Authority

• Moral standards should stand on their own logic independent of the arbitrariness of the majority.

• We can always challenge on logical grounds the tyranny of numbers and the tide of public opinion on matters
of right and wrong.
6. Publicity

• This means that moral rules and principles must be made public if they are to serve as clear guidelines to our
actions.

• The obvious reason for this is the principles are made and promulgated to render advice as well as assign
praise or blame to certain behaviors.

• It would be self-defeating to just keep theme from public knowledge.

• For one cannot be morally accountable for something which one truly does not know.

• Keeping them in secret defeats the very purpose why they are created.

• You do not hide something that you really think is genuinely good and noble.
 7. Practicability

• Moral rules should not be impossible to achieve or else they

are not for men but for angles.
• They must be “workable” and not” too idealistic ethical
standards must not be over what as ordinary human being is
capable of doing.
• It should not lay too heavy a burden on people. For what
practical use is a norm if it is simply impossible for anyone to
follow it?
8. Universalizability

• A moral rule or principle must be applicable to everyone, without exception, provided of course that all
people are in relevantly similar situation or context”,

• “If I judge that an act is right or wrong for a certain person, then the act is right or wrong for any other
relevantly similar person.

This also echoes the famous Golden Rule:

• “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you,” or put negatively: “Do not do unto others what you
don’t want others to do unto you,”
THANK YOU