Ethics PDF

**The Question of Ethics:** "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." **- Aristotle** **Ethics** if **philosophy** is defined as a disciplined and critical reflection on human experiences, ethics, which is part of philosophy, is a practical science that concerns the...

**The Question of Ethics:** "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." **- Aristotle** **Ethics** if **philosophy** is defined as a disciplined and critical reflection on human experiences, ethics, which is part of philosophy, is a practical science that concerns the nature and purpose of human actions. It concerns moral views and standards that lead toward proper human action. Four Branches Of Ethics **Descriptive ethics** refers to investigating moral standards that describe moral praxis. It describes and explains how moral deliberations occur. **Normative ethics** determine how human beings ought to act and clarify how various principles should be interpreted, understood, explained, and applied to moral issues. It follows that there are three types of normative ethics. Three types of normative **Deontology** pertains to the system of ethics that accords the good according to the morals, duties, or obligations. **Teleological** pertains to the system of ethics that accords the good according to outcome or results. **Virtue Ethics** pertains to the system of ethics that accords the good through the development of good habits of character. **Meta-ethics** refers to the study of the nature of ethical terms, statements, and judgments. It aims to explain and analyze moral judgment\'s meaning, reference, and truth values. **Applied ethics** pertains to the practical application of ethics in various disciplines. Consequently, the branches of ethics clarify that it differs from morality; they emphasize that ethics relates to the quality of goodness and or badness in a human act. **Ethics** relates to the quality of goodness and or badness in a human act. It is through this quality that a basis, criterion, or standard by which goodness and badness are distinguished is created. **Morality** refers to individuals\', societies\', and groups\' standards, principles, beliefs, and attitudes. To further understand morality and ethics, the notion of human act illuminates their differences. **Freedom and Responsibility: Determinism and Willing** **Determinism** makes moral responsibility a problem in our existence. This view implies that human beings do not possess free will. Everything is predetermined. There is an external force that manipulates human action. Thus, there can be no morality, and we are not responsible for anything we do.3 Instead of us, it is the one who determines our fate. The one who manipulates and pulls the strings, who has to be blamed and praised the outcomes of events **Free will** libertarianism claims this is not the case; human beings have free will because they can make free choices, and if we go back to Aristotle's notion of human beings. The agent causation tells us that we are free. God granted humans free will in their lives. Therefore, the state of having free will ensures that freedom and responsibility are in our hands since we are the master and source of that action. **Will** is more than the state of desire, emotions, needs, habits, etc. Will is what they solicit and affect. borrowing Ricoeur's words, is what brings order to the many involuntary as they solicit it; the "will," in return, determines their significance by its choice (for willing is thinking), moves them by its effort (for willing is commanding oneself), and adopts them by its consent (for willing is our ability to receive and approve values). **Human Acts: Only Man can become Ethical** **Arch\^e** the human being alone amongst animals is the source of certain actions. **Aitia** the human being is "aitios" for/of these same actions. **Aitios** the human being is a master presumably of the same actions of which he is said to be a source **Aristotle's** claim on human accountability by examining his notion of ethics through character development **"ethika" and "êthos"** indicates a straightforward definition. The latter means character, while the former means relating to character. Hence, to speak of character is to say what kind of person we are, and by that, we find something about our virtues or vices that we develop through habits and vices in our lifetime Habits develop when we repeatedly do an action. -- Aristotle Aristotle- Natural aptitude leads to happiness **Human Action and the Acts of Man** 1\. **The voluntary acts of man.** \- These are actions that we have total control over; however, some acts depend on a specific situation where they are either allowed or prohibited by some laws or circumstances. 2\. **Acts done with knowledge and consent.** \- Actions done with knowledge and consent (voluntary acts) indicate that we are the master of our actions and we are aware of the consequence it has. Before taking any action in a given situation, we first evaluate what course of action is best for it. 3\. **Actions where we are conscious and under our control can be imputed to us.** \- All actions done according to our knowledge and consent can be imputed to us as the source and master of that action. We are responsible for that action, which tells us what kind of person we are. 4\. **Actions where we are the source and master.** 5\. **Actions that are proper to human beings.** \- This kind of action is what distinguishes human beings from other animals. It is done with knowledge and free will. **What is a Moral Dilemma?** **Dilemma** also known as an ethical paradox or conundrum, is a situation that presents a difficult choice where none of the choices predominates the other but requires the agent to make a critical decision or choice. moral dilemmas have three kinds**: personal, organizational, and structural.** **According to Montemayor** making a choice or decision to a particular dilemma is too tricky, where one is deemed to answer whether he likes it or not. In this case, to avoid terrible consequences, one's decision has to fit under the following conditions. **1. The act in itself should be good** **2. The evil effect should not be intended but morally allowed as a side effect.** **3. The act is supported and justified by reason.** **4. The evil effect does not outweigh the good effect.** **The Rise of Ethics and Morality** "Morality differs in every society and is a convenient term for socially approved habits." - **Ruth Benedict** A diagram of people\'s history Description automatically generated with medium confidence The Problem of Culture and Moral Codes As Ruth Benedict pointed out, morality has a geographical accident relative to societies\' purposes and motivations that highlight their culture. The rightness and wrongness of an action depend on social agreements, which vary from society to society There is evil in every human being, and in order to suppress it, a leader has to stand over them. Through a leader, people can unite and create a life with a common goal. Without a common power to keep them all in awe and leave them ungoverned, they are all disposed to chaos, for they will terrorize each other A moral principle, accordingly, is **(1) prescriptive, (2) universal, (3) authoritative, (4) publicity, and (5) it requires commitment and critical reflection.** It is **prescriptive** because it is collectively created and agreed upon by people and society, where it prescribes a specific course of action on a specific event. As a result, they advise and influence action. it is **Universal**, for it applies to all people in a similar situation and to all evaluative judgments. A general set of principles applies to all, regardless of their background. it is **authoritative** that overrides other principles to serve an overall moral purpose, and this overall purpose may give us moral reasons to obey. it is **public**. It is shared publicly to prescribe behavior and prevent moral turpitude. the traits mentioned above require a **high level of commitment and critical reflection,** for other principles may not work despite having a significant bearing on an event. **The Moral Agent** **Norms** are set of rules that prescribe a specific action in a situation. Some norms are so important and prescriptive that they have become laws. Four types of norms 1. **Folkways** are norms that stem from causal interactions, and through repetitive acts, they later become a common action or behavior of society. 2. **Mores** on the other hand, are much more complex than folkways. They determine moral and ethical behavior that distinguishes the rightness and wrongness of an act. One example of a more is our religious doctrines. 3. **taboo** is quite different from mores and folkways; they indicate a strong negative norm. It expresses a prohibition. Laws are also norms, compared to the other three laws are formally inscribed in the constitution and enforced by the government. 4. **Laws** are also norms, compared to the other three laws are formally inscribed in the constitution and enforced by the government. **Moral virtues** are character traits or properties to have to make someone a good person and allow him to lead a good life. As Aristotle sees it, a virtue is a trait of character manifested in habitual action.5 They are acquired through constant practice. Indeed, we might see virtues to be similar to values; what makes them different is that virtues always refer to the power and capacities of the doer of the action. The following are partial list of virtues Without a common power to keep them all in awe, they \[men\] are in that condition called war. **Thomas Hobbes** The purpose of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. **John Locke** The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles. **Montesquieu**