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# Ethics ## Introduction - **Ethics** is the Greek word *ethos* which means custom or a manner of acting and behaving. - **Morality** is the root word of morality that means custom or practice. - Ethics is focused on the general principles, rules and theories on determining what is right on wrong...

# Ethics ## Introduction - **Ethics** is the Greek word *ethos* which means custom or a manner of acting and behaving. - **Morality** is the root word of morality that means custom or practice. - Ethics is focused on the general principles, rules and theories on determining what is right on wrong while morality is the praxis, the application of those principles. - **Human conduct** is the material object of Ethics. - **Morality of human act** is the formal object of Ethics - Morality is a system of beliefs about what is right behavior and wrong behavior. - **General Ethics** deals with morality of the human act that mainly focuses on the basic concepts. - **Applied or Special Ethics** refers to the application of the moral principles, standards and norms in various specific areas of human life and activity. - **Prescriptivity** refers to the action-guiding nature of morality, for example: "obey your parents" or *thou shall not kill*. - **Impartiality** means that moral rule should be neutral. - **Overridingness** means that moral principles should tower over all other norms or standards of evaluation. - **Autonomous from Arbitrary Authority** means moral standards should be independent. - **Publicity** means moral standards guide people what to do, and should be made public. - **Practicability** means rules are made for men to follow. - **Act of man** are those acts of which man has no control, for example: emotions, circulation of the blood, the pumping of the heart. - **Human act** are actions which are within the control of man, for example: walking, talking, thinking, eating. - **Knowledge** is when the doer is aware of what he/she is doing. - **Freedom** means the act is not done by force. - **Will** is when the doer has given its consent to do the act. - **Perfect voluntariness** is where all the elements of human act are present. - **Imperfect voluntariness** is when knowledge is absent. - **Simple voluntariness** is simply doing or not doing the act. - **Conditional voluntariness** is when the person is forced to do an act. - **Moral** if it's good, **immoral** if it's bad, and **amoral** if it's indifferent or neither good nor bad. - The determinants of morality: - **The Object or Act itself**: the deed done by the doer of the action. - **Motive or Intent**: the purpose or reason of doing the act. - **Circumstances**: the situations that surrounds the commission of the act. - **Who**: refers to the persons involved in the act committed. - **Why**: the reason or motive of doing the act. - **By What Means**: attaining the end. - **Where**: refers to the setting of the action. - **When**: refers to the time of the commission of the act. - **How**: the manner the act was carried. - **Vincible ignorance** is where the lack of knowledge can easily be rectified. - **Invincible ignorance** is difficult to rectify. - **Concupiscence or passion** are neither moral nor immoral. - **Antecedent**: tend to weaken the will power of the person. - **Consequent**: willfully plays his emotions. - **Fear** is the disturbance of the mind when a person is confronted by danger. - **Act done with fear**: car racing, sky diving, class reporting. - **Act done out of or because of fear**: a child runs upon seeing a mad dog and fell in a manhole. - **Violence** happens when physical force is exerted to a person by another. - **Habits** are frequently repeated acts that assume the role of a second nature. - **Norm** is a rule or standard in gauging the goodness or badness of an act. - **Eternal divine law**: the ultimate and absolute norm of morality. - **Natural law**: made known to man through his reason and conscience. - **Moral law**: ordinance of reason promulgated by those who have the authority and care of the community. - **Human laws**: laws enacted by men. - **Conscience** tells a person internally what to do and should not do. - **Correct or true**: always obeyed, whatever it commands or forbids. - **Erroneous or false**: (a) Invincibly erroneous, (b) Vincibly erroneous, (c) Perplexed conscious, (d) Pharisaical conscience. - **Formal norms** refers to "what we ought to be". - **Material norms** refers to "what ought to be done". - **Divine law** is "to obey God rather than men". ## Chapter 1: The Moral Agent ### Lesson 1: How Culture Shapes Human Behavior - **Culture** is nearly all aspects of shared human experiences. - **Symbols** can be anything that a group of people find meaningful, for example: the cross in Christianity. - **Language** is a complex symbol system to enable human beings to communicate. - **Beliefs** are assumptions or convictions held to be true by a group of people, for example: spirits and gods in ancient civilizations. - **Values** are culturally acceptable standards of behavior, for example: women were equally valued in pre-colonial Philippines. - **Norm** is an informal guideline by a group of people about what is considered normal or correct/incorrect social behavior, for example: *pakikisama* in the Filipino culture. ### Lesson 2: Cultural Relativism - **Cultural relativism** explains why one behavior or practice is completely acceptable by a particular group of people, while it is taboo in another, for example: divorce in the Philippines. - The five claims of cultural relativists are: 1. Different societies have different moral codes. 2. The moral code of a society determines what is right or wrong. 3. There are no universal moral truths. 4. The moral code of a particular society has no special status. 5. It is arrogant for one culture to judge another culture. - The advantages of Cultural relativism are: 1. It warns us from assuming that our preferences are the absolute rational standard. 2. It teaches us to keep an open mind and to be more amenable in discovering the truth. - The dangers of Cultural relativism are: 1. We cannot call out societal practices that promote harm. 2. We cannot justifiably criticize our own culture's harmful practices. 3. The idea of social progress becomes doubtful. ### Lesson 3: Universal Values - The three universal values shared by all cultures are: 1. Caring for the young. 2. Murder is wrong. 3. Tell the truth. ### Lesson 4: The Filipino Way - The Filipino culture is a mix of both Eastern and Western cultures. - The strengths of the Filipino character are: 1. *Pakikipagkapwa-Tao*. 2. Family Orientation. 3. Joy and Humor 4. Flexibility, Adaptability, and Creativity. 5. Hard work and Industry. 6. Faith and Religiosity. 7. Ability to Survive. - The weaknesses of the Filipino Character are: 1. Extreme Personalism. 2. Extreme Family-Centeredness. 3. Lack of Discipline. 4. Passivity and Lack of Initiative. 5. Colonial Mentality. 6. *Kanya-Kanya Syndrome*. 7. Lack of Self-Analysis and Self-Reflection. ### Lesson 5: How is moral character developed - **Moral character** is the existence (or lack of) virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty. - **Virtue ethics** focuses on the quality of the person. - The four beginnings in Confucian traditions are: 1. The heart of compassion, which leads to *Jen*. 2. The heart of righteousness, which leads to *Yi*. 3. The heart of propriety, which leads to *Li*. 4. The heart of wisdom, which leads to *Zhi*. - **Virtue ethics** is an approach that reduces the emphasis on rules, consequence, and particular acts. - Aristotle believed that humans have an essence and called it **proper functioning** . - **Virtue** according to Aristotle is the distinctive activity of being human well, for example: playing the flute well is a virtue of a flautist. - **The Doctrine of the Golden Mean**: moral behavior is the one that is in the middle of two extreme behaviors, for example:, temperance is the golden mean between gluttony and starvation. ### Lesson 6: Stages of Moral Development - Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development are: - **Level I: Pre-conventional morality** - Stage 1: Punishment-Obedience Orientation. - Stage 2: Reward Orientation. - **Level II: Conventional morality**: - Stage 3: Good Boy/Good Girl Orientation. - Stage 4: Authority Orientation. - **Level III: Post conventional** - Stage 5: Social contract orientation. - Stage 6: Ethical – Principle Orientation. ## Chapter 2: The Act ### Lesson 1: Feelings as Instinctive and Trained Response to Moral Dilemmas - The three central features of why emotions can be obstacles in making the right decisions are: 1. **Non-deliberate Nature:** (mindless automatic reflex) 2. **Partial Nature**. 3. **Capricious**. - **Direct Passions**: that "arises immediately from good or evil, from pain or pleasure", for example: desire, aversion, hope, fear, grief, and joy. - **Indirect Passions**: caused by the sensation of pain or pleasure derived from some other idea or impression, for example: pride, humility, ambition, vanity, love, hatred, envy. - **Reason** is insufficient to yield a judgment that something is virtuous or vicious. - **Counterfactual thinking** is the psychological concept about the human tendency to create possible or alternative scenarios. ### Lesson 2: Reason and Impartiality as Requirements for Ethics - **Reason** plays a role in making a moral decision. - **The emotive element**: expressing positive feelings towards a particular act, for example: "Kindness is good." - **The prescriptive element**: instruction or prescription of a particular behavior, for example: "Be kind to others." - **Enlighted self-interest**: "I will be better off". - **Traditional law**: "Because some authority says so" - **Responsibility**: "It is expected of me" - **Fairness and justice**: “It is about fairness and justice" - **Shared human needs, goals, desires, and/or objectives**: are better met when people treat each other in a manner that promotes what is right and good. ### Lesson 3: Moral Courage - **The will** is as important as reason. ### Lesson 4: Developing the will - **Reason** is about considering all possible options. - **Intuition**: the ability to know something immediately, without reasoning. ### Lesson 5: Moral Courage - **Moral courage** is the willingness to do the right thing even when it is difficult.