GE8 – 3 Ethics February 9, 2021

Marion John “MJ” L. Uy Ms. April Joy M. Guanzon

BSBA – Financial Management 1 SLMCS – HED

Module 1: Ethics and Philosophical Inquiry

ENGAGE
1. How do you know if what you are doing is right or wrong? Do you
have basis such as rules, laws, or standard?
To know if what you are doing is right or wrong corresponds to
moral which refers to what societies sanction as right and acceptable. Most
people tend to act morally and follow societal guidelines. Morality often
requires that people sacrifice their own short-term interests for the benefit of
society. And also it is the moral values in action to which a person who
knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses right as moral. A
person whose morality is reflected in his willingness to do the right thing-
even if it hard or dangerous is ethical. Morality protects life and is respectful
of others – all others. Somehow, I have basis like the commandments.
EXPLAIN
1. What is the role of Philosophy in Ethics?
Ethics or moral philosophy deals with concerns about how people can
behave and the search for a concept of right action (identified as the one
that produces the greatest good) and the good life (in the sense of a life
worth living or a life that is satisfying or happy).A philosophy is usually based
on the ethics of a person or group of people usually related to a particular
religion or belief system. The ethics are what that person of group think is
the correct behavior for certain actions that can and usually do affect others.
However, philosophy is generally just an idea of what is correct and right to
do, what is wrong and the wrong direction to take. Typically, except what is
agreed at the moment, there is no simple right and wrong. Philosophy,
especially when viewed as an academic discipline, is the study of the
fundamental nature of knowledge, truth, and life. Ethics are the moral
standards that regulate the behavior of an individual or the performance of
an action. Typically, how these are connected is what is convenient at the
time.
2. Why is critical thinking important to philosophical inquiry?
Critical thinking entails the ability to think rationally and clearly. Critical
thinking is important to philosophical inquiry because it is the way to think, to
choose what decision to make in accordance to your will, values, action or
behavior and also doing morally good to others. Somehow, in order to live a
meaningful life, and to structure our lives accordingly.
ELABORATE
1. Demonstrate critical thinking by reading “The parable of the
Sower and Seed” and relating the message of the parable to your
own life. Write your reflections on and insights drawn from the
parable?
I wonder if any of you, like me, have experienced distress because
of the Sower Parable, or rather because of its meaning. The
understanding we see in the gospels converts the picture of the sower
into an allegory, freely broadcasting seeds that land in four distinct
locations with four distinct outcomes. In this homely agrarian scene, it
treats any aspect as a mysterious sign, as something that stands for
something else and that someone in the know wants to decipher. The
seed, Jesus is said to have said, is ‘the word of the kingdom’, and the
four different places on which it falls are four different kinds of hearers of
the word, four different kinds of people, that is to say.  And here’s the bit
likely to induce anxiety: three out of these four kinds of people are no
good.  They are deficient, lacking, constitutionally unable, it seems, to
understand the word, whatever it’s about, and ‘bear fruit’, whatever that
means (the decoding still needs a bit of decoding, it has to be said).
What happened to the Jesus we met back in Matthew, Chapter 6, the
one who said, ‘Do not be anxious about your life’?  Now he’s telling me I
may be the wrong kind of person altogether, and it sounds like there’s
nothing I can do about it.  Plus, loads of other people are no good too. 
Worse yet, I’m supposed to believe that the birds the awesome and
delightful birds in this parable stand for ‘the evil one’. I just don’t think
Jesus said that. Joy and Ian pointed out in their last week's Reflections
how Jesus made a parable from what seems like a proverbial
expression, one that appears to poke fun at juvenile petulance. Jesus
likened his contemporaries to imperious children who, when performing
at make-believe weddings and funerals, do not get their way. People
protested when John the Baptist arrived, feeding on locusts and wild
honey and asking for salvation, that he was too stern and would not
preach joy and thanksgiving, as at a wedding; then when Jesus came,
dining and drinking with tax collectors and sinners, people complained
that he was too gracious and would not preach woe and lamentation, as
at a funeral. By that, I think that he may have had something like this
 proverb in mind when Jesus mentioned the sewer and the four distinct
fates that awaited the seed. By that, I don't mean that he just gives out
advice on gardening. I say, he played on what everyone who heard him
already knew that many of the seeds a farmer sows never mature, so it is
important to sow generously in order to grow something. In the parable of
the sower, Jesus exhorts us, as he so often does, to imitate God.  Just as
God has sown generously, we too should sow generously.  We should
pray for the grace to be open handed as the sower, to remember those
who are down when we are up, to share bounty when we have it, to give
other living things their due, to trust the power of life even when death
strikes, to love faithfully and forgive freely, to offer more than is asked, to
invest in a tomorrow we may not live to see, to expect and let go of
failures, to try again and again and again. Jesus gives us the sower to
think on when all our efforts seem barren.  Something will get through. 
Something will get through.

EVALUATE

1. Using the principles of logical reasoning and critical thinking,

explain your stand on this issue: Death Penalty in the Philippines.
The Death Penalty tackles about criminality, justice and human
rights align to logical reasoning and critical thinking of what needs to be
done in a right way. Death penalty violates the most fundamental human
right – the right to life. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishment. The sentence for death is discriminatory. It is also used
against people in society who are most vulnerable, including
disadvantaged people, racial and religious minorities, and people with
mental disabilities. It is used by some governments to censor their critics.
The possibility of killing an innocent person is still present when legal
processes are flawed and unfair trials are rife. It is final when the death
penalty is carried out. Mistakes cannot be unmade that are made. An
innocent person may be released from prison for a crime they did not
commit, but an execution can never be reversed. In logical reasoning and
critical thinking, death penalty still a crime and it is against the
commandment like the statement “thou shall not kill”. It should be
undergone in a right way to sentence a person. Also, death penalty is
against human right. In addition, human right is to live without sentence
to death.
GE8 – 3 Ethics February 9, 2021

Marion John “MJ” L. Uy Ms. April Joy M. Guanzon

BSBA – Financial Management 1 SLMCS – HED

Module 2: Moral Dilemma

ENGAGE
1. What are the things you consider in making difficult decisions? Do
you consider the rightness or wrongness of such decision?
The things I consider in making difficult decisions is hence to what is
right for me and also to what surrounds me. It in takes decisions to make a
morally good and act or behave hence to my willingness and virtue to treat
others in a right way. I consider rightness or wrongness in my decision since
to what you think corresponds to what it will become.
EXPLAIN
1. What are the elements in making moral decisions? Explain.
The elements in making moral decisions are the act must be morally
good, if he or she could attain effect without having a bad effect, he or she
should do so. The good effect must flow from the action immediately as the
bad effect, and the good effect must be sufficiently desirable to compensate
for the following of bad effect.
ELABORATE:
Answer using the principles of moral decision-making.
A day before the wedding of your friend, you discovered that your
friends spouse-to-be is having an affair with an officemate. You
caught them sneaking out of a hotel together. What will you do?
Explain your answer.
 I prefer to tell my friend about the affair, even if the wedding may
not push through or over and all the preparations will be cancelled
because she deserve to know the truth, and as a friend I am concerned
for him or her and I am just doing the thing which is morally right. Given
the fact that of course there will be a bad result still at the end of the day
she might thank me that I told him or her and I believe that when he or
she met the right one that is his or her fate to be happily to love and be
loved again. Not all the time we need to be happy. Somehow, we also
need to experience pain in order to be happy. However, if I remain silent
and kept the truth to my friend, my conscience will kill me!

EVALUATE: Write TRUE or FALSE.

1. Moral dilemma involves conflicting judgments’. – TRUE

2. Self-defense is lawful. –FALSE
3. Moral dilemma is also double effect. – TRUE
4. One may do evil as long as something good can come out of it. – TRUE
5. A moral dilemma may not be called a dilemma if there are no conflicting
answers. – TRUE
GE8 – 3 Ethics February 9, 2021

Marion John “MJ” L. Uy Ms. April Joy M. Guanzon

BSBA – Financial Management 1 SLMCS – HED

Module 3: Ethics and Culture

ENGAGE
1. How does an infant become human? How does a human being
become different from animals?
Due to ensoulment, the fetus who is 16 weeks may be considered as a
human being. It follows from this that one is allowed to refer to a fetus as a
human being for 16 weeks or longer. An infant become human defined as
the very young offspring of a human. Human being become different from
animals since human is made by humans. The characteristics of humans
such as language, free moral agency or, as George Carlin pointed out, our
ability to make plastic. Maybe you studied Aristotle, and he convinced you
that it's our ability to think and act rationally. The difference between humans
and animals is that rationality and reasoning motivate humans. They can
participate in intellectual activities. On the other hand, animals are totally
guided by instincts.
EXPLAIN
1. Why is culture dynamic?
 As people navigate and negotiate the beliefs, principles, concepts,
morals, norms and structures of meaning that make up the cultural context in
which they live, all cultures are diverse and constantly evolving. It introduces
several layers of culture to the debate, such as time, power and authority,
sentiment, age, gender, faith, nationality, and even previous intercultural
experiences, and it becomes complicated and difficult to handle contact at a
cross-cultural level. Culture is complex and often complicated. Culture is
fluid rather than static, implying that, in subtle and tangible ways, culture
shifts all the time, every day. It can be difficult to determine precisely what
cultural dynamics are at play, since humans interact and articulate their
cultural structures in a number of ways. Culture is dynamic because it needs
to respond to the conditions that people are in. When new traditions are
brought into society, when another person stands next to you, when power is
in the hands of one man or another, the situation in which people live is
different. That creates dynamic societies.
2. What can you say about the idea that the success of an organization
is built on integrity, trust, and honesty?
The success of organization should have integrity showing the quality
of fairness, honesty, consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong
moral and ethical principles and values and also doing the right thing in a
reliable way. It should also have trust, trust not just to yourself but also to
your workmates that this thing will work. And also, honesty involves
trustworthy, loyal, fair, sincere and also absence of lying and cheating. In
general, these traits can make the organization successful.
ELABORATE
1. Is the act of the couple reasonable?
Practically of course because their culture is different from any other
cultures and they had been stated a facts that is based on their culture and
the parents knew that, that’s why they do it as part of their culture. On the
contrary, the policemen are crucially wronged because they don’t know the
real truth behind that and without further investigation and speculation
regarding the incident. So, as long as we respect each other culture there is
nothing to be worried about and that was being part of their life.
2. In your opinion, should morality be considerate of one’s culture?
Of course, it must be consider since we have different cultures around
the world. Who knows what is there tradition and cultural-related beliefs and
norms.

EVALUATE
 Write TRUE or FALSE.
1. Culture is the written shared values, norms, beliefs, and ideas of the
people. –TRUE
2. Culture is naturally and automatically acquired. – TRUE
3. Changing one’s culture is a quick and easy process. – FALSE
4. National and moral values have a significant effect on organizational moral
values. – TRUE
5. Xenocentrism is good because it values humility. – TRUE

GE8 – 3 Ethics February 9, 2021

Marion John “MJ” L. Uy Ms. April Joy M. Guanzon

BSBA – Financial Management 1 SLMCS – HED

Module 4: Human Beings, Culture, and Moral Choices

EXPLAIN
1. Which do you prefer, “Sarili bago ang iba” o “Iba bago ang sarili”?
Explain your answer.
To be honest, based on my experience I prefer to choose “Sarili bago
ang iba” because throughout those years that my family and I keep on
helping others without expecting in return because what my parents always
told to us that, “family relationship is important.” However, there was a time
that when my family stops to help and support other people due to financial
problem, the world is really mean and cruel. Those who we help with pure
intentions are the ones that talk back on us, being harsh, and badly change.
Now I realized na kapag wala kana maitulong sa kanila, balewala kana lang.
And that is the scariest part of the reality. That’s why there’s no wrong if you
 want to choose yourself before other people because when the time comes
that you are financially stable enough and financially freedom to
wholeheartedly help and support, then why not? That is the time to share
your blessings to others!
2. Why is family the primary source of morality?
Family is the primary source of morality because parents are the first
teachers of right and wrong. They are the one that really approved and
disapprove if your actions and decisions are wrong. So, as much as possible
with all of their great effort and sermons they will teach and show to their
children the ideal things that could help them become better persons and
members of the family and the society.
Elaborate: Identify 3 important cultural values or practices of Filipinos.
Analyze their pros and cons according on the moral life of Filipinos.

Filipino Values and Culture Pros Cons

Pagmamano o Mano Those who respect the Those who don’t are
elders. disrespectful.
Pointing the parents mouth Your parents need you to If you don’t then your
do them a favor. parents will be mad.
Putting one or both hands on the Obey your parents to Disobeying your
hips avoid any signs of anger. parents will surely be in
anger.