UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Political Science
SOC SCI 101N
ETHICS
MODULE 1
INTRODUCTION: KEY CONCEPTS IN ETHICS
OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
Define the terms „ethics‟, and „morality‟
Understand the different features of morals and ethics
Ethics
-This is the branch of philosophy that studies the concept of morality or the rightness or
wrongness of human conduct. The term „ethics‟ is derived from the Greek word „ethos‟,
which means „character‟. As ethics deals with human actions and the reasons for such
action, it is also concerned with character (De Guzman et al., 2017).
-As a philosophical discipline of study, “ethics is a systematic approach to
understanding, analyzing, and distinguishing matters of right or wrong, good and bad,
and admirable and deplorable as they relate to the well-being of and the relationships
among human beings” (Rich and Butts, 2008)
Morals
-Morals are specific beliefs, behaviors, and ways of being that are derived from ethics.
Through a systematic ethical analysis, morals are judged to be good or bad. Immorality,
the reverse of morality, means the opposition to accepted societal, religious, cultural, or
professional ethical standards and principles. There are acts that are considered to be
non-moral because there are no moral standards that apply to the acts; for example,
choosing between cereal and toast and jam for breakfast is a non-moral decision (Rich
and Butts, 2008).
Important Features of Morals and Ethics (Billington 2003 as cited in Rich and Butts, 2008)
No one can avoid making moral or ethical decisions because the social
connection with others necessitates that people must consider moral and ethical
actions.
Other people are always involved with one‟s moral and ethical decisions. Private
morality does not exist.
Moral decisions matter because every decision affects someone else‟s life, self-
esteem, or happiness level.
Definite conclusions or resolutions will never be reached in ethical debates.
In the area of morals and ethics, people cannot exercise moral judgment
without being given a CHOICE; in other words, a necessity for making a sound
moral judgment is being able to choose an option from among a number of
choices.
People use moral reasoning to make moral judgments or to discover right
actions.
Questions asked in Ethics:
1. What is good?
2. Who is a moral person?
3. What makes an act right?
4. What duties do we have to each other?
Types of Ethical Inquiry (Rich and Butts, 2008)
1. Normative Ethics
-This approach attempts to decide or prescribe values, behaviors, and ways of
being that are right or wrong, good or bad.
-When using this method, inquiries are made about how humans should behave,
what ought to be done in certain situations, what type of character one should
have, or how one should be.
2. Meta-ethics
This approach is concerned with understanding the language of morality
through an analysis of the meaning of ethically related concepts and theories,
such as the meaning of „good‟, „happiness‟, and „virtuous character‟.
3. Descriptive Ethics
-This approach is often referred to as a scientific rather than a philosophical
ethical inquiry as it is used when ethicists want to describe how people actually
behave. (Example: identifying the attitude of nurses regarding telling patients the
truth about their terminal illnesses.)
“But ethics is a deep well, and once you start to lower the bucket down, there comes
no obvious jolt to tell you that at last it has reached the bottom. Instead, we find that
we are plumbing the depths of the human psyche, and no, it is not a pretty sight.”
(Cohen, 2003)
References:
Butts, J. & Rich, K. (2008). Nursing ethics: across the curriculum into practice:
Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Cohen, M. (2003). 101 ethical dilemmas. Routledge.
De Guzman, J. M. et al. (2017). Ethics: Principles of ethical behavior in modern
society: Mutya Publishing House, Inc.
