ETHICS REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1: UNDERSTANDING MORALITY AND MORAL STANDARDS
Lesson 1
• Everywhere you go are rules.
• Rules are important to social beings.
• Rules are meant to set order.
• Rules are meant for man.
• “The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” – Jesus Christ
• Law of Sabbath: “To keep it holy and observe rest.”
• Everyone is subject to rules.
• No one is above the law.
• We are all subject to rules or else court chaos.
• Rules are not meant to restrict freedom.
• If they’re suffocating laws, they’re not good laws.
• Ancient Chinese Sages: Confucius, Lao Tzu (no more laws, no more rules).
Lesson 2
ETYMOLOGY AND MEANING OF ETHICS
Ethics – comes from the Greek word “ethos” meaning “custom” used in the
works of Aristotle, while the term “moral” is the Latin equivalent.
Ethics deals with morality (Greek & Latin Etymology).
Ethics or moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy which deals with moral
standards, inquires about the rightness or wrongness of human behaviour or the
goodness or the badness of personality, trait or character.
Moral is the adjective describing a human act as either ethically right or wrong.
Moral Standards – are norms or prescriptions that serve as the frameworks for
determining what ought to be done, what’s wrong or right action and character.
Consequence Standard – depends on results, outcome.
Non-Consequence Standard – are based on natural law.
Non-moral standards – are social rules, demands of etiquette and good manners.
Guides of action that should be followed by society.
In sociology, non-moral standards or rules are called folkways.
Examples of non-moral standards: good manners & right conduct, etiquette, rules
of behaviour set by parents, teachers and etc.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE THEORIES OF MORAL STANDARDS
1. Consequence Standard (teological - end, result or consequence) – states
that an act is right or wrong depending on the consequences of the act, that is,
the good produced in the world.
2. Not-only Consequence Standard (deontological) – holds that the rightness or
wrongness of an action or rule depends on sense of duty, natural law, virtue and
the demand of the situation.
Rosen and Garner are inclined to consider deontology, be it rule or act
deontology, as the better moral standard because it synthesizes or
includes all the other theory norms.
