UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS

College of Arts and Sciences

MODULE 1 in Soc Sci 101 (Ethics )

Course: Soc Sci 101

Course Title: Ethics
Course Credits: 3 units
Contact Hours/week:2 hours
Prerequisite: none
Course Description:
Ethics deals with principles of ethical behavior in modern
society at the level of the person, society, and in interaction with the
environment and other shared resources. (CMO 20 s 2013)

Course Outcomes:
At the end of the trimester, the students are expected to:
1. Differentiate between moral and non-moral problems
2. Describe what moral experience is as it happens in different levels of
human existence
3. Explain the influence of Filipino culture on the way students look at
moral experiences and solve moral dilemmas
4. Describe the elements of moral development and moral experience
5. Use different ethical frameworks and principles to analyze moral
experiences
6. Make sound ethical judgments based on principles, facts, and the
stakeholders affected.
7. Develop sensitivity to the common good
8. Understand and internalize the ethical implications of global issues in
the modern society such as digital technology, environment and
other social interactions

Topic 1
Introductory Concepts in Ethics

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:
1. Recognize the relevance of the principles of natural law
deontological ethics in guiding ethical behaviors.
2. Understand the basis of respecting human rights and dignity,
upholding justice, and promotion of common good.
3. Evaluate how the principles of utilitarianism are used in social,
economic and political policies and practices.

Teaching-Learning Activity/Lesson Proper:

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that studies morality or the rightness
or wrongness of human conduct. Morality speaks of a code or system
of behavior in regards to standards of right or wrong behavior. In this
book, the two terms (ethics and morality), especially their adjective
form ethical and moral), are oftentimes used interchangeably.
As a branch of philosophy, ethics stands to queries about what there is
reason to do. Dealing with human actions and reasons for action,
ethics is also concerned with character. In fact, the word 'ethics' is
derived from the Greek ethos, which means character or manners.
Some questions that are ethical in nature are: What is the good? Who
is a moral person? What are the virtues of a human being? What
makes an act right? What duties do we have to each other? Also called
'moral philosophy, ethics evaluates moraI concepts, values, principles,
and standards. Because it is concerned with norms of human conduct,
Ethics is considered a normative study of human actions. Clearly,
ethics and morality necessarily carry the concept of moral standards
or rules with regard to behavior.
Moral vs. Non-moral Standards
Not all rules are moral rules. That is, not all standards are moral
standards. Morality may refer to the standards that a person or a
group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil.
Accordingly, moral standards are those concerned with or relating to
human behavior., especially the distinction between good and bad(or
right and wrong) behavior
Moral standards involve the rules people have about the kinds of
actions they bel ieve are morally right and wrong, as well as the
values they place on the kinds of objects they believe are morally good
and morally bad. Some ethicists equate moral standards with moral
values and moraI principles.
Non-moral standards refer to rules that are unrelated to moral or
ethical considerations. Either these standards are not necessarily
linked to morality or by nature lack ethical sense. Basic examples of
non-moral standards include rules of etiquette, fashion standards,
rules in games, and various house rules.
Technically, religious rules, some traditions, and legal statutes (i.e.
laws and ordinances) are non-moral principles, though they can be
ethically relevant depending on some factors and contexts.
The following characteristics of moral standards further differentiate
them from non-moral standards;
Mora[ standards involve serious wrongs or significant benefits.
Moral standards deal with matters which can seriously impact, that is,
injure or benefit human beings. lt is not the case with many non-moral
standards. For instance, following or violating some basketball rules
may matter in basketball games but does not necessarily affect one's
life or well being.
Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values. Moral standards
have overriding character or hegemonic authority. lf a moral standard
states that a person has the moral obligation to do something, then
he/she is supposed to do that even if it conflicts with other non-moral
standards, and even with self-interest.
Moral standards are not the only rules or principles in society, but they
take precedence over other considerations, including aesthetic,
prudential, and even legal ones. A person may be aesthetically
justified in leaving behind his family in order to devote his life to
painting, but morally, all things considered, he/she probably was not
justified. lt may be prudent to lie to save one's dignity, but it probably
is morally wrong to do so. When a particular law becomes seriously
immoral, it may be people's moral duty to exercise civil disobedience.
There is a general moral duty to obey the law, but there may come a
time when the injustice of an evil law is unbearable
Moral standards are not established by authority figures. Moral
standards are not invented, formed, or generated by authoritative
bodies or Persons such as nations' legislative bodies. Ideally instead,
these values ought to be considered in the process of making laws. In
principle therefore, moral standards cannot be changed nor nullified by
the decisions of particular authoritative body. One thing about these
standards, nonetheless, is that its validity lies on the soundness or
adequacy of the reasons that are considered to support and justify
them.
Moral standards have the trait of universalizability. Simply put, it
means that everyone should live up to moral standards. To be more
accurate, however, it entails that moral principles must apply to all
who are in the relevantly similar situation.
lf one judges that act A is morally right for a certain Person P, then it
is morally right for anybody relevantly similar to P. This characteristic
is exemplified in the Gold Rule, "Do unto others what you would them
do unto you (if you were in their shoes)" and in the formal Principle of
Justice, "lt cannot be right for A to treat B in a manner in which it
would be wrong for B to treat A, merely on the ground that they are
two different individuals, and without there being any difference
between the natures or circumstances of the two which can be stated
as a reasonable ground for difference of treatment." Universalzability
is an extension of the principle of consistency, that is, one ought to be
consistent about one's value judgments.
Moral standards are based on impartial considerations. Moral
standard does not evaluate standards on the basis of the interests of a
certain Person or group, but one that goes beyond personal interests
to a universal standpoint in which each person's interests are
impartially counted as equal. Impartiality is usually depicted as being
free of bias or prejudice. Impartiality in morality requires that we give
equal and/or adequate consideration to the interests of all concerned
parties.
Moral standards are associated with special emotions and vocabulary.
Prescriptivity indicates the practical or action-guiding nature of moraI
standards. These moral standards are generally put forth as injunction
or imperatives(such as, 'Do not kill ,' 'Do no unnecessary harm,' and
'Love your neighbor'). These principles are proposed for use, to advise,
and to influence to action. Retroactively, this feature is used to
evaluate behavior, to assign praise and blame, and to produce
feelings of satisfaction or of guilt.
Dilemma and Moral Dilemma
The term 'dilemma' refers to a situation in which a tough choice has to
be made between two or more options, especially more or less equally
undesirable ones. Not all dilemmas are moral dilemmas. Aso called
ethical dilemmas, moral dilemmas are situations in which a difficult
choice has to be made between two courses of action, either of which
entails transgressing a mora[ principle. At the Very least, a moral
dilemma involves conflicts between moral requirements.
What is common to moral dilemmas is conflict. ln each ethical
dilemma, an agent regards himself as having moral reasons to do each
of two actions, but doing both actions seems to be ethically not
possible.
The key features of a moral dilemma are these: (a) the agent is
required to do each of two (or more) actions; (b) the agent can do each
of the actions; but the agent cannot do both (or alt) of the actions. In a
moral dilemma, the agent thus seems condemned to moral failure; no
matter what he does, he will do something wrong, or fail to do
something that he ought to do.
lt can be submitted therefore that the moral requirement to protect
others from serious harm overrides the ethical requirement to repay
one's debts by returning a borrowed item even when its owner so
demands.
Some ethicists propose that when one of the conflicting moral
requirements overrides the other, the case is not a genuine moral
dilemma. Thus, in addition to the features mentioned above, in order
to have a genuine moral dilemma, some add that it must also be the
case that neither of the conflicting moral requirements is overridden.
Three Levels of Moral Dilemmas
Moral dilemmas can be categorized according to these levels:
(a) Personal (b)organizational , and (c) structural.

Personal dilemmas are those experienced and resolved on the

personal level. Since many ethical decisions are personally made,
many, if not most of, moral dilemmas fall under, or boil down to
this level.
 ln 1957, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre provided a .case that
could exemplify a personal moraI dilemma: "Sartre tells of a
student whose brother had been killed in the German offensive of
1940. The student wanted to avenge his brother and to fight forces
that he regarded as evil. But the student's mother was living with
him, and he was her one consolation in life. The student believed
that he had conflicting obligations. Sartre describes him as being
torn between two kinds of morality: one of limited scope but
certain efficacy, personal devotion to his mother; the other of
much wider scope but uncertain efficacy, attempting to contribute
to the defeat of an unjust aggressor.]

There are many other personal moral dilemmas. lf a person makes

conflicting promises, he faces a moral conflict. When an individual
has to choose between the life of a child who is about to be
delivered and the child's mother, he faces an ethical dilemma.
Organizational Dilemmas. Organizational moral dilemmas refer to
ethical cases encountered and resolved by social organizations. This
category includes moral dilemmas in business, medical field, and
public sector.
A medical institution which believes that human life should not be
deliberately shortened and that unpreventable pain should not be
tolerated encounters a conflict in resolving whether to withdraw life
support from a dying patient. This is a common moral dilemma faced
by healthcare organizations.
Ethical dilemmas arise even in professional work. Administrative
bodies in business are confronted with situations in which severaI
courses of action are possible but none of them provide a totally
successful outcome to those affected by the decision or actions taken.
Moral dilemmas in business involve issues about corporate practices,
policies, business behaviors, and the conducts and relationships of
individuals in the organizations. Other business related dilemmas
pertain to the social responsibility of businesses, employee rights,
harassment, labor unions, misleading advertising, job discrimination,
and whistle blowing.
In a public sector, government leaders and employees have a moral
duty. to act in a manner that is fair and unbiased, that is loyal to the
public by putting public interest before personal gain, and that fulfills
duties of competency, integrity, accountability, and transparency. In
fulfilling these responsibilities, public officials may encounter moral
dilemmas. These dilemmas include whether or not to favor family,
friends, or campaign contributors over other constituents; favoring the
agenda of one's political party over a policy one believes to be good
for the community; dealing with conflicting public duties inherent in
serving both as a council member and as a member of an agency or
commission; resigning from organizations in which membership may
give rise to future conflicts; becoming a whistle blower even if it means
potentially derailing a policy objective one is pursuing; and accepting
gifts if it is legally permitted but creates the appearance of
impropriety.
 Structural Dilemmas. They usually encompass multi-sectoral
institutions and organizations, they may be larger in scope and extent
than organizationaI dilemmas.
Case in point is the prices of medicine in the Philippines which are
higher compared to other countries in Asia and in countries of similar
economic status.
Factors affecting medicine prices include the cost of research,
presence of competition in the market, government regulations, and
patent protection. Institutions concerned may want to lower the costs
of medicine, thereby benefiting the Filipino public, but such a move
may ruin the interests or legal rights of the involved researchers,
inventors or discoverers, and pharmaceutical companies which own
the patent of the medicines or healthcare technologies.
Another case which is structural in nature is that of Universal
HealthCare (UHC). Locally applied, it is called "Kalusugan
Pangkalahatan" (KP). lt is the provision to every Filipino of the highest
possible quality of health care that is accessible, efficient, equitably
distributed, adequately funded, fairly financed, and appropriately used
by an informed and empowered public. As a government mandate, it
intends to ensure that every Filipino shall receive affordable and
quality health benefits by providing adequate resources- health human
resources, health facilities, and health financing.
Concerning this program, health financing is first and foremost a big
issue. Government could set aside bigger budget for health for the
implementation of this provision. But then, this would mean cutting
down allocations on other sectors (such as education or public works.

Enhancement Activity/Outcome:

Self Assessment /Self reflection

Are you a good student/good person? Why? Give situations to show that
you are a good person/good student?

Reflection on Values
What values/things/people do you prioritize in your life? Rank these
concepts from 1-10. One being the most prioritized value in your life. Ten
the least prioritized concept. Your top three answers should have an
explanation as to why you ranked it as such. Explain also why you placed
the concept in number ten as your least prioritized concept or value.
e. g. 1. Career - because....
2. Love life - because...
3. parents - because
4. money
up to 10.
10. watching Tv because ....