General Objectives:

At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to:

1. Recall rules they have to follow;

2. Explain why they have to follow rules;
3. Explain the difference between moral and non-moral
standards
4. Detect moral dilemma; and
5. Explain why only human beings can be ethical.
Introduction:

It seems that people don’t like rules as they

represent a kind of restrictions, but in fact life
can’t be organized without rules.
All the rules and laws have the same purpose.
They organized the relations between
individuals and the society to make it clear what
is right and wrong and what happens if
someone breaks the rules. They are designed to
ensure fairness, safety and respect for other’s
people rights.

.
RULES AND IT’S IMPORTANCE
Rules refer to a set of guidelines which have been
put in a place in different countries and communities
and have been accepted by all. Rules are useful tools
in guiding and monitoring the interactions of humans
in the society. A rule is a prescribed guide for
conduct or action. Rules help guide actions towards
desired results.

Ethics is concerned with other people’s interest

with the interests of society, with God’s interest with
”ultimate goods”
.
RULES AND IT’S IMPORTANCE
Rules are specific set of norms of
behavior, regulations and laws established
on purpose to regulate the life in
community. These norms secure the order
and allow avoiding total chaos. The set of
rules available nowadays have undergone a
long formation process. There were many
variations and transformations applied.
WHY DO WE HAVE RULES?
Rules help people in may aspect of life? They
enable people to organize all the processes
correctly, starting from house chores and
ending with more complicated issues as the
functioning of as whole country.
Rules are specific modes of behavior that
secure a regulated flow of all processes
WHY DO WE HAVE RULES?
Rules help people in may aspect of life?

➢ They enable people to organize all the processes correctly,

starting from house chores and ending with more complicated
issues as the functioning of as whole country.

➢ A well developed system of rules help humanity to avoid chaos

and many problems that they caused by the lack of regulations

➢ Laws dictates what is proper and what is wrong.

WHY DO WE HAVE RULES?
Rules help people in may aspect of life?

➢ We have guidelines to follow.

➢ Norms enable people to interact , to work together and

contribute to the global development.

➢ Moral rules assist people in the establishment of shared values

and norms in accordance to which an honorable member of
society can be identified.
IMPORTANCE OF RULES
➢ Because they tend to protect the weaker class in the
society as they might be in a disadvantageous position
if rules are broken.

➢ They provide a stable environment and human co-

existence in a society which leads to peace and
development. The process of setting rules aims to craft
rules in line with some desired results

➢ Rules is vital in one’s life because peace and order are

maintained, an important ingredient for society’s
development. As a way of maintaining these rules, many
societies have adopted and changed them into law.
ETHICS or Moral Philosophy

➢ defined in a provisional way, as the scientific study

of moral judgements.
➢ Is a discipline concerned with what is morally good
and bad, right and wrong.
➢ It is also applied to any system or theory of moral
values and principles.
➢ This subject consist of the fundamental issues of
practical decision making, and it’s major concerns
include the nature of ultimate value and the
standards by which human actions can be judged
right or wrong.
ETHICS or Moral Philosophy

➢ Its simplest, a system of moral principles, affect

how people make decisions and lead their lives.
➢ The term is derived from the Greek word ETHOS
which can mean custom, habit, character or
disposition.
➢ The concept of ethics have been derived from
religions, philosophies, and cultures.
➢ It is not about the morality of particular courses of
action but also about the goodness of individuals
and what it means to live a good life.
➢ Virtue Ethics is particularly concerned with the
moral character of human beings.
BRANCHES OF ETHICS

NORMATIVE- in which actions are judged by their

merits, allowing societies to develop codes of
conduct of behavior.
• The Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would
have them do unto you”
BRANCHES OF ETHICS

DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS- define or ask what do people think

is moral? This branch of ethics does not actually claim that
things are right or wrong, but simply studies how
individuals or societies define their morals.
Why Study Ethics?

➢ Understanding of moral problems will be widened, as he

becomes acquainted with the thoughts of other men
upon problems of good and evil, justice and injustice,
virtue and vice, the rights and duties of the individual
and of society.

➢ His critical faculties will be trained. He will know the

reasons for his moral convictions, and also the reasons
for the moral convictions of others. The reverence of for
duty will be deepened.
Why Study Ethics?

➢ It will become more tolerant, but his moral judgements

in becoming more discriminating will not become laxer.

➢ It will learn that while sometimes to comprehend all is to

forgive, at other times it is to condemn with severity,
though never with ignorance or injustice.
Why Study Ethics?
➢ It will enable a person to understand better what his
conscience is, how we acquired it, how far he is likely to
be able to trust to it’s deliverances with safety, and how
he can improve it and make it more intelligent.

➢ He will gain a clearer insight into his claims upon

society, and the duties that he owes to society,

➢ He will learn to discriminate between the respects in

which all individuals are mutually interdependent and
those in which each is responsible for his own life, and
ought to insist upon freedom and initiative.
Why Study Ethics?

➢ Finally, a book of Ethics can by no means prescribe for

anyone what should be his vocation in life, or his
avocations it can at least proffer some considerations
from the standpoints of self-realization, self-sacrifice
and service that ought to help anyone in making such
decisions
INTRODUCTION

Philosophers often disagree about which of these and

other conditions are vital; the term moral agency is used
with different degrees of stringency depending upon what
one regards as it’s qualifying conditions.
The Kantian sense is the most stringent. Since there are
different senses of moral agency, answer the questions
like’ Are collective moral agents? Depend upon which
sense is being used. From the Kantian standpoint, agents
such as psychopaths, rational egoist, collectives and
robots are at best only quasi-moral, for they do not fulfill
some of the essential conditions of moral agency.
 It is well, however, that reason should know its limits and
and we are not seek for the origin of moral obligation in
any of what are merely results of it’s exercise. The
constitution of moral agents, and the grounds and
conditions of moral action are matters open to the
investigation of reason; but the sense of obligation can
result only from Divine authority apprehended or believed
to be somehow, manifested or revealed.
MORALITY

➢ It can be defined as the standards that an individual or a

group has about what is right and wrong, or good and
evil.
➢ It is not imposed from outside, but innate and can even
be unconscious. We have a fundamental urge to
connect. Ultimately, it’s our moral qualities that forces
to live in harmony with the unconscious; doing so is the
highest form of morality.
➢ It is an informal public system applying to all rational
persons, governing behavior that affects others, and
has the lessening of evil or harm as its goal
KEY FEATURES OF MORALITY

To understand morality in its true sense, let us identify the

six features:

1. People experience a sense of moral obligation and

accountability
2. Moral values and moral absolutes exist.
3. Moral law does exist.
4. Moral law is known to humans.
5. Morality is objective.
6. Moral judgements must be supported by reasons.
MAN AS MORAL AGENT

➢ Is being that is “ capable of acting with reference to

right and wrong.
➢ Who have the rights and responsibilities because it is
moral agents whom we take to have choices and the
power to choose.
➢ It is an intelligent well being who has the power of
choosing and scope to act according to his choice.
➢ Being a moral agent means that they can be held
responsible for their decisions and behaviors, whether
they are good or bad.
MAN AS MORAL AGENT

➢ A moral agent must be a living creature, as they must be

able to comprehend abstract moral principles and apply
them to decision making.
➢ A moral agents who makes a decision about justice and
takes action one must live in a society with others who
they consider to have moral rights.
ARISTOTLE AND MORAL RESPONSIBLITY

Aristotle was the first to discuss moral responsibility.

He stated that it is “sometimes appropriate to respond an
agent with praise or blame on the basis of his/her actions
and/or dispositional traits of character”. He discusses that
“ only a certain kind of agent qualifies as a moral agent
and is thus properly subject to ascriptions of
responsibility, namely, one who possesses a capacity for
decision.
From Aristotle perspective, “ A decision is a particular
kind of desire resulting from deliberation, one that
expresses the agent’s conception of what is good”.
INTRODUCTION:

To call something “right” in the abstract tells us little. To

tell what the criteria are for making that assessment, we
need a context. Otherwise we simply don’t know what it
means. value judgements and prescriptive judgements,
although both normative may either moral or non-moral.
This statement does not tell us what makes judgements
moral other, of course, than that they are made on moral
ground: that is a difficult and controversial issue.
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MORAL AND NON-MORAL
STANDARDS

MORAL STANDARDS
➢ refers to the norms which we have about the types of
actions which we believe to be morally acceptable and
morally unacceptable.
➢ It deals with matters which can either seriously harm or
seriously benefit human beings.
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MORAL AND NON-MORAL
STANDARDS

NON- MORAL STANDARDS

➢ Refers to the 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 example 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 are non-moral principles, though they can be
ethically relevant depending on some factors and
context.
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MORAL AND NON-MORAL
STANDARDS

ETIQUETTE
➢ Refers to the norms of correct conduct in polite society
or, more generally, to any special code of of social
behavior or courtesy. The rules of etiquette are
prescriptions for socially acceptable behavior.

STATUTES
➢ are laws enacted by legislative bodies. The law that
defines and prohibits theft is a statutes. Congress and
state legislatures enact statutes. ( Laws enacted by
local, governing bodies such as city councils usually are
termed ordinances)
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MORAL AND NON-MORAL
STANDARDS

PROFESSIONAL CODE OF ETHICS

➢ These are the rules that are supposed to govern the
conduct of members of a given profession. Generally
speaking, the members of a profession are understood
to have agreed to abide by those rules as a condition of
their engaging in that profession.
➢ Violation of a professional code may result in the
disapproval of one’s professional peers and, in serious
cases, loss of one’s license to practice that profession
 HOW ARE MORAL STANDARDS FORMED?

➢ These moral standards that many share in our conduct

in the society.
➢ These are influenced by a variety of factors such as the
moral principles we accept as part of our upbringing,
values passed on to us through heritage and legacy, the
religious values that we have imbibed from childhood,
the values that we showcased during the period of our
education.
➢ People have certain moral principles or a moral code
that they explicitly or implicitly accept.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS

The following six(6) characteristics of moral standards

further differentiate them from non-moral standards.

1. Moral standards involve serious wrongs or significant

benefits.
2. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values.
3. Moral standards are not established by authority
figures.
4. Moral standards have the trait of universalizability.
5. Moral standards are based on impartial considerations.
6. Moral standards are associated with special emotions
and vocabulary.
MORAL DILEMMAS

➢ is a conflict in which you have to choose between to or

more actions and have moral reasons for choosing each
action. What is common to the two well-known cases is
conflict. In each case, an agent regards herself as
having moral reasons to do each of two action is not
possible.
A moral dilemma is a situation where:
1. You are presented with two or more actions, all of
which you have the ability to perform.
2. There are moral reasons for you to choose each of the
actions.
3. You cannot perform all of the actions and have to
choose which actions or actions when there are three
or more choices to perform.