Ethics Handout #1

INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Normatively, ethics investigates the morality of human conduct. Morality is concerned about the rightness or
wrongness of human action. An act can be judge as right or wrong based on the motive, the circumstance, or
the nature of the act itself. It is the task of Ethics to examine these in order to assess the morality of an act.
Thus, Morality is about the realization of a life lived in dignity. It is a kind of life where there is self-respect
and moral regard for the value of the life of others.1
Ethics in this sense, deals with the concreteness of human life. We face real issues in life. There are real
problems that we have to resolve. The problem of poverty, for instance, does not only tell us that people lack
the necessary resource in order to live decent and dignified lives. It also manifests the lack of moral
responsibility of some people, their greed and their lack of concern for the welfare of their fellow human
beings. For instance, others have more than what they need. But then the moral choice is to give to those
who have less in life.2
The basic idea is that as free beings; we have to use the power of human reason in order to humanize the
world. Reason dictates man’s sense of moral responsibility. Human reason directs people toward the sense of
the good. This sense of the good serves as a moral power in each person to actualize a world that is just. By
nature, we are endowed with the faculty of human reason that should enable us to know and understand the
moral good. It follows from this, thus, that we are obliged to do the good. Otherwise, reason would not serve
any purpose at all. As human beings, we have a basic understanding of the needs of others. This basic
understanding compels us to be considerate of their welfare.
The term Ethics is often referred to as a set of standards of right and wrong established by a particular group
and imposed on members of that group as a means of regulating and setting of limits on their behavior.
Why study ethics?

The study of ethics belongs primarily within the discipline of philosophy, in the sub-discipline of ‘moral
philosophy’. Philosophical study concerns the systematic and rational consideration of human systems of
belief. The process of asking and answering questions about belief systems is therefore fundamental to
philosophical study – it is not sufficient merely to ‘learn’ the answers that have been proposed by other
philosophers! The branch of philosophy called ‘ethics’ is concerned with questions concerning how human
beings ought to live their lives, and about what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

What is ethics?

The branch of philosophical study that focuses on ‘ethics’ is concerned with studying and/or building up a
coherent set of ‘rules’ or principles by which people ought to live. The theoretical study of ethics is not
normally something that many people would regard as being necessary in order for them to conduct their
everyday activities. In place of systematically examined ethical frameworks, most people instead carry around
a useful set of day-to-day ‘rules of thumb’ that influence and govern their behaviour; commonly, these include
rules such as ‘it is wrong to steal’, ‘it is right to help people in need’, and so on.3

But sometimes the vicissitudes and complexities of life mean that these simple rules are sometimes put to
the test. Consider the idea that it is wrong to kill. Does this mean that capital punishment is wrong? Is it wrong
to kill animals? Is killing in self-defence wrong? Is the termination of pregnancy wrong? Is euthanasia wrong? If
we try to apply our everyday notions of right and wrong to these questions, straightforward answers are not
always forthcoming. We need to examine these questions in more detail; and we need theoretical frameworks

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Maboloc (2010). Ethics and Human Dignity
2
ibid
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that can help us to analyse complex problems and to find rational, coherent solutions to those problems.
Whilst some people attempt to do this work individually, for themselves, philosophers attempt to find general
answers that can be used by everyone in society.4

Ethics and morality

The terms ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’ are not always used consistently and precisely in everyday contexts, and
their ordinary meanings do not always correspond with philosophers’ use of the terms. Ethics is often used in
connection with the activities of organizations and with professional codes of conduct: for instance, medical
and business ethics, which are often formalized in terms of exhaustive sets of rules or guidelines stating how
employees are expected to behave in their workplaces (such as in respect of a duty of care or confidentiality
that health-care workers owe to their patients; or the medical ethical principles of beneficence, non-
maleficence, respect for autonomy, and justice). Morality, on the other hand, is more often used in
connection with the ways in which individuals conduct their personal, private lives, often in relation to
personal financial probity, lawful conduct and acceptable standards of interpersonal behavior (including
truthfulness, honesty, and sexual propriety).5

In simple words, Ethics is a systematic approach to understanding, analyzing, and distinguishing matters of
right and wrong, good and bad, and admirable and deplorable, as they relate to the well-being of and the
relationships among human beings. Morals, on the other hand, are specific beliefs, behaviors, and ways of
being derived from doing ethics. One’s morals are judged to be good or bad through systematic ethical
analysis.6

Important features regarding the concept of Morals and Ethics7

1. Probably the most important feature about ethics and morals is that no one can avoid making moral or
ethical decisions because the social connection with others necessitates that people must consider
moral and ethical actions
2. Other people are always involved with one’s morals and ethical decisions. Private morality does not
exist.
3. Moral decisions matter because every decision affects someone else’s life, self-esteem, or happiness
level.
4. Definite conclusions or resolutions will never be reached in ethical debates.
5. In the area of morals and ethics, people cannot exercise moral judgement without being given a choice;
in other words, a necessity for making a sound moral judgement is being able to choose an option from
among a number of choices.
6. People use moral reasoning to make moral judgements or to discover right actions.

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ibid
6
Rich – Introduction to Ethics
7
ibid
Areas of ethical study 8

There are three broad areas of ethical study:

• Meta-ethics (or Theoretical Ethics), which focuses on the meaning of ethical terms themselves (for
instance, ‘what is goodness?’), and on questions of how ethical knowledge is obtained (for instance, ‘how can
I distinguish what is good from what is bad?’), rather than on the more applied question of ‘what should I do
in a particular situation?’. Meta-ethics is therefore concerned with the nature of ethical properties,
statements, attitudes and judgments. Meta-ethics examines such themes as what moral questions mean, and
on what basis people can know what is ‘true’ or ‘false’. The focus of meta-ethics is not inquiry of what ought
to be done, or what behaviors should be prescribed. Instead, it 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.

• Normative ethics, in contrast, is the study of ethical acts. It therefore focuses explicitly on questions of
‘what is the right thing to do?’ in general. Normative ethics is concerned with questions of what people ought
to do, and on how people can decide what the ‘correct’ moral actions to take are. Normative ethics is an
attempt to decide or prescribe values, behaviors, and ways of being that are right or wrong, good or bad,
admirable or deplorable. In Normative ethics, 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 should one be. One
moral standard accepted is called Common Moralitywhich consists of normative beliefs and behaviors that
the members of society generally agree about and that are familiar to most human beings. The belief that
robbing a bank and murder are wrong is part of the common morality, whereas abortion is not part of our
common morality, because of the many varying positions about the rightness and wrongness of it.

Applied ethics, which is concerned with how people can achieve moral outcomes in specific situations.
Therefore, it is concerned with the philosophical examination of particular – and often complex – issues
that involve moral judgments. Areas such as bioethics, environmental ethics, development ethics and
business/corporate ethics may be regarded as areas of applied ethics. (The distinction between
normative and applied ethics, however, is becoming increasingly blurred.)

Ethical Perspectives9

Ethical thinking, valuing, and reasoning fall somewhere along a continuum between two opposing views:
ethical relativism and ethical objectivism.

Ethical Relativism

It is the belief that it is acceptable for ethics and morality to differ among persons or societies. There are two
types of ethical relativism: ethical subjectivism and cultural relativism.

People who subscribe to a belief in ethical subjectivism believe “that individuals create their own morality,
and that there are no objective moral truthsonly individual opinions”. People’s beliefs about actions being
right or wrong, or good or bad, depend on how people feel about actions rather than on reason or systematic
ethical analysis. What is believed by one person to be wrong might not be viewed as wrong by one’s neighbor
depending on variations in opinions and feelings. These differences are acceptable to ethical subjectivists.

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Rich – Introduction to Ethics
Cultural relativism is defined as the ethical theory that moral evaluation is rooted in and cannot be separated
from experience, beliefs, and behaviors of a particular culture, and hence, that what is wrong in one culture
may not be so in another.

An example of cultural relativism is the belief that the act of female circumcision, which is sometimes called
female genital mutilation, is a moral practice. Though not considered to be a religious ritual, this act is
considered ethically acceptable by some groups in countries that have a Muslim or an Egyptian Pharaonic
heritage. In most countries and cultures, however, it is considered to be a grave violation I accordance with
the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights.

Ethical Objectivism

Ethical objectivism is the belief that universal or objective moral principles exist. Many philosophers and
healthcare ethicist hold this view, atleast to some degree, because they strictly or loosely adhere to a specific
approach in determining what is good. Examples of objectivist ethical theories and approaches are deontology,
utilitarianism, and natural law theory.

 Deontology – it states that a rational being is ethically bound to act only from a sense of duty; when
deciding how to act, the consequences of one’s actions are considered to be irrelevant.

 Utilitarianism – it states that an action is right or wrong depending on the consequences of that action.
The happiness of the community is the proper goal of our actions. The greatest happiness principle
states that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to
produce the reverse of happiness.

 Natural Law Theory – it states that morality is autonomous; that is, it is independent of religion and
God’s commands.

Though some ethicist believe that the different theories or approaches are mutually exclusive, theories and
approaches often overlap when used in practice. Hence, “Moral judgement is a whole into which we must fit
principles, character and intentions, cultural values, circumstances, and consequences”.

Prepared by

Kriszher Anne A. Villanueva, RPm