Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 32 views

    Part 1-Ethics Its Basic Concepts

    Uploaded by

    White Cheese
    The document provides an overview of ethics and its basic concepts. It defines ethics as a system of moral principles that affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. It discusses the key approaches to ethics, including metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. The document also outlines some uses and limitations of ethics, noting that ethics provides a framework for analyzing moral issues but does not always give definitive right answers. It explores how ethics concerns consideration of others and society, not just oneself.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Part 1-Ethics Its Basic Concepts

    Uploaded by

    White Cheese
    32 views9 pages
    The document provides an overview of ethics and its basic concepts. It defines ethics as a system of moral principles that affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. It discusses the key approaches to ethics, including metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. The document also outlines some uses and limitations of ethics, noting that ethics provides a framework for analyzing moral issues but does not always give definitive right answers. It explores how ethics concerns consideration of others and society, not just oneself.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    PART 1-ETHICS ITS BASIC CONCEPTS

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document provides an overview of ethics and its basic concepts. It defines ethics as a system of moral principles that affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. It discusses the key approaches to ethics, including metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. The document also outlines some uses and limitations of ethics, noting that ethics provides a framework for analyzing moral issues but does not always give definitive right answers. It explores how ethics concerns consideration of others and society, not just oneself.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    32 views9 pages

    Part 1-Ethics Its Basic Concepts

    Uploaded by

    White Cheese
    The document provides an overview of ethics and its basic concepts. It defines ethics as a system of moral principles that affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. It discusses the key approaches to ethics, including metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. The document also outlines some uses and limitations of ethics, noting that ethics provides a framework for analyzing moral issues but does not always give definitive right answers. It explores how ethics concerns consideration of others and society, not just oneself.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 9

    PART 1-ETHICS: ITS BASIC CONCEPTS

    Expected Outcomes

    By the end of the unit, students shall have:


    Articulated the significance of ethics/moral principles in both individual and communal
    living
    Learned the key concepts

    *Chapter 1 - BASIC CONCEPTS*

    At its simplest, /ethics/ is a system of moral principles. Ethics affect how people make
    decisions and lead their lives. It is concerned with what is good for individuals and society
    and is also described as _MORAL PHILOSOPHY.
    The term is derived from the Greek word /ethos/ which can mean custom, habit, character
    or disposition. Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies, and
    cultures. They infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional
    conduct.
    Our idea of ethics stems from our concept of the acceptability of our acts or decisions to
    action. For instance, our decisions to get vaccinated or not during a time of pandemic has
    ethical implications. Our decisions involved others e.g. family, neighborhoods, community,
    etc. Whatever will be our decisions, the implication of responsibility and accountability is a
    factor for consideration.
    From the previous paragraph, we can say that ethics is about man-to-man transactions. It is
    used to regulate our actions towards others. If I’ll be absent from class, would it have an
    impact to my parents? To maintain a relationship with the same sex, would it be accepted
    by my society? These and other similar questions do arise as members of society.

    Scope of Ethics

    *Approaches to Ethics*
    Philosophers nowadays tend to divide ethical theories into three areas: METAETHICS,
    NORMATIVE ETHICS, APPLIED ETHICS.
    1. Meta-ethics deals with the nature of moral judgement. It looks at the origins and meaning
    of ethical principles.
    2. Normative ethics is concerned with the content of moral judgements and the criteria for
    what is right or wrong.
    3. Applied ethics looks at controversial topics like war, animal rights and capital punishment.

    The uses of ethics?


    If ethical theories are to be useful in practice, they need to affect the way human beings
    behave. Some philosophers think that ethics does do this. They argue that if a person
    realizes that it would be morally good to do something then it would be irrational for that
    person not to do it. But human beings often behave irrationally - they follow their ‘gut
    instinct’ even when their head suggests a different course of action. However, ethics does
    provide good tools for thinking about moral issues.
    It provides a moral map
    Most moral issues get us pretty worked up - think of abortion and euthanasia for starters.
    Because these are such emotional issues we often let our hearts do the arguing while our
    brains just go with the flow. But there’s another way of tackling these issues, and that’s
    where philosophers can come in - they offer us ethical rules and principles that enable us
    to take a cooler view of moral problems. So ethics provides us with a moral map, a
    framework that we can use to find our way through difficult issues.
    It can pinpoint a disagreement.
    Using the framework of ethics, two people who are arguing a moral issue can often find
    that what they disagree about is just one particular part of the issue, and that they broadly
    agree on everything else. That can take a lot of heat out of the argument, and sometimes
    even hint at a way for them to resolve their problem. But sometimes ethics doesn’t provide
    people with the sort of help that they really want.
    But, it doesn’t give right answers. Ethics doesn’t always show the right answer to moral
    problems. Indeed more and more people think that for many ethical issues there isn’t a
    single right answer - just a set of principles that can be applied to particular cases to give
    those involved some clear choices. Some philosophers go further and say that all ethics
    can do is eliminate confusion and clarify the issues. After that it’s up to each individual to
    come to their own conclusions.
    However, It gives several answers. Many people want there to be a single right answer to
    ethical questions. They find moral ambiguity hard to live with because they genuinely want
    to do the ‘right’ thing, and even if they can’t work out what that right thing is, they like the
    idea that ‘somewhere’ there is one right answer. But often there isn’t one right answer -
    there may be several right answers, or just some least worst answers - and the individual
    must choose between them. For others moral ambiguity is difficult because it forces them
    to take responsibility for their own choices and actions, rather than falling back on
    convenient rules and customs.
    In other words, the study of Ethics gives us a guide on what decisions or course of actions
    to take that would not only have impact to ourselves but also to the community of which
    we are all members.
    Ethics and people
    Ethics is for the “other. At the heart of ethics is a concern about something or someone
    other than ourselves and our own desires and self-interest. Ethics is concerned with other
    people’s interests, with the interests of society, with God’s interests, with “ultimate goods”,
    and so on. So when a person ‘thinks ethically’, they are giving at least some thought to
    something beyond themselves.
    Can we make abortion legal in the Philippines?

    Poverty amidst development? Where does our conscience lie?


    To promote peace, do we have to prepare for war?

    As a source of group strength. One problem with ethics is the way it’s often used as a
    weapon. If a group believes that a particular activity is “wrong”, it can then use morality as
    the justification for attacking those who practice that activity. When people do this, they
    often see those who they regard as immoral as in some way less human or deserving of
    respect than themselves; sometimes with tragic consequences.
    It sets examples from good deeds. Ethics is not only about the morality of particular
    courses of action, but it’s 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.
    As the source of what is right and wrong. At times in the past some people thought that
    ethical problems could be solved in one of two ways:
    1. by discovering what God wanted people to do
    Example:
    Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he
    cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:5, ESV)
    And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in
    the gospel.” (Mk. 1:15, ESV)
    But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
    added to you.” (Mt. 6:33, ESV)
    “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5:3, ESV)
    “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one
    who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord,
    Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many
    mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart
    from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Mt. 7:21-23, ESV)
    Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
    deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice
    homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will
    inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were
    sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our
    God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, ESV)
    2. by thinking rigorously about moral principles and problems
    If a person did this properly they would be led to the right conclusion. But now even
    philosophers are less sure that it’s possible to devise a satisfactory and complete theory of
    ethics - at least not one that leads to conclusions. Modern thinkers often teach that ethics
    leads people not to conclusions but to ‘decisions’. In this view, the role of ethics is limited
    to clarifying ‘what’s at stake’ in particular ethical problems. Philosophy can help identify the
    range of ethical methods, conversations and value systems that can be applied to a
    particular problem. But after these things have been made clear, each person must make
    their own individual decision as to what to do, and then react appropriately to the
    consequences.

    Up to what extent do we allow individual decisions over everybody’s welfare? The problem
    of vaccine submission or uptake

    Tags: #ethics/part 1/basic concepts# #ethics/part 1/basic concepts/notions#


    #Ethics/part 1/basic concepts/approaches#
    #ethics/part 1/basic concepts/moral philosophy#
    #ethics/part 1/basic concepts/uses of ethics#

    TABLE OF CONTENTS
    SCHOOLS OF ETHICS
    ORIGIN OF ETHICS
    MORAL PHILOSOPHY

    You might also like