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ETHICS
1 Semester – Prelims  BSPHAR
1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
PART 1: DIFFERENCE
10:30) LRC 401BETWEEN  Religion
MORAL AND NON-MORAL STANDARDS  Traditions/ Norms

Ethics and culture

DEFINING ETHICS OR MORAL
PHILOSOPHY Ethics as a discipline leads us to reflect
upon these practices and discover their true
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of ethical or moral value;
philosophy that deals with questions and
standards of what is right and what is wrong. .. whether they promote the nature,
dignity and purpose of human life, or nature in
It discusses the different systems of moral general; or destroy it.
values or principles that determine what is
acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. It
involves ideals, moral obligations, and MORAL STANDARDS
prohibitions that people have to observe, follow, ~ refer to the rules or set of guidelines that
and respect. affect the choices of a person and his or
her belief system and decision-making
process in problems and situations that
ETHICS AS A VALUE SYSTEM beg the question of what is morally right
and wrong.
ETHOS – CHARACTER OR MORAL
NATURE
The 3 subject areas of ethics
 The CHARACTER OR MORAL
NATURE of a person is greatly affected by 1. METAETHICS
his or her personal principles and ~ investigates where our ethical principles
experiences and by the belief or value come from, and what they mean.
systems of his or her surroundings.
Are they merely social inventions? Do
NON-MORAL STANDARDS they involve more than expressions of
~ refer to the rules that affect the choices our individual emotions?
of a person but are not linked to moral
or ethical considerations. Metaethical answers to these questions
focus on the issues of universal truths,
Similar with Ethics, people use value the will of God, the role of reason in
judgment in dealing with these aspects. ethical judgments, and the meaning of
Consequently, they can also affect the ethical terms themselves.
way a person develop her moral
principles and guidelines but they do not
necessarily have moral implications.
2. NORMATIVE
~ ethics takes on a more practical task,
which is to arrive at moral standards that
regulate right and wrong conduct.

~ This may involve articulating the good

habits that we should acquire, the duties
that we should follow, or the
consequences of our behavior on others

List of Non-moral standards

 Aesthetics (e.g. art, fashion standards) 3. APPLIED ETHICS
 Laws ~ involves examining specific
 Rules in games/technical valuation controversial issues, such as abortion,
 Personal experiences and principles infanticide, animal rights, environmental
 Etiquette Recipe/Formula
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ETHICS
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1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
concerns, homosexuality,
10:30) LRC 401 capital
punishment, or nuclear war. Moral Standards
~ During the holocaust between 1945 &
1946, it was legally enforced that all
CHARACTERISTIC OF MORAL Jews must be turned over to the Nazi
STANDARDS armies. They were sent to concentration
camps wherein millions of them died,
1. CONCERN WITH THE WELFARE OF Years after, the persecutors and Nazi
BEINGS leaders who participated in the genocide
faced trials from their crimes against
~ Moral Standards humanity.
 deal with matters that can
seriously injure or benefit the
welfare of beings such as in 3. OVERRIDING OR HEGEMONIC
war, child abuse, rape, fraud,
murder and theft.  Moral Standards
~ Moral standards are overriding
VS or hegemonic. They take
precedence over other standards
~ Non-Moral Standards and considerations like non-
 may talk about what is right and moral standards and self-
wrong but their concerns do not interest.
necessarily affect one's life or
well-being.
Example:

• Bob and Lea were playing in the kitchen

when Bob hit his grandmother's china
with a toy sword. When their mother
came to investigate what happened, Bob
told her that a cat entered the house and
pushed the china. Lea, not wanting her
older brother to be punished, added that
the cat was really scary and big. We
2. RELIANCE ON REASONING AND NOT often use white lies to protect our
ON AUTHORITY interest or of those important to us but
even if it may show an act of prudence,
 Laws and religious belies are not moral it does not equate to a moral
standards. implication. White lies are still not
morally right.
 LAWS can be generated by
authoritative entities like the • People have a general moral duty to
government or a monarch, hence what is obey the law and observe peace and
legally correct may not mean that it is harmony in the society. However, there
also ethically or morally correct because are times when a law or a political
a law can be created with bias and proclamation becomes seriously
prejudice against a group of people and immoral and threatens the welfare of a
with advantages for the privileged. particular group or sector of the society
that calls for a moral noncooperation or
 RELIGIOUS BELIEFS are based on civil disobedience. An example of this is
rules set by a higher being that followers the rebellion against slavery.
must observe. Like legal concerns, what
might be considered as right or good in
the context of a religious doctrine might 4. IMPARTIAL, FAIR, AND JUST
not be ethically or morally right.
 Moral Standards
Example:
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ETHICS
1 Semester – Prelims  BSPHAR
1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
~ Moral10:30)standards
LRC 401 must be morality
impartial, fair, and just.

They also have the trait of

universality.

There is no exemption to the

moral standards. If A is morally
right for a certain person P, then
it is morally right for anybody
relevantly similar to P.
PART 2: MORAL DILEMMAS

MORAL DILEMMA is a situation that begs an

agent to choose between two alternatives with
equal weight, wherein both alternatives are either
Example: good or both are evil, but the agent cannot do
 The Golden Rule: "Do unto others what both or all actions.
you would want them to do unto you."
In this situation, no matter what the agent
 The Silver Rule: Do not do unto others chooses, he or she will be left with a moral
what you do not want to be done unto failure but not choosing anything impose
you." greater harm or loss for the agent.

Example:
5. SPECIAL EMOTIONS AND  Brian is on a crew ship when a fire
VOCABULARY broke and the ship must be abandoned.
 Moral standards are associated with The lifeboats are carrying more people
special emotions (guilt, remorse, and than they were designed to carry. The
shame) and vocabulary (right. good. lifeboat he's in is sitting dangerously
wrong, evil, moral, amoral, and low in the water and can potentially sink
immoral). if added with more weight.

Unlike in non moral standards like in There are still other people swimming
fashion, tone violates o particular rule around them begging to be saved. They
like in wearing a particular dress code. are asking him to throw the rope so that
one will not feel any form of guilt and they can go up the lifeboat. However,
shame. On the other hand, if one the boat will sink if more people come
violates a moral standard like in the case aboard.
or killing. one will teel guilt. shame, and Now, should Brian throw the rope to the
oven fear after. people or keep the rope so that lifeboat
will not sink?
Talking about moral standards also uses
a special set of vocabulary such as right, In this dilemma, here are some of the
wrong, good and evil. Aside from these conflicts that plagued Brian throughout
commonly used words there are also the decision making process.
three terms that are often used it ethics
such as moral, amoral, and immoral. 1. If he will help those who are
swimming, their boat will sink and
TERM DEFINITON all of them will die.
Moral conforming to accepted
standards of morality
Amoral not concerned about
morality
Immoral not conforming to
accepted standards of
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ETHICS
1 Semester – Prelims  BSPHAR
1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
10:30) LRC 401 At this level, the dilemmas that
2. If he did not throw the rope, then organizations experience
those who are in the water will die. usually affect more than one
person, and they can be part of
3. He can sacrifice himself and help the internal group or part of an
one person, but he is not willing to external stakeholder.
sacrifice himself either.
Example:
6 Basic Concepts of Moral Dilemma Zee has been in coma for 8 months after
a car accident. For the whole 8 months,
1. personal advocacies she only lives through support machines
2. society and she never showed any sign of
3. education & experiences improvement and he never responded to
4. culture any stimulus given to her. In four other
5. family & friends hospitals, there are four patients who are
6. religion in need of healthy organs such as
kidney, heart, lungs, and liver. They are
Three Levels of Moral Dilemma in critical stage and in need of
transplants immediately. Patient XYZ is
1. INDIVIDUAL a match for all of the patients but
~ interaction of people with removing his organs will cause him
situations in their daily lives. In death. However, without his organs, the
this level, conflict arises when a 4 patients will all die. Now, is it okay to
person is asked to choose kill someone to benefit more people?
between two important values How do we choose who to save and who
for him or her. to sacrifice?

Example: Analysis of Example:

Choosing between one's duty to his/her Organ donation has been helping many
family and one's love for another person. patients but until now, most ethical
dilemmas surrounding it remains
Sarah is about to take her final exam in unresolved. One particular dilemma is
one of her major subjects. the proper timing of harvesting organs
Unfortunately, she fell asleep the night from a
before and was not able to study for the
exam. She needs to get a high score in
this exam or else, she will fail the
subject. She is tempted to cheat on the
exam but is having second thoughts
because stealing is a big deal for her.
She never cheated even if the subject is comatose patient. When is it ethical to
too hard for her; however, if she failed remove healthy organs from a comatose
in this exam, she'll fail the subject and if harvesting will cause death to the
her parents will be disappointed with her patient and harvesting after death kills
again. the organs deeming it not useful for the
next patient?

In the given example, aside from the

family members, doctors, hospital,
2. ORGANIZATIONAL sometimes even judges usually help
~ Unlike individual dilemmas, family members decide for the
these dilemmas are encountered unconscious patients who cannot
by institutions, businesses, or observe their autonomy over one's body
organizations in their decision and life. However. decisions over this
making processes. kind of cases brings up more ethical
questions like the ff:
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ETHICS
1 Semester – Prelims  BSPHAR
1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
 When10:30)
do we
LRCconsider
401 someone claim that it is inhumane to send back
to be dead or still alive? immigrants from their homes, especially
those who moved to America out of
 When do families and the circumstances like extreme poverty,
institution stop from waiting for persecution, and war. At the same time,
a comatose patient to wake up? many immigrants have families, wives,
Who has the authority to decide husbands, and children, who will be left
over the life of someone who is once they leave the country. What do
in a comatose stage? you think of this problem?

 if the call for duty of the doctor

is to save lives, will a
recommendation from the
institution conflict with this
principle?

 Is it ethical to kill one person to

benefit the many? How do we
choose who to save and who to
sacrifice?

Max Scheler's Hierarchy of Values

 To resolve moral dilemmas we often

consult our values for guidance.

 This is the hierarchy of values as explained

by MAX SCHELER, a prominent
German philosopher.

3. STRUCTURAL Max Scheler’s Values

~ that affect network of
institutions and operative Here are some Assumptions of Max Scheler
theoretical paradigms like on values:
universal health care, juvenile - Some values are more valuable than the
laws, and immigration. others.
- Values are objective; they come from
Unlike organizational dilemma, society
this type of dilemmas can affect - We are expected to sacrifice a lower
a community and even a society value for a higher value
at large. Hence, these are also
the most complicated dilemmas
that people face.  SENSORY; the lowest value

Example: Values that cater to the senses, satisfy one's

The issue on undocumented yearning for comfort and pleasure
immigration has been widely discussed
in different countries, especially since - Pleasurable or unpleasurable?
President Donald Trump of America,
openly criticized it and created measures Examples:
to stop it and even sent back some Our desire to eat delicious food, join
immigrants to their home countries. parties, stay in air-conditioned rooms ...
However, even if a lot of American
citizens have same sentiments as he
does, a growing number of oppositions
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ETHICS
1 Semester – Prelims  BSPHAR
1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
- But being the10:30)
lowest form
LRC of values, we
401 willing to sacrifice his son Isaac just to
are expected to sacrifice them when please God.
confronted with a higher value

 VITAL

Values that pertain to:

o life or death? Health or
sickness?
o Success or failure? PART 3: FREEDOM AS FOUNDATION
FOR MORAL ACTS

What is freedom? What are indications that man

is free?

There are many perspectives of freedom; the

Examples: most common may be: freedom is the capacity to
when we stop eating sweet do whatever you want; freedom is one's power or
foods based on eats, device in capacity to decide.
order to passed exams, etc.
Freedom is exercised when I decide what to do.
- We sacrifice pleasure for them, but these At the moment, I have decided to study first our
values mav be sacrificed when lesson in Ethics instead of my subject in Public
confronted with a higher Personnel Administration. So I am free.

 SPIRITUAL Freedom and reason are related:

• I manifest my freedom when I decide
Values that pertain to: what to do.

Moral or immoral? Ethical or unethical? • I manifest my reason by knowing,

Justice or injustice? studying.

- It is the pursuit of: Common good, • Whenever I decide, I decide based on

freedom, pursuit of human dignity, what I know.
honesty, loyalty, friendship, love
- This is manifested by heroes who • For instance, what to do with our patient
sacrifice their lives for their country, by in coma? Shall we continue sustaining
honest men who return the money they him, or shall we decide to remove all the
found even if they need it badly, by life-saving devices connected to him to
students who resist the temptation to let nature take its course? Whatever
cheat, by politicians who govern course of action we will take depends on
according to the principles of good our knowledge of the patient's condition.
governance, etc.
• The more I know, the better I can
exercise my freedom...
 HOLY AND UNHOLY: the highest value

Values that pertain to:

- Belief or unbelief?

- God or other?

- For Scheler, man must be willing to

sacrifice everything for the sake of God.
For instance, in the Bible, Abraham was
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1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
10:30) LRC 401
for instance, during calamities, we observe
people helping each other or fighting each
Freedom as Foundation for Moral Acts other for the relief goods being distributed,
etc
We face different moral dilemmas and
issues in our everyday lives. When we listen to
the news, we hear about unending debates about  NORMATIVE ETHICS
topics like abortion, freedom of expression, and • what people ought to do prescriptive
war. Then, we start asking who is right and who ethics discusses how people can
is wrong. decide on what is morally correct

If you're experiencing this kind of dilemma, you In other words:

might be one of two things: Normative ethics is what people ought to be
1. You have the freedom to engage in a doing.
discussion about an issue.
2. But like most people, you resort to a for instance, Plato teaches us to be virtuous
subjective and oftentimes biased all the time.
understanding of an issue.

 META ETHICS
Recall: • questions the meaning of goodness,
ethics, and morality, including how
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of people can know what is true or
philosophy that deals with questions and false
standards of what is right and what is wrong.
In other words:
It discusses the different systems of moral values Metaethics asks questions like: when is
or principles that determine what is acceptable something "good"? Where do ethical
and unacceptable behaviors. doctrines come from?

 APPLIED ETHICS
• application of ethical theories in
different public and private matters
like medicine, business, etc.

e.g. business ethics, biomedical

ethics, social ethics

THE FOUR BRANCHES OF ETHICS

 DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS
• what people actually believes to be
right or wrong compare different
ethical principles used in the past
and present
In other words:
Special or applied ethics tackle special
question in various fields:

is it ethical to make animals suffer as we use

them for food, for entertainment, etc.?
In other words:
is it ethical to abort a baby because the
Descriptive ethics is what people are
mother was raped?
actually doing.
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ETHICS
1 Semester – Prelims  BSPHAR
1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
is it ethical to retrench employees
10:30) LRC 401 just to 1. RESPECT FOR AUTONOMY
save the company from bankruptcy? the acknowledgement that every person
has the right to make choices, to hold
should we allow same-sex marriage? views, and to act based on one's values
and beliefs as long as the person is
conscious and has proper understanding
THE FOUR BRANCHES OF ETHICS: of the matter on-hand

NORMATIVE ETHICS
1. VIRTUE ETHICS 2. BENEFICENCE
Focuses on one's character & the promotion of doing as much
benevolence goodness as possible refers to the acts of
kindness, compassion, and generosity.
Plato's four cardinal virtues: prudence,
justice, temperance, and fortitude In other words...
− Respect for autonomy: let the person
decide for himself/herself , to help
2. DEONTOLOGY him/her decide tell him/her the truth; if
Duty ethics the patient is unconscious consult the
family members/relatives/guardian etc
Deontological theories: categorical
imperative and moral absolutism − Beneficence: do good always;
promote the welfare of the other

3. CONSEQUENTIALISM
Focuses on the consequence of an
action.

Consequentialist theories: utilitarianism

and hedonism

In other words: all normative ethical 3. NON-MALEFICENCE

doctrines can fall under these 3 the avoidance of any unjustifiable and
classifications: unnecessary harm If the harm outweighs
the benefits, then it is unethical to do.

4. JUSTICE
the distribution of resources equally and
fairly
− Virtue ethics emphasizes that
for man to lead a moral life, he must In other words…
cultivate a number of virtues that will − Non-maleficence: do no harm!
guide him in dealing with various issues
and situations in life. − Justice: be fair; give what is due to
another
− Deontology tells us that we
do good because it is our duty; an action
is judged by our intention... Recall:
 Reason is the capacity to see the
− Consequentialism teaches us interconnectedness of things and the logic
that the morality of an action is known behind the processes involved. With reason,
by its effects. one looks for the causes and effects of
actions and provides supports for hypothesis.
"The Four Principles"
By: Thomas Beauchamp  Impartiality is the principle of detaching
and James Childress oneself from any form of bias and prejudice
in order to come up with an objective criteria
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ETHICS
1 Semester – Prelims  BSPHAR
1ATue (4:30 – 6:00) ; Thu (9:00 –
that is free from 10:30)unfair and unequal
LRC 401
treatment of one type of person to another.

When dealing with an ethical concern, it is

important to follow reason and impartiality.
Without these two, it will be impossible for us to
remove our self-interest in the discussion and all
decisions and judgments we will make will be
rooted on what we believe is beneficial for
ourselves.

Summary:

Ethical theories and frameworks that we can use

a guide in creating a moral decision or
judgement.
• Virtue Ethics
• Deontology
• The Four Principle
o Respect for Autonomy
o Beneficence
o Non-maleficence
o Justice

Minimum requirement of morality:

• Reason
• Impartiality

begging for respect and understanding of

other cultures around us but this attitude
can be dangerous when it starts to cover
negative behaviors toward a group of
people.