Baliwag Polytechnic College

Dalubhasaan Kong Mahal

2nd Semester
A.Y. 2020 – 2021

STUDY GUIDES
Your success to finish this module lies in your hand. This module is prepared for you to
learn new concepts and invaluable skills diligently, intelligently, and independently. As a future
young professional, doing these will greatly help and prepare you to become a responsible
student. Set your goals and invest for your future. This is your first step towards your priceless
investment for a brighter tomorrow. Do not waste your time, effort and energy. Always stay
motivated and inspired to make your dreams come true. The following guides and house rules
will help you further to be on track and to stay at the end of the module.

1. Schedule and manage your time wisely for you to accomplish the given tasks
in this module.
2. If there are things that you do not understand, go over and focus on the lesson.
If this will not work, seek the help of your family members or leave me a
message so I can give assistance.
3. Before you start doing anything else, read and understand the learning tasks
carefully. Always aim for the best and do not settle with low grades.
4. Think before you write. In answering all the assessment activities, write
legibly and follow the instructions as needed.
5. Do not hesitate to keep an open communication with me through any available
platforms. I am more than willing to help you to accomplish your goals.
6. Once you are done in the module, you can proceed doing other tasks in the
succeeding units that are scheduled for the finals.
7. You are expected to answer all the printed-based activities, assignments and
reflection guides for you to pass in this course.
8. Remember you are the student hence you are expected to accomplish and
study the module on your own. You can seek help and support from your
family members and friends but the actual activities must be done by you.

GRADING SYSTEM
Midterm Grade
 Self-paced activities, Quizzes -60%
Examination -40%

Tentative Final Grade

Self-paced activities, Quizzes, Portfolio -60%
Examination -40%

Final Grade Midterm 50% + TFG 50%

STUDY SCHEDULE

Dates Module /Topics

Module 1 The Scope and Meaning of Ethics
Week 1 Future Growth
Lesson 1 A Deeper Understanding of Ethics
January 4-8, 2021 Lesson 2 Morality and Other Phases of
Human
Life
Lesson 3 Morality and Human Acts

Weeks 2 Module 2 Moral Standards and Human

January 11-15, 2021 Freedom
Lesson 1 Moral Standards
Week 3 Module 3 Morality
Lesson 1 The Norms of Morality
January 18-22, 2021 Lesson 2 Defective Norms of Morality
Week 4 Module 4 Dilemma
January 25-29, 2021 Lesson 1 What is Dilemma?
Week 5 Module 5 Culture in Moral Behavior
February 1-5, 2021 Lesson 1 Culture in Moral Behavior
Explained

Week 6 Module 6 Filipino Culture and Morality

February 8-12, 2021 Lesson 1 Culture Relativism
Lesson 2 Filipino Psyche and Morality

Week 7 Module 7 Morality and Conscience

February 15-19, Lesson 1 Morality
 2021 Lesson 2 Kinds of Values
Week 8 Module 8 Feelings and Moral Decisions
February 22-26, Lesson 1 The Ethics of Love
2021
Week 9 Module 9 Human Reasoning
March 1-5, 2021 Lesson 1 Types of Human Reasoning
Week 10 Module 10 Courage and Moral Courage
March 8-12, 2021 Lesson 1 Virtue and Types of courage
Week 11 Module 11 Aristotle on Virtue
March 15-19, 2021 Lesson 1 Virtue According to Aristotle and
his
Definition of Happiness
Week 12 Module 12 The Philosophy of St. Thomas
March 22-26, 2021 Aquinas
Lesson 1 St. Thomas Aquinas on the Natural
Law
Week 13 Module 13 The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
April 5-9, 2021 Lesson 1 Man and Duty
Lesson 2 Kant’s Philosophy of Good Will
Lesson 3 Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Lesson 4 The Kingdom of Ends
Week 14 Module 14 Rights
April 12-16, 2021 Lesson 1 Types of Human Rights

Week 15 Module 15 The Philosophy of Utilitarianism

April 19-23, 2021 Lesson 1 Utilitarianism
Lesson 2 Positive and Negative Utilitarianism
Lesson 3 Business Utilitarianism
Week 16 Module 16 Justice and Fairness
April 26-30, 2021 Lesson 1 State and Law
Lesson 2 Government and Justice
Week 17 Module 17 Pluralism versus Fundamentalism
May 3-7, 2021 Lesson 1 What is Social Justice
Lesson 2 Globalization and Pluralism
Lesson 3 The Filipino Millennials aka
Filinnials
Lesson 4 The Role of Religion in Ethics
Course Description:
Ethics is the study of how we ought to live. Since the ancient Greeks,
philosophers have held ethics as one of the most important fields in philosophy
because of its intimate ties with everyday life. During the first part of this course, we
will consider and critique different principles and theories which purport to explain
what makes an action right or wrong, and what sort of character traits we ought to
develop. In the second part of the course, we will investigate the status of ethical
theories and claims. We will attempt to discover whether there are objective truths
about how we ought to live, or if ethics is ultimately a matter of subjective opinions
and desires. In the final part of the course, we will consider some practical ethical
issues such as global poverty and animal welfare.

Module 2
Moral Standards and Human Freedom
This module is comprised of one lesson
Lesson 1 Moral Standards

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. To understand moral standards in relation to human life.
2. To learn the issue of voluntariness in human acts.

LESSON 1
Moral Standards

Morality is must be noted, is present only in humanity. Meanings man can only be moral
if he is fully aware of his actions. Brutes have no morality for they are not guided by reason
hence they are not responsible for their actions and are not classified as human acts. Let us be
guided based on these principles:
1. Man is the only Moral Being – due to three things:
a) man is capable of action,
b) man has intellect and
c) man has free will.
Being capable of action man can employ his bodily activities to perform actions. With man’s
intellect he can discern the good or evilness of his actions and at the same time equate the
repercussions of his actions once asked to justify them. Free will is present and inherent in men
unless they are idiots and with that, they have the freedom of choice whether to perform or not
the action at hand.
2. Man is the highest form of Animal – endowed with intellect, man can decide what’s best for
him although their desires are the same with brutes such as hunger, thirst, pain and sensual
needs; man moves based on reason while their lower counterparts have only instinct. Sentient
beings like animals rely on instinct which are natural biological drives, while men can decide
whether an act is moral or not.
3. Man is a rational animal – Ratio is the Latin term for reason that means man has the power
to discern things based on his previous knowledge of things. Unlike brutes, man has the power of
abstraction – this is his ability to correlate ideas previously based on his mind as well as his
understanding of the situation at hand, thereby giving him a logical or correct decision.
4. The intellect and the will – they are correlative with each other because the intellect is the
agent of knowing while the will is the agent of choice. From intellect – knowledge is stored this
will then guide the will to decide which is basically “good”. They co-exist and from their
partnership “virtue” is born.
But what modifiers may cloud the intellect and the will that may either reduce or increase
accountability:
Modifiers of Human Acts:
1. Ignorance – this simply means absence of knowledge. A doer’s responsibility for his actions
may be increased or decreased due to this. A person may have committed an act for he is
unaware of it. There are three types of ignorance and they are: vincible ignorance that can easily
be corrected such as calling a person with a wrong name or entering the wrong classroom.
Second is the invincible ignorance – cannot be rectified an example is a waiter who gave the
wrong food to the customer or a killer that claimed the life of a wrong victim. The third is
Affected ignorance – is the doer’s attempt to escape responsibility such as a suspect denying his
complicity in a crime he has done.
2. Passions – Psychic responses that may adhere or abhor them to either desirable or undesirable
tendencies. Positive emotions such as love, desire or hope are manifestations of the first while
hatred, horror and despair are example of negative emotions. There are also two passions such as
antecedent and consequent passions wherein the former are passions that occur before the
stimulus such as accidentally meeting a special someone; while the other came after a stimulus
we ourselves caused for example meeting a special someone that we are already aware of his
arrival.
3. Fear – it is the disturbance of the mind when confronted by danger to himself or a loved one.
Actions whether done with fear or out of fear may affect one’s action. Acts done with fear are
voluntary while acts done out of fear are two different things. If one moves with fear this means
he has to decide and yet is afraid he might err an example is an amateur singer performing in
front of a large crowd or driving a vehicle with limited know-how in driving. Actions out of fear
are situations that needed immediate decisions such as jumping out of a plane about to crash land
or run away from a violent situation.
4. Violence – it is physical force given to a free person to coerce him to do or not to do
something. Physical threats such as torture, starvation or mutilation are examples of violence but
was free will impaired? No, the free will is still there for they can still resist making their moral
integrity intact, in short, there is still a choice.
5. Habits – readiness to perform habitual acts. Habits are done mechanically that thinking is no
longer necessary may either be good or bad. It is second-nature to the doer and doing it is
instinct.