Ethics

STUDY GUIDE | PRELIM

•
ETHICS
Meta Ethics deals with questions like “What is
'good'?"
Topic Outline:
1. MeaNing Applied Ethics
2. Definitions
3. Nature of Ethics
It is the philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint,
4. Difference Meta & Normative Rthics of particular issues in private and public life which are
5. Applied Ethics matters of moral judgment. It is thus the attempts to use
6. Ethics s about feelong for others
7. Ethical Valies Creates Intergrity
philosophical methods to identify the morally correct course of
action in various fields of everyday life.
• Business Ethics
Meaning
• Engineering Ethics oBio-medical Ethics
The word "ethics" is derived from the Greek word "ethos", • Environmental Ethics
which refers to character, guiding beliefs, standards or • Military Ethics
ideas that pervade a group, community c people.

All individuals are accountable to their community for their Ethics is about feeling for others
behavior At the heart of ethics is a concern about something or
someone other than us and our own desires and self-interest.
The community can exists in forms like neighbourhood,
profession, city, state, etc. Ethics is concerned with other people's interests, with the
interests of society.

Ethics Separate So when a person 'thinks ethically' they are giving at least
• Good and bad some thought to something beyond themselves.
• Right and wrong
• Fair and unfair Ethical Values Creates Integrity
• Moral and immoral High sense of ethics and values makes a man trustworthy
• Proper and improper human action and representable.
• In short, ethics means a code of conduct. It tells a
If a professional individual follows every legal and moral
person how to behave with another person.
codes, abides by the rules and regulations of the company
and tries to create the maximum profit for the client and for the
Definition company then the said individual catalyses the increment of
integrity of the company as well as himself/herself.
According to webster, "Ethics is the discipline dealing with
what is good and bad and with moral duty and • Builds Customer Loyalty
obligations". • Retains Good Employees
• Creates a Positive Work Environment
• Gets easier to Avoid Legal Problems
According to Philip Wheel Wright, “Ethics is a branch of • Makes profit in the Long run
philosophy which is the systematic study of selective
choice of the standards of right and wrong and by which
it may be ultimately directed"
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Bioethicist Larry Churchill has writter, “Ethics understood
as the capacity to think critically about moral values and
Topic Outline:
1. Etymologies, Definitions
direct our actions in terms of such values, is a generic 2. Approaches to Ethics
human capacity." 3. Why Study Ethics
4. Definitions
5. Thought to Ponders
6. Potential Sources of Normativity
Nature of Ethics 7. Oircse o Normativity
The concept of ethics is applied to human beings only as 8. Impoortant Ethical theories
9. Approaches to Ethical
they have freedom of choice and means of free will. They
can only decide the degree of ends they wish to pursue and
the means to achieve the ends. Etymologies, Definitions
• Ethics ─ fr. Greek ēthikós “moral, ethical.”
There was an argument whether ethics is a science or an • Ethics ─ n. ─ “the discipline dealing with what is
art. But experts were of the opinion that ethics is more a good and bador right and wrong or with moral duty
science than an art. Because it is a systematic knowledge and obligation” (MW)
about moral behavior and conduct of human beings • Moral, morality ─ fr. Latin, moralis “customary”
• Moral ─ adj.─ “of or relating to principle or
Ethics deals with human conduct which is voluntary not forced considerations of right and wrong action or
by circumstances or humans. good and bad character” ( MW) .

It can be said that at ground level, ethics deals with moral

Approaches to Ethics
judgement regarding set directed human conduct.
Normative ethics ─ deals with what people ought to do, with
The science of ethics is a normative science. It is a search for what kind of persons they ought to be.
an ideal litmus test of proper behavior.
Descriptive ethics ─ describes what a group, culture or
Normative science involves arriving at moral standards that society actually does, what they actually believe is right and
regulate right and wrong conduct. wrong.

Philosophers nowadays divide ethical theories mainly into Why Study Ethics?
three areas: meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied Guidance for our Decisions. Through a study of ethics, we
ethics learn to make moral decision based on values, principles,
rather than on personal preferences alone or— at random.
• Meta-ethics deals with the nature of moral
judgment. It looks at the origins and meaning of Aid to Self-evaluation ─ Studying ethics helps us see our
ethical principles. own virtues and vices, and to evaluate our own behavior
• Normative ethics is concerned with the content of more objectively.
moral judgments and the criteria for what is right
and what is wrong course of action. Protects us from deception, exploitation ─ The best
• Applied ethics looks at what a person is obligated protection against being deceived by others is knowing
(or permitted) to do in a specific situation or a what you believe, and why you believe it.
particular domain of action.
Definitions
Differece between Meta &
Normative Ethics • Norms ─ standards of conduct, principles of right
action, “ought” statement.
• Normative Ethics deals with questions like “Which
of my actions should be considered as good?"

JUMAO-AS, ROVINE SARAH NICHOLE

BACHELOR OF FORENSIC SCIENCE 2-A
Ethics
STUDY GUIDE | PRELIM
• Values ─ principles,qualities, behaviors, etc., we Social Contract Theory - the view that the moral and/or
view as intrinsically worthy, desirable, important, o political obligations of any group of people are dependent
r useful. upon a contract or agreement between them to form society
• Values => Norms ─ Ethical norms express our and live according to its rules.
fundamental values in concrete prescriptions
for morally acceptablebehavior. Intuitionism - holds that certain actions are intrinsically right
or wrong, and that human beings can (often) intuitively
Thoughts to Ponder: recognize and distinguish between them. Because humans
• Do we always behave in consonance with our are fallible, the intuitive opinion of a group may be more
fundamental values? reliable than that of a single individual.
• Does our behavior demostraye what we truly value?
Virtue Ethics - insists that ethical actions ae those performed
“Actions speak louder than words.” by a virtuous person, who possesses the full range of moral
excellence and virtue, whose only necessary motivation for
Sub-discipline of Ethics action is that, "Such-and-such is intrinsically right,
Metaethics ─ (lit. “beyond ethics”) “the study of the origi therefore I must do it.
n and meaning of ethical concepts” Lays the theoretical f
oundations for,. Feminist Ethics - seeks to rethink and reformulate those
aspects of traditional Western ethics that depreciate or
Applied ethics — examinees specific, controversial ethical devalue women's moral experience.
issues, seeking a morally justifable positiobs and ethical
courses of action. Some feminist ethicists affirm that women may have moral
insights which differ fundamentally from those of men. They
Potential Sources of Normativity also suggests that women may make moral decisions based
Religion ─ specify the nature of good and evil, what type more on an intuitive grasp of the situation than on
of person one should be, and how one should live. considerations of duty or rules. And it is suggested that in
evaluating possible courses of action, women may place
Natural Law ─ Some ethical systems see right and wrong a relatively more emphasis on issues of relationship and caring
s inherent in the nature of the world and human nature (natu than do men.
ral law).
Moral Relativism - the position that there are objective,
Culture, Society ─ All societies permit/praise some universal moral truths; definitions of right and wrong a,
actions, and prohibit/blame others. Some ethicists believe relative to social, cultural, historical or personal beliefs and
that right and wrong are determined exclusively by the cultur circumstance.
e or social group of which one is a member.

Varieties of relativism include cultural relativism, historicism,

Source of Normativity
and extreme or individual relativism.
Objectivism ─ View the proper sources of ethical norms as
external to human persons, in the objective features of the Moral Nihilism (Latin nihil "nothing") - leraly, moral
world. These norms apply universally to all moralbeings. nothingness. This is the (meta-ethical) view that objective
morality does not exist, therefore no action is ethically superior
Subjectivism ─ Sees the proper source of ethical norms as or preferable to any other.
internal to human persons, in the subjective feelings,
beliefs, preferences of the person or group. These norms ap
Approaches to Ethics
ply only to the person or group which formulates them.
• Action-based etnics - Sees ethics as a marof
Potential Sources of Normativity doing right. Key question: "What ought we to do?
What action should wetake?"
Intuition ─ Some ethicists believe that human
beings intuitively know right from wrong. These ethical stand • Virtue-based ethics - Sees ethics as a metrof
ards apply to all people universally. being good. Keyquestion: "What sort of persons
ought we to be?"
Personal preference ─ Some ethicists feels that statements
about right and wrong are ultimately, no more than
Psalm: 25-4:5 Goodluck!
expression of invidual preference, each ones ethical
standards apply to oneself only .

Important Ethical Theories

Divine Command Theory ─ asserts that guidelines for right
conduct have been revealed to humankind by God,
who requires obedience to them. Morality is what God
wills it to be.

Natural Law Theory ─ holds that the moral standards whic

h govern human behavior are derived from the nature of
human beings and of the world itself.

Consequentialism ─ holds that an action is morally

right if the consequences are more favorable than unfav
orable. For consequentialism, the end result determines an
action’s morality.
• Ethical Egoism ─ an action is moral if
its consequences are more favorable than
unforavable only to the agent doing the action “I
should do what’s best for me”
• Ethical Altruism ─ an action is moral if its
consequence are more favorable than unforable to
everyone except the agent. “I should do what is best
for others”
• Utilitarianism ─ an action is moral if
its consequences are more favorable than
unforable to everyone.

Kantian Ethics - based on the teachings of Immanuel Kant (

24-1804). He asserted that truly ethical actions are: 1)
motivated by a sense of duty; and 2) universalizable, i.e.
they can be recommended to all people everywhere.

JUMAO-AS, ROVINE SARAH NICHOLE

BACHELOR OF FORENSIC SCIENCE 2-A