ETHICS QUIZ 1 REVIEWER

MOD 1

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that studies morality or the rightness or wrongness of
human conduct.

Morality speaks of a code or system of behavior in regards to standards of right or wrong

behavior.

In fact, the word “ethics” is derived from the Greek word “ethos,” which means “character,” or
“manners.”

Also called “moral philosophy,” ethics evaluates moral concepts, values, principles, and
standards. Because it is concerned with norms of human conduct, ethics is considered a
normative study of human actions.

The Importance of Rules to Social Beings

Rules refer to explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct within a
specific activity or sphere.

Rules benefit social beings in various manners

A. Rules protect social beings by regulating behavior. Rules build boundaries that
place limits on behavior
B. Rules help to guarantee each person certain rights and freedom. Rules form
frameworks for society.
C. Rules produce a sense of justice among social beings. Rules are needed to keep
the strong from dominating the weak, that is, to prevent exploitation and domination.
D. Rules are essential for a healthy economic system. Without rules regulating
business, power would centralize around monopolies and threaten the strength and
competitiveness of the system.

II. Moral vs. Non-moral Standards

Moral standards refer to the norms which we have about the types of actions which we
believe to be morally acceptable and morally unacceptable.
Non-moral standards refer to the rules that are unrelated to moral or ethical considerations.

The following characteristics of moral standards further differentiate them from non-
moral standards:
a. Moral standards involve serious wrongs or significant benefits. Moral standards
deal with matters which can seriously injure or benefit human beings.
b. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values. Moral standards have
overriding character or hegemonic authority.
c. Moral standards are not established by authority figures. Moral standards are
not invented, formed, or generated by authoritative bodies or persons such as nations'
legislative bodies.
d. Moral standards have the trait of universalizability. Simply put, it means that
everyone should live up to moral standards.
e. Moral standards are based on impartial considerations. Moral standards do not
evaluate standards on the basis of the interests of a certain person or group, but one that
goes beyond personal interests to a universal standpoint in which each person's interests
are impartially counted as equal.
f. Moral standards are associated with special emotions and vocabulary.
Prescriptively indicates the practical or action-guiding nature of moral standards.
III. Moral Dilemma
Ethical dilemma, also known as moral dilemma, is a conflict in which you have to choose
between two (2) or more actions and have moral reasons for choosing each action.

IV. Three (3) Levels of Moral Dilemmas

a. Personal Dilemmas. These dilemmas are experienced and resolved on the personal
level.
b. Organizational Dilemmas. These dilemmas refer to ethical cases encountered and
resolved by social organizations.
c. Structural Dilemmas. These dilemmas refer to cases involving network of
institutions and operative theoretical paradigms.

V. Only Human Beings Can Be Ethical

Another basic tenet in ethics is the belief that only human beings can be truly ethical
a. Only human beings are rational, autonomous, and self-conscious. The qualities
of rationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness are believed to confer a full and equal moral
status to those that possess them as these beings are the only ones capable of achieving
certain values and goods.
b. Only human beings can act morally or immorally. Strictly speaking, an animal
which devours another animal cannot be said to be immoral.
c. Only human beings are part of the moral community. The so-called moral
community is not defined in terms of the intrinsic properties that beings have, but rather in
terms of the essential social relations that exist between or among beings.

MOD 2

Culture in Moral Behavior

I. Culture: Some Definitions
 refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes,
meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of
the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in
the course of generations through individual and group striving.

 consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted
by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their
embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas
and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be
considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon
further action.

 is the sum total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally
considered to be the tradition of those people and are transmitted from generation to
generation.

 in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned,
accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior
through social learning.
 is symbolic communication. Some of its symbols include a group's skills, knowledge,
attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of the symbols are learned and
deliberately perpetuated in a society through its institutions.
  includes all the things individuals learn while growing up among particular group:
attitudes, standards of morality, rules of etiquette, perceptions of reality, language,
notions about the proper way to live, beliefs about how females and males should
interact, ideas about how the world works and so forth. We call this cultural
knowledge

II. Culture’s Role in Moral Behavior

A culture is a “way of life” of a group of people, and this so-called “way of life” actually
includes moral values and behaviors, along with knowledge, beliefs, symbols that they
accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication
and imitation from one generation to the next.

III. Cultural Relativism in Ethics

Cultural relativism is perhaps the most famous form of moral relativism, a theory in ethics
which holds that ethical judgments have their origins either in individual or cultural standards.

Moral relativism fundamentally believes that no act is good or bad objectively, and there is
no single objective universal standard through which we can evaluate the truth of moral
judgments

IV. Filipino Moral Character: Strengths and Weaknesses

Filipino cultural morality, especially that which concerns social ethics, centers on ideally
having a “smooth interpersonal relationship” (SIR) with others. The definition of SIR in
Philippine culture is principally supported by and anchored on at least six (6) basic Filipino
values: the concepts of (1) pakikisama, (2) hiya, (3) amor propio, (4) utang na loob, (5)
Filipino hospitality, and (6) respect for elders.

Pakikisama is having and maintaining 'good public relations.' This is usually being practiced
to avoid clash with other people or a certain group.
“pakikisama” can work either positively or destructively. To elude open displays of conflicts,
clashes, and confrontations, Filipinos, because of “pakikisama,” may submit to group
opinion, overgenerous praise on one another, using metaphorical language rather than
candid terms, concealing negative feelings or unhappy spirits underneath a pleasant
demeanor, smiling even when things go wrong, avoiding to say 'no,' and refraining from
venting anger or losing temper.
Hiya is described as a feeling of lowliness, shame or embarrassment, and inhibition or
shyness which is experienced as somewhat distressing.
“hiya,” the Filipino value of amor propio is derived from the concept 'face.' Although
commonly translated as 'self-respect' or 'self-esteem,' it has been characterized as the high
degree of sensitivity that makes a person intolerant to criticism and causes him/her to have
an easily wounded pride.
utang na loob (debt of gratitude) is likewise a fundamental aspect of upholding group
harmony and relationships that demand the balancing of obligations and debt. This involves
the concept 'reciprocity' or returning the received favor.
Filipino hospitality refers to the innate ability and trait of Filipinos to be courteous and
entertaining to their guests. Generally speaking, Filipinos are indeed hospitable as they are
internationally known to be warm, welcoming, and accommodating. This trait, however,
makes Filipinos prone to being abused or maltreated.
Concerning respect to elders, Filipinos are not only respectful to elders, but also have unique
ways of expressing this respect. These include the use of “po” and “opo” when talking to
elders and “pagmamano” or the putting of the elder's hand to one's forehead.
The SIR, together with Filipino “pakikipagkapwa-tao,” have been deemed as a central core
of essential cultural traits that form and define an almost stereotypic Filipino character and
moral behavior.
V. Universal Values
Universal values are formed by implied behavioral standards that are necessary to live in a
harmonious and peaceful society.
Values are associated with morality and ethics, which is difficult to transpose or refer to the
level of the group.

Basic Universal Human Values

1. Happiness – In the ancient past, the founders of the big religions in the world have
already taught about the reward for a religious life by an afterlife in Paradise, Heaven,
Nirvana, etc., to enjoy there an ultimate and eternal happiness.
2. Peace – This has to be seen as a basic condition for freedom and happiness, for
without peace there cannot be real freedom. Wherever there is fight, thereat or hostility, our
freedom and happiness are inhibited or totally prevented.
3. Love – Love in a general sense can be best defined as feelings, or an experience or
deep connectedness or oneness with any other human being, and animal, plant, tree, thing,
or unnamable.
4. Freedom – This means the experience of unrestricted, and to be as much as
possible independent of the social pressure of others.
5. Safety – This means free of threat, fear and survival-stress.
6. Intelligence – This has been defined in many different ways to include the capacity
for logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning,
planning, creativity, and problem solving.
7. Human resect – The most basic principle of any social community is feelings of
connectedness which come out of our perception, empathy and awareness that the other
human is basically as we are ourselves. This creates trust and a friendly attitude towards the
other.
8. Equality – This originated from old French/Latin words “aequalis”, “aequus”, and
“aequalitas”, which mean even, level, and equal. Thus the meaning of the word equality’
used in political science corresponds to the meaning from which it originates.
9. Justice – It is the proper administration of the law; the fair and equitable treatment of
all individuals under the law.
10. Nature – Understanding our physical dependence of nature, and our awareness of
being part of it are needed to see the basic value of nature.
11. Health – World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as being “a state of
complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence disease or
infirmity.” In 1986, WHO also said that health is a “resource of everyday life, not the objective
of living.

Developing Virtue as Habit

Moral character refers to the existence or lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude,
honesty, and loyalty.

I. Moral Character and Virtues

The term "character" is derived from the Greek word “charakter,” which was initially used as
a mark impressed upon a coin. The word "character” later came to mean a distinct mark by
which one thing was distinguished from others, and then chiefly to mean the assemblage of
qualities that distinguish one person from another.
The use in ethics of the word "character,” however, has a different linguistic history. At the
beginning of Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle tells us that there are two (2)
distinct of human excellence,
(1) excellence of thought and (2) excellence of character. His phrase for excellence of
(mortal) character, “ethikai aretai,” is often translated as "moral virtue(s)” and "moral
excellence(s)." The Greek “ethikos” (ethical) is the adjective cognate with “ethos”
(character).
Moral character, therefore, in a philosophical sense, refers to having or lacking moral virtue.

II. The Circular Relation of Acts and Character

In the process of moral development, there is the circular relation between acts that build
character and moral character itself. Not all acts help to build moral character, but those acts
which emanate from moral characters certainly matter in moral development. Hence, there
appears the apparent circular relationship between individual acts and moral character. A
person's actions determine his/her moral character, but moral character itself develops acts
that help in achieving either virtue or vice.

III. Six Stages of Moral Development

The American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg is best known for his theory of stages of
moral development. In principle, he agreed with the Swiss clinical psychologist Jean Piaget's
theory of moral development but wanted to develop his ideas further.
Kohlberg pinpointed three (3) distinct levels of moral reasoning each with two (2) sub-stages
composing his so-called Six (6) Stages of Moral Development. He believed that people could
only pass through these levels in the order listed. Each new stage replaces the kind of
reasoning typical of the previous stage. Some do not achieve all the stages.

Level Age Range Stage Nature of Moral Reasoning

Level 1: Pre- Seen in preschool Stage 1: People make decisions based on what is
conventional children, most Punishment
best for themselves, without regard for
Morality elementary school Avoidance and
others' needs or feelings. They obey rules
students, some Obedienceonly if established by more powerful
junior high school individuals; they may disobey if they aren't
students, and a likely to
few high school get caught. "Wrong" behaviors are those
students that will be punished.
Stage 2: People recognize that others also have
Exchange of needs. They may try to satisfy others' needs
Favors if their own needs are also met ("you
scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours"). They
continue to define right and wrong primarily
in terms of consequences to
themselves.
Level II: Seen in a few Stage 3: Good People make decisions based on what
Conventional older elementary Boy/Girl actions will please others, especially
Morality school students, authority figures and other individuals with
some junior high high status (e.g., teachers, popular peers).
school students, They are concerned about maintaining
and many high relationships through sharing, trust, and
school students loyalty, and they take other people's
(Stage 4 typically perspectives and
does not appear intentions into account when making
until the high decisions.
school years)
Stage 4: Law People look to society as a whole for
and Order guidelines about right or wrong. They know
rules are necessary for keeping society
running smoothly and believe it is their
"duty" to obey them.
However, they perceive rules to be
inflexible; they don't necessarily recognize
 that as society's needs change, rules
should change as well.

Level III: Rarely seen before Stage 5:Social People recognize that rules represent
Post- college (Stage 6 is Contract agreements among many individuals about
conventional extremely rare appropriate behavior. Rules are seen as
Morality even in adults) potentially useful mechanisms that can
maintain the general social order and
protect individual rights, rather than as
absolute dictates that must be obeyed
simply because they are "the law." People
also recognize the flexibility of rules; rules
that no longer serve
society's best interests can and should be
changed.
Stage 6: Stage 6 is a hypothetical, "ideal" stage that
Universal few people ever reach. People in this stage
Ethical adhere to a few abstract, universal
Principle principles (e.g., equality of all people,
respect for human dignity, commitment to
justice) that transcend specific norms and
rules. They answer to a strong inner
conscience and willingly
disobey laws that violate their own ethical
principles.