ETHICS

General Introduction
The Study of Ethics and Cultural Conceptions of the
Good

■ it is true that there are traditions that guide one’s

actions. It is impossible for anyone not to have grown
up with some sense of good and evil, proper and
improper, the ought and ought not.
■ People mostly think that they know exactly their basis
of the good and that it is reasonable.
■ People like to think that their traditions are already
clear and unquestionable to serve as basis for how
they should act.
■ This is because people grow up with traditions.
■ Traditions are a part of culture. It is the transmission of
customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or
the fact of being passed on in this way.
■ Culture is a system of codes that gives the world
meaning and shapes the behavior of people. It also
determines proper behavior. Culture is our code that
shapes how we understand, what life is worth living,
and what it means to be human.
■ Thus, one cannot rely solely on one’s culture to come
to a genuine understanding of the good. There is
always the possibility that one’s cultural conception of
the good can lead to destructiveness and violence.
■ But whose conception of the good is “the good” ?
Usually, the good is defined by a dominant system or
group.
■ The good is defined by what has worked for people to
flourish. People value cooperation over conflict
because it makes human survival easier.
■ People usually believed to be the good is usually what
is useful and effective for survival and flourishing.
■ People are not only concerned about the useful and
effective.
■ People also seek to realize what they consider to be
ethical acts that lead to human flourishing.
What is Ethics?

■ Ancient Greek word “ethikos” meaning “ arising from

habit. It is the major branch of philosophy which
focuses on the study of value or quality.
■ It is also called moral philosophy, the discipline
concerned with what is morally good and bad, right
and wrong.
■ The terms ethics and morality are closely related.
It is now common to refer to ethical judgments or
to ethical principles where it once would have
been more accurate to speak of moral judgments
or moral principles. These applications are an
extension of the meaning of ethics. In earlier
usage, the term referred not to morality itself but
to the field of study, or branch of inquiry, that has
morality as its subject matter. In this sense,
ethics is equivalent to moral philosophy.
■ In the context of Filipino, the words gawi or inclinations and
gawa or actions can give sense to meaning of ethical action.
■ Gawa- free action
■ Gawi- habitual action/ kagawian
■ Ethical norms and the question of good and evil arise when
people need to act as a free persons. But not all actions are
inherently ethical.
■ Ethics has something to do with realizing the fullest
potential as free persons acting in the world and doing right
for others. It is not about being efficient or achieving goals.
It is about realizing what people intuit to be the good.
■ HEDONISM is that viewpoint in which the highest good
is pleasure. The hedonist decides between the most
enduring pleasure or the most passionate pleasure
whether present pleasure should be denied for the
sake of overall comfort, and whether mental pleasure
are preferable to physical pleasure.
■ In the 6th century BC the Greek philosopher
Pythagoras developed one of the earliest moral
philosophies from the Greek mystery religion Orphism.
Believing that the intellectual nature is superior to the
sensual nature and that the best life is one devoted to
mental discipline, he founded a semi religious order
with rules emphasizing simplicity in speech, dress, and
food.
■ The Sophist Gorgias went to the radical argument that
nothing exist; that if anything does not exist, human
beings could not communicate that knowledge.
■ THRASYMACHUS, believe that might make right.
■ Socrates opposed the Sophist philosophical position,
as represented in the discussion of his pupil Plato.
■ Greek school of moral philosophy were derived from
the teachings of Socrates. Four disciplines oriented
among his immediate disciples:
■ The Cynics
■ The Cyrenaics
■ The Megarians
■ The Platonists
The Moral Act
A moral act is any act done in accordance
with mostly accepted and deemed good values in
any society where that act is being performed.

Apart from our rational capacity which allows

us to reckon reality with imaginative and
calculative lenses, our feelings also play a crucial
part in determining the way we navigate through
various situations that we experience. We do not
simply know the world and others; we also feel
their existence and their value.
 We are pleased when others complimented us
for a job well done. We get angry when we are
accused of a wrongdoing we did not do. We
became afraid when we are threatened by
someone, and we feel anguish and despair in
moments of seemingly insurmountable hardship.
Most of the time we act based on how we feel.
Although feelings provide us with an initial
reckoning of a situation, they should not be the sole
basis for our motives and actions.
 Feelings seek immediate fulfillment, and it is
our reason that tempers these compulsions.
Feelings without reason are blind. Reason sets
course for making situations although it is not the
sole determining factor in coming up with such
decisions. Reason and feelings must constructively
complement each other whenever we are making
choices.
 one way of ensuring the rationality and impartiality
of moral decisions is to follow the seven-step moral
reasoning model. These steps can serve as a guide in
making choices of moral import.
1. Stop and Think. Before making any decisions, it is
best to take a moment to think about the situation
itself, your place in it, and other surrounding factors
which merit consideration, such as the people
involved and the potential effects of your decisions
on them. To make sure that you do not act out of
impulse
2. Clarify goals. It is also necessary to clarify your short-
term and long-term aims. You must determine if you are
willing to sacrifice more important life goals to achieve
you short-term goals.

3. Determine Facts. Make sure to gather enough

information before making a choice. Never make a
choice on the basis of hearsay. Make sure that what you
know is enough to merit action.
4. Develop options. Try to come up with alternative
options to exhaust all possible courses of action. Clear
your mind and try to think of other creative ways of
clarifying your motives and implementing your actions
with least ethical compromise.

5. Consider consequences. Filter your choices and

separate the ethical from the unethical choices bearing
in mind both your motives and the potential
consequences of your action.
6. Choose. Make a decision. If the choice is hard to
make, try consulting others who may have knowledge or
experience of your situation.

7. Monitor and modify. Monitor what happens after your

decision and have enough humility to modify your action
or behavior as necessary. Pride may get in the way of
admitting that you might have not thought out a decision
well enough. Do not hesitate to revise your decisions in
light of new development in the situation.
 Moral courage is the result of a morally
developed will. It is the capacity to initiate and
sustain your resolve whenever you are certain
of doing the good. Moral courage is a kind of
virtue that enables one to be ethical not just in
thought but, more importantly, in deed.
From the Act to the Person
Focusing exclusively on human acts is limited.
Contemporary ethicists point to the importance of
“personhood”. It is the human being himself/herself who
gives meaning and receives significance from the acts
that he executes. Human acts are particular actions that
flow from the personhood of the human being.
In the context of Filipino, the words gawi or inclinations
and gawa or actions can give sense to meaning of ethical
action.
Gawa- free action
Gawi- habitual action/ kagawian
Freedom – figures closely into action and inclination. It is
the willful act and decision that give form and shape to
the actions and inclinations of people
Plato’s Insight Into the Good
Academia, the institution of learning established by
Plato for the training of his followers who later will be
called philosophers, lovers of wisdom.
He is the systematic thinker who grappled with the
question of that which is good.
Protagoras- said that “man is the measure of all things”.
Man being the measure of all things , can only hold on to
beliefs and truths that are of himself or his society only
based on the concept that “to each his own”
PROTAGORAS FAMOUSLY CLAIMED THAT
“EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE TO INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE,
JUDGEMENT, AND INTERPRETATION.”
Socrates- taught Plato about the difficulty of coming to a
knowledge of the truth however did not mean
impossibility. He is immortalized in the writings of Plato
as the intelligence and courageous teacher who leads his
hearers nearer to the truth in the same way that
midwives help in the birthing process of a child.