Unit 2 Ethics

Unit 2: Introduction to Ethics
1. Scope and meaning of ethics

2. Relation of Ethics with other Sciences
3. Morality and the Other Phases of Human Life
4. The Importance of Ethics
Introduction to Ethics
• The word “ethics” is derived from the
Greek word “ethos” (character), and
from the Latin word “mores”
(customs)
• Derived from the Greek word “ethos”
which means “way of living”, ethics is
a branch of philosophy that is
concerned with human conduct.
• It consists in a code of conduct of
human beings living in a society.
• Ethics is an attempt to guide human
conduct and it is also an attempt to
help man in leading good life by
applying moral principles.
• Ethics refers to well based standards of
right and wring that prescribe what
human ought to do, usually in terms of
rights, obligations, benefits to society,
fairness, or specific virtues.
• Ethics is related to issues of propriety,
rightness and wrongness.
Rules and
Regulations
Rules of
Values
Conduct
Ethics
Ethical Moral
practices Principles
Definition of Ethics
According to Mackenzie:
• It is the study of what is right or good in human conduct or the
science of the ideal involved in human life.
According to Wheelwright (1959):

• ethics is branch of philosophy which is systematic study of reflective
choice, of the standards of right and wrong by which it is to be
guided and of the goods towards which it may ultimately be
directed.
Meaning of Ethics
Ethics is often used

Ethics is simply the “Do unto others as
intechangeably with
notion of knowing you would have them
morality bu they are
right from wrong do unto you”
two different concepts
Ethics is not, however,

the study o what This is descriptive, not
people do or how normative.
people act.
Three Broad Categories of Moral Philosophy or Ethics
Metaethics
Descriptive Normative
Ethics Ethics
Three Broad Categories of Moral
Philosophy or Ethics
• Metaethics- is the study of the nature and the basis of
ethicss; it is philosphical discussion about moral
concepts, practices and judgement outside ethical
practice, dealing with problems concerning ethics, not
with problems within ethics.
• Metaethics is the most abstract area of moral philosophy.
It doesn’t ask what acts, or what kind of acts are good or
bad, right or wrong;rather, it asks about the nature f
goodness and badness, what it is to be morally right or
wrong.
Three Broad Categories of Moral
Philosophy or Ethics
• Normative Ethics is the study of norms, rules, values,
and standards that should guide our moral decisions (how
we ought or sought not to act and behave, and what we
ought or ought not to do)
• It is an attempt to figure out what people should do or
whether their current moral behavior is reasonable.
• How people ought to act is the question of normative
ethics.
Three Broad Categories of Moral Philosophy or Ethics
• Descriptive Ethics
–describing how people behave
–people might say that stealing is bad
–moral beliefs of a specific culture
–what dopeople think is Right is the question
of descriptive ethics.
Relation of ethics with Other Sciences
• 1. Ethics and Logic- Logic is the science of right
thinking.
– Ethics is the science of right living.
– But right living presupposes right thinking.
– doing follow thinking
– to think right often means to do right, as knowledge of right
leads to the doing of right.
– both ethics and logic aim at rectitude; the former aims at right
doing; the latter, at right thinking.
2. Ethics and Psychology- bothe deal with the study of
man human nature, and human behavior.
– psychology is not interested in the morality of human behavior,
unlike ethics.
– psychology studies how man behaves while ethics studies how
man ought to behave.
– the word “ought” is emphasized to show the difference;
– ethics is concerned with moral obligation while psychology is
not.
3. Ethics and Sociology- ethics deals with the moralorder
which includes the social order.
– whenever does violence to the social order does violence also
to the natural and the moral order.
– society depends on ethics for its undelying principles: sociology
deals with human relations in a society but human relations are
based on proper order and it comes onlywith theproper
observance of moral laws and principles which regulatethe
actions of mean in a community.
4. Ethics and Economics- economics and morality are two
aspects of one and the same human nature.
– economics deals with such topics as wages, labor, production,
and distribution of wealth.
• But what will determine the relations between employer and employee,
for instance?
– in order that peace and happiness will prevail in a community,
the actions of man must governed by invariable princils of
morality.
Morality and the Other Phases of Human
Life
Ethics and Morality Ethics and

Education and Law Art
Ethics and Religion

Politics and Ethics
Life
Ethics and Education
– education develops the whole man; his moral,
intellectual and physical capacities. The primary
objectice of education should be the devlopment of
these powers in man, which consists his true perfection.
– all schools should develop good moral character,
perosnal disicpline, civic consciousness, etc.
Life
Ethics and Law
– intimately related.
– right and wrong, good and bad in human actions presuppose a
law or rule of conduct.
– the laws of the state are restatements, specifications
orinterpretations of an interior natural moral law.
– the legal covers the external acts of man; the moral governs
even the internal acts of man such as the volitional and
intentional activities of the will and mind, i.e. man’s thoughts
and desire.
Life
Ethics and Art
– ethics stands for moral goodness; art, for beauty.
– But as transcendentals the beautiful and the good are one. Evil always
implies ugliness or defects and the good is always beautiful since it is the
very objct of desire and therefore, like beauty,pleases when perceived.
– the question often arises as to whether a piece of art which is offensive to
morals can ever be considered beautiful.
– there can be no conflict between true art and true morality because both
have the same aim: to arouse: to arouse and to inspire the noble emotions
of man.
– A piece of art which arouses the baser impulses of man defeats the very
purpose of art.
Life
Ethics and Politics
– man owes allegaiance to the State. Politics aim at good government for
the temporal welfare of the citizens. But between the temporal and the
spiritual and eternal welfare there is no conflict. The two ar einseparable in
man’s present state of existence, wehere the material and th spiritual, the
body and the spirit, form one person.
– politics has often become very dirty and the reason is precisely becauseit
is divorced from ethics.
– disorder and confucion inevitably follow in a state from such violations of
ethical principles, as: electoral frauds, bribery, graft, blackmail, intrigue,
etc.
Life
Ethics and Religion
– both of these are based on the same postulates:
• existence of a Creator
• Freedom of the will in man
• Immortality
– both have the same end- the attainment of man’s supreme purpose or
man’s ultimate end.
– both prescribe the same means for attaining the goal of man: right living
Importance of Ethics
Ethics means right living and good moral character; and it
iss in good moralcharacter that manfinds his true worth
and perfection.
Education is the harmonious development of the whole

man-of all man’s faculties: the moral, intellectual, and
physical powers in man.
Ethics is the very investigation of the meaning of life. For

Plato, considers ethics the supreme science, the science
par excellence , as it is this science that deals with the
Summum Bonum, the supreme purpose of human living.
Activity 1: Fill it Up!
• Direction: Compare the difference between Ethics and
other Sciences using the table below.
Ethics Logic
Ethics Psychology
Ethics Sociology
Ethics Economics
Ethics Education
Activity 1: Fill it Up!
• Direction: Compare the difference between Ethics and
other Sciences using the table below.
Ethics Law
Ethics Art
Ethics Religion
Philosopher
Do I Live Morally?
Psychologist
Is my behavior
Morally right?
Sociologist
Is my relationship to
other people morally
right?
Economist
Am I good steward of
God’s created world?
Educator
Am I developing
moral and spiritual
character?
Politician
Do I make decisions
for the spiritual
benefit of the people?
Engineer
Am I committed to
build structures
honestly?
Nurse/ Doctors
Am I faithful in
preserving life and
healing the sick?
Pharmacist
Am I dispensing the
correct and proper
medicine?
Attendant
Am I giving the
passenger a safe and
comfortable service?
Student
Am I studying well to
give justice to my
parent’s support?
Christian
Do I believe and obey

God?
As you choose our career in life, may you choose to do
and obey what is right.

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Unit 2 Ethics

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Unit 2: Introduction to Ethics

1. Scope and meaning of ethics

According to Wheelwright (1959):

Ethics is often used

Ethics is not, however,

Ethics and Morality Ethics and

Ethics and Religion

Education is the harmonious development of the whole

Ethics is the very investigation of the meaning of life. For

Do I believe and obey

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