What is Ethics?

• Ethics is a branch of philosophy that attempts to understand

people’s moral beliefs and actions or
• Ethics is the critical examination and evaluation of what is good,
evil, right and wrong in human conduct.
• Ethics is the study of goodness, right action and moral
responsibility, it asks what choices and ends we ought to pursue and
what moral principles should govern our pursuits and choices
Ethics versus Morality
Both of them concerned with human actions (Behaviors).
Both of them helps to determine weather actions are right or
wrong ,good/bad.
The difference b/n ethics & morality
Ethics
Morality
Ethics is a philosophical thinking about
Morality refers to the code of conduct one
morality, moral problem and moral
follows.
judgment of right or wrong .
It is the conformity of human behavior to
It is the development of reasonable
standards and procedures for ethical the established code of conduct. If an
decision-making? action conform to the established code, it
Ethics are governed by professional and is called moral ,if not immoral.
legal guide lines within a particular time Morality is a subject matter(Issue to be
studded by ethics)
and place
It describe what some one is actually
It deals with what someone ought to do. doing.
It is concerned with what is right/wrong. It is concerned with what is accepted.
It is justifying the action is It is only about the individuals feeling
right/wrong ,good/bad. express
through actions.
Ethics is related to theory.
morality is related to praxis
 Branches of Ethics
• Ethics Divide Into Two: 1. Normative Ethics and 2.Non-
Normative Ethics
• Normative divided into two: 1.Applied Ethics and 2.General
Ethics
• General Ethics also Divided into two:
1.Teleological/Consequentialist/Ethics and
2.Deontological/Non-Consequentialist/Ethics
• Teleological Ethics also divided into two: Egoism and
Utilitarianism
 Cont…
• Egoism divided into two: Psychological Egoism and Ethical
Egoism
• Again Utilitarianism also divided into two:
1.Act-Utilitiranism
2.Rule-Utilitiranism
• Deontology divided into two: Divine Command Theory and
Catagorical Imperative
• The second parts of Ethics is non-normative Ethics. So non-
normative Ethics also divided into two: Descriptive Ethics
and Meta-Ethics
 Definition and Scope of Applied Ethics

Applied ethics" has proved difficult to define, but the following is a widely
accepted account:
• It sometimes referred as practical ethics.
• Applied ethics consists in the attempt to answer difficult moral questions
that actually people face in their lives.
• Applied ethics is the application of general ethical theories to moral
problems with the objective of solving the problems.
• However, this definition is so narrow that many will not recognize is as
reflecting their understanding of either the appropriate method or content.
• "Applied ethics" is also used more broadly refer to any use of
philosophical methods critically examine practical moral decisions and to
treat moral problems, practices, and policies in the professions,
technology, government, and the like.
 Cont…
• It is part of ethics which is concerned with moral values in a more
practical task.
• Applied ethics is part of Ethics Concerned on contemporary and
controversial moral issues.
• Applied ethics is concerned on the analysis of specific controversial
moral issues.
• It is a branch of ethics that seeks to answer questions about specific
actions/practices by virtue of some general normative moral
principle(s).
 Cont…
• Applied ethics involves examining specific controversial moral
issues, such as abortion, animal rights, environmental
concerns, capital punishment, or nuclear war.
 Cont…
• Generally speaking, two features are necessary for an issue to be
considered as an “applied ethical issue.”
• First, the issue needs to be controversial in the sense that there
should be significant groups of people both for and against the issue
at hand.
• The issue of murder, for example, is not an applied ethical issue,
since everyone agrees that this practice is grossly immoral.
• By contrast, the issue of abortion would be an applied ethical issue
since there are significant groups of people both for and against
abortion.
 Cont…
• The second requirement for an issue to be an applied ethical issue is
that it must be distinctly moral issue.
• It should not be a social, political, economic cultural or any other
issue than exclusively a moral issue.
• On any given day, the media presents us with an array of sensitive
issues such as affirmative action policies, gays in the military,
involuntary commitment of the mentally impaired, capitalistic versus
socialistic business practices, public versus private health care
systems, or energy conservation.
• Although all of these issues are controversial and have an important
impact on society, they are not all moral issues.
• Some are only issues of social policy.
 Modern approach of Applied Ethics
Much of applied ethics is concerned with just three theories:
• Utilitarianism, where the practical consequences of various
policies are evaluated on the assumption that the right policy will
be the one which results in the greatest happiness
• Deontological ethics, notions based on 'rules' i.e. that there is
an obligation to perform the 'right' action, regardless of actual
consequences (epitomized by Kant's notion of the Categorical
Imperative)
• Virtue ethics, derived from Aristotle's and Confucius's notions,
which asserts that the right action will be that chosen by a suitably
'virtuous' agent.
 Fundamental values in Applied Ethics
• In most discussions of applied ethics, from a philosophical
perspective, various values are subjected to the most intense
conceptual scrutiny.
• Each of these values can be understood from the standpoint
of personal or social ethics.
 Cont…
Autonomy: is being autonomous means
being true to our own principles and acting in
a way that we have chosen or those we
endorse.
• Autonomy is closely connected to self-
respect, for the person who is true to his or
her own principles generally esteems himself
or herself.
Cont…
• Justice: is also sometimes characterized as
a value of applied ethics. In this view,
justice is best understood as giving to each
person his or her due, based on what that
individual has a legitimate right to.
 Cont…
• Justice is also concerned with the fair
distribution of goods and services within
a society.
 Cont…
• The fairness of distributions is not solely determined by contractual
rights.
• This is especially true, as we will see in several branches of applied
ethics, when we approach distributive justice from a global
perspective.
• It may be true that no one is owed our help to be saved from
starvation, but it seems to many philosophers that it would be
unjust to spend one’s resources on luxuries while others die highly
painful deaths from starvation because they have no resources with
which to purchase food.
 Cont…
Responsibility, like justice, has a personal and social
orientation.
• Responsibility can be understood as accountability for the
consequences that one has explicitly and directly caused.
• According to this understanding, one can limit one’s
responsibility simply by not doing or not committing any
action that has negative effects in the world.
• But if we think of the consequences of what people have
failed or omit to do, as well as what they have explicitly
done, then responsibility can be seen as a social category
that is related to our membership in various communities.
 Cont…
Care: has recently been discussed as a
decidedly different value from justice.
• Justice, even in its social, distributive form,
calls for us to be impartial in assigning to
people what is considered their due.
• But care calls for partiality, especially toward
those who cannot protect themselves.
 Normative Principles in Applied Ethics
The following principles are the ones most
commonly appealed to in applied ethical
discussions:
• Personal benefit: acknowledge the extent to
which an action produces beneficial
consequences for the individual in question.
 Cont…
• Social benefit: acknowledge the extent to
which an action produces beneficial
consequences for society.
• Principle of benevolence: help those in
need.
• Principle of paternalism: assist others in
pursuing their best interests when they
cannot do so themselves.
 Cont…
• Principle of Non Maleficence: do not harm
others.
• Principle of honesty: do not deceive others.
• Principle of lawfulness: do not violate the law.
• Principle of autonomy: acknowledge a person’s
freedom over his/her actions or physical body.
 Cont…
• Principle of justice: acknowledge a
person’s right to due process, fair
compensation for harm done, and fair
distribution of benefits.
• Rights: acknowledge a person’s rights to
life, information, privacy, free
expression, and safety.
 Cont…
• The modern interest in how to pursue
what is “right” in such a
comprehensive manner, bringing ethics
and the impetus for equality into so
many aspects of life, proves our desire
to strive for the greater good.
 Significance of Applied Ethics
• It help us to reach rational conclusion
that are relevant in our daily live.
• It allows us to address specific moral
issues that affect people on real
situation.
• It help us to identify a greater number of
variables arrive at more accurate
conclusion about how to act in a given