GE 8

ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

Introduction

Why is there a need for us to study Ethics? First, some words on ‘ethics’: ‘Ethics’
concerns the rightness or wrongness of action, the virtue or vice of character, and
general matters of good and evil and how
we might respond to good and
evil. There are two general
domains of ethics: Descriptive
ethic is consists in the study of
what persons (or societies)
actually believe or act on, in
terms of right and wrong,
virtue and vice, goodness and
badness. Evaluative ethics is
an inquiry into what should be
evaluated as right or wrong,
virtue or vice, good or bad.
One reason to study ethics is that ethics is inescapable. It is difficult, if not
impossible, to imagine a society in which there are no codes of conduct, ways of
assessing what is desirable or healthy and undesirable or unhealthy. Even if such
codes are thought of as mere means of survival, there will still be implicit commitments
to what is good or bad: food and water (in proportion) is good for persons,
deprivation of either will lead to damage and dissolution. If you do not study ethics,
chances are you will have no opportunity to carefully reflect on the values that shape
your life, no chance to think about whether the values in your society are wise or foolish,
no chance to expand your awareness of the values of other persons.
The study of ethics should also lead one to develop skills in articulating your own
values, to provide others with reasons for your actions and give you the means of
questioning the values of others. We must always think and understand the values
they are living with to live in a happy and harmonious country.

At the end of this module students are able to:

 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

 Define morality based on their values of understanding right from wrong.

 Explain the relationship between ethics and culture.
 Appreciate the different perspectives of right and wrong based on the
differences of every person and community.

Contents of the module

Lesson 1: The Moral and non-moral standards
Lesson 2: Moral Dilemmas and Stages of Moral Development

Directions on how to use module properly:

 Read the module’s content properly and understand each content and
meanings.
 Spend time in reading the modules.
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

Lesson 1: The Moral and non-moral standards

At the end of the lesson, students are able to:

 Differentiate the different moral and non-moral standards.

 Identify the nature of morality.
 Value the differences of every individual based on their understanding of
morality.

Prompting Questions:

In this society, there are a lot of different things that we

differ from each other. But how are we able to understand
these differences? What is your definition of morality and
how does your morality differs from their own definition of
morality? Is it possible for us to understand their culture?
How their morality does it affects you and our community?
What is the most import thing we must do to maintain
peace and harmony in our society? In this module, you will
understand and we will learn how our understanding of
morality affects every individual and our community.
One should be liable on doing things between what he
wants, and what is needed.

Discussion
It is important to note that different societies have different moral beliefs and that
our beliefs are deeply influenced by our own culture and context. For this reason, some
values do have moral implications, while others don’t. Let us consider, for example,
the wearing of hijab. For sure, in traditional Muslim communities, the wearing of hijab is
the most appropriate act that women have to do in terms of dressing up. In fact, for some
Muslims, showing parts of the woman’s body, such as the face and legs, is despicable.
However, in many parts of the world, especially in Western societies, most people don’t
mind if women barely cover their bodies. As a matter of fact, the Hollywood canon of
beauty glorifies a sexy and slim body and the wearing of extremely daring dress. The
point here is that people in the West may have pitied the Muslim women who wear hijab,
while some Muslims may find women who dress up daringly despicable.
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

Moral situations often involve not just one but others as well. Our decisions
have consequences and these have an effect to others. Matters of moral import need to
be analyzed with a perspective that takes the welfare and feelings of others into
considerations. What is good for one may not be good for others. In other words, if
one’s reasoning does not consider the interests of people that are affected by his/her
actions, then he/she is actually being prejudicial to his/her own interests. Saying that
the actions do not harm anybody is not a sufficient moral justification until one actually
takes into rational account the effects of the actions on others. Simply, morality involves
impartiality because it ensures that all interests are accounted for, weighed rationally,
and assessed without prejudice. Prejudices make decisions impartial. Reason
recognizes not only the good of oneself but also the good of others. Whether moral
conceptions are universal or culture-specific, it is still controversial in psychology.
One way of understanding morality well is to ask different group of people from
different community on how they conceptualize morality.

Morality understood in an everyday sense broadly means having some kind of

systems of values, deciding what is right or wrong for oneself. Ethics however takes a
much more systematic and critical approach to the question. The focus of ethics is
indeed the notion of right and wrong, but what it attempts to explain is why people make
certain moral decisions, how we create moral systems which tell us how to act; some
ethical theories also aim to tell us what moral standards we should choose and how
we could achieve the good life. While non-philosophers see morality as a set of rules to
obey and principles to follow, moral philosophers want to know how those rules can be
justified and what the logic behind moral judgment is.

Some schools of thought believe that everyone has their own ethics and this
means what is considered right or wrong depends on the time, place, and even the
particular preferences or practices of a group of people or individual person. While we
all have our cultural and individual differences, can we also accept that each one of
us can choose what is morally right and wrong?

Of course, there are cultural and individual differences. In some cultures, people
may think it is wrong to place your elbows on the dinner table, while in others it is totally
acceptable. Some people may prefer drinking tea and others coffee. While we
should be tolerant and respectful of cultural differences, should we also accept all
cultural practices as morally right? To further explore this issue we need to clarify that
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

normative ethics deals with how we should behave and live our lives, particularly
when our actions affect others. However, we do not always, as individuals or societies,
do what we should. Looking at specific times and places we can understand why people
behave the way they do. This, however, does not mean they should have. In the
following paragraphs we will be discussing how moral standards do differs from
non-moral one.

MORAL STANDARDS
These normally promote “the good”, that is the welfare and well-being of humans
as well as animals and the environment. These are norms that individuals or groups
have about the kinds of actions believed to be morally right or wrong, as well as the
values placed on what we believed to be morally good or morally bad. It therefore
prescribed what humans ought to do in terms of rights and obligations.
According to some scholars, moral standards are the sum of combined norms
and values. In other words, norms plus values equal moral standards. On the one hand,
norms are understood as general rules about our actions or behaviors. For example, we
may say “We are always under the obligation to fulfill our promises” or “It is always
believed that killing innocent people is absolutely wrong”. On the other hand, values
are understood as enduring beliefs or statements about what is good and desirable or
not. For example, we may say “Helping the poor is good” or “Cheating during exams is
bad”.
According to many scholars, moral standards have the following characteristics,
namely: 1) moral standards deal with matters we think can seriously injure or benefit
humans, animals, and the environment, such as child abuse, rape, and murder; 2)
moral standards are not established or changed by the decisions of authoritative
individuals or bodies. Indeed, moral standards rest on the adequacy of the reasons that
are taken to support and justify them. For sure, we don’t need a law to back up our
moral conviction that killing innocent people is absolutely wrong; 3) moral standards are
overriding, that is, they take precedence over other standards and considerations,
especially of self- interest; 4) moral standards are based on impartial considerations.
Hence, moral standards are fair and just; and 5) moral standards are associated with
special emotions (such as guilt and shame) and vocabulary (such as right, wrong,
good, and bad)
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

NON-MORAL STANDARS
It refers to standards by which we judge what is good or bad and right or
wrong in a non- moral way. Examples of nom-moral standards are standards of
etiquette by which we judge manners as good or bad. These are also the standards we
call the law by which we judge something as legal or illegal, and standards of aesthetics
by which we judge art as good or rubbish. Hence, we should not confuse morality with
etiquette, law, aesthetics, or even with religion.
As we can see, non-moral standards are matters of taste or preference. Hence,
a scrupulous observance of these types of standards does not make one a moral
person. Violation of said standards also does not pose any threat to human well-
being.
Finally, as a way of distinguishing moral standards from non-moral ones, if a
moral standard says “Do not harm innocent people” or “Don’t steal”, a non-moral
standard
says “Don’t text while driving” or “Don’t talk while the mouth is full”.

Learning Activities/ Exercises:

Note: There are no wrong or right answers. It only depends on how you understand
morality in you.

Activity #1
 Do you think the following examples are moral issues? Explain your answers
briefly.

a) We shouldn’t litter the street.

b) You shouldn’t tell white lies.

c) We should watch TV.

d) We shouldn’t experiment on animals

e) A 40 year old woman hitting her child.

Rubrics
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

Criteria Points
Content(Relevance to the topic) 10 points
Organization(Unity of thought, flow of discussion) 10 points
Total 20 points

Activity #2.

 In your neighborhood, asks one of your neighbor on their insights about the
statements presented in activity one. List down their answers and compare it with
yours. After doing the activity, make a comparative paper about this.

Rubrics
Criteria Points
Content(Relevance to the topic) 10 points
Organization(Unity of thought, flow of discussion) 10 points
Total 20 points

Teacher Intervention

If problems exist or you have questions to ask with regards to your modules, you may
reach me with these following contact numbers:
 fb account ( Lezel Magdasal II)

Practice tasks/Assessment

 Identify each statement whether moral or non-moral. Write X if the statement is

moral and Y if non-moral and write your reasons why it becomes moral or non-
moral for you.
1. Always tell the truth
2. Have courage
3. Keep your promises
4. Do not cheat.
5. Treat others as you want to be treated
6. Do not judge
7. Be dependable
8. Be forgiving
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

9. Have integrity
10. Take responsibility for your actions
11. Have patience
12. Be loyal always
13. Do not kill
14. Same sex marriage
15. Wearing nude clothes

Assignment

1. In your own definition, what is morality? 20 points

Rubrics
Criteria Points
Content(Relevance to the topic) 10 points
Organization(Unity of thought, flow of discussion) 10 points
Total 20 points
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

Lesson 2: Moral Dilemmas and the Three Levels of Moral

Development

At the end of this lesson, students are able to:

 Enumerate the different Stages of moral development

 Explain how moral dilemmas contribute to your moral development as an

individual.

 Appreciate the 7-Steps moral reasoning model in making

decisions.

Prompting Question
Have you ever been in a situation wherein there
were two or more possible solutions to your
problem? Or have you experienced having
difficulties in choosing what would be the right
thing to do because both are all applicable? Have
you experienced that you have to choose between
life and death? How did you respond to these
situations? How these situations did shaped you
as a person? Does it made you of who you are
now? In this lesson, we will discuss on the
decisions
that you have made in your life and how these decisions did made you a person.

Discussion
A dilemma is a conflict, problem, or situation with two possible solutions. When a
dilemma occurs, a person has to make the difficult choice between two desirable
options, or, contrastingly, two undesirable options. The word comes from the Greek
dilēmma (di “twice” + lēmma “premise”); it is a term used in logic and rhetoric when
causing an opponent to choose between two unfavorable options. We often have
doubts with our decisions especially when solutions are clearly presented and are both
useful. We have here steps to follow in order to make our decisions moral and
impartial.
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

Stages of Moral Development

LEVEL 1: PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL

At the level, morality is externally controlled. Rules imposed by authority
figures are conformed to in order to avoid punishment or receive rewards. This
perspective involves the idea that what is right is what one can get away with or
what is personally satisfying. Authority figures are obeyed. Level 1 has 2 stages.
(birth-9 years)

STAGE 1: PUNISHMENT /OBEDIENCE ORIENTATION

-behavior is determined by consequences. The individual will obey in
order to avoid punishment

STAGE 2: INSTRUMENTAL PURPOSE ORIENTATION

-behavior is determined again by consequences. The individual focuses on
receiving rewards or satisfying personal needs.

LEVEL 2: CONVENTIONAL LEVEL

-at the conventional level, conformity to social rules remains important to the
individual. However, the emphasis shifts from self-interest to relationships with other
people and social systems. The individual strives to support rules that are set forth by
others such as parents, peers, and the government in order to win their approval or to
maintain social order.(9years old-13year old)

STAGE 3: GOOD BOY/ NICE GIRL ORIENTATION

-behavior is determined by social approval. The individual wants to
maintain or win affection and approval of others by being a “good person”.

STAGE 4: LAW AND ORDER ORIENTATION

-social rules and laws determine behavior. The individual now takes
into consideration a larger perspective, that of societal laws. Moral
decision making becomes more than consideration of close ties to others.
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

The individual believes that rules and laws maintain social order that is
worth preserving.

LEVEL3: POSTCONVENTIONAL LEVEL OR PRINCIPLED LEVEL

-at the post conventional level, the individual moves beyond the perspective of his
or her own society. Morality is defined in terms of abstract principles and values that
apply to all situations and societies. The individual attempts to take the perspective of
all individuals.(13 years- onwards)

STAGE 5: SOCIAL CONRACT ORIENTATION

-individual rights determine behavior. The individual views laws and rules
as flexible tools for improving human purposes. That is, given the right
situation, there are exceptions to rules. When laws are not consistent with
individual rights and the interests of the majority, it does not bring about
good for people and alternatives should be considered.
STAGE 6: UNIVERSAL ETHICAL PRINCIPLE ORIENTATION
- According to Kohlberg, this is the highest stage of functioning. However,
he claimed that some individuals will never reach this level. At this stage,
the appropriate action is determined by one’s self-chosen ethical principles
of conscience. These principles are abstract and universal in application.
This type of reasoning involves taking the perspective of every person or
group that could potentially be affected by the decision.

SENSES OF SELF
1. SUBJECTIVISM
 Teaches that there are no objective moral truths out there.
 Moral statements are just factual statements about the attitude the speaker
holds on a particular issue, so if I say “Lying is wrong” all I’m doing is telling
you that I disapproved of telling lies some forms of subjectivism generalize this
idea to come up with.
 Moral statements are just factual statements about the attitude normal
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

human beings holds on particular issue.

2. PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM
 is a theory that describes the underlying dynamic behind all human actions.
As a descriptive theory, it does not direct one to act in any particular way.
Instead, it points out that there is already an underlying basis for how one act.
 The ego or self has its desires and interests, and all our actions are geared
toward satisfying these interests.
 Moral judgments are dependent on the feelings and attitudes of the persons
who think about such things.

3. ETHICAL EGOISM
 Is the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to act in their own
self- interest?

Learning Activities/ Exercises

 Why making choices do becomes so difficult especially when it feels so right?
20points

Rubrics
Criteria Points
Content(Relevance to the topic) 10 points
Organization(Unity of thought, flow of discussion) 10 points
Total 20 points

Teacher Intervention
If problems exist or you have questions to ask with regards to your modules, you may
reach me with these following contact numbers and Facebook account.
 fb account (Lezel Magdasal II)
 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]

PracticeTask/
Assessment Test I.
Identification
1. It is a step wherein it is necessary to clarify your short-term and long –term goals in
order to accomplish what he/she wants.
2. These normally promote “the good”, that is the welfare and well-being.
3. It refers to standards by which we judge what is good or bad and right or wrong in a
non-moral way.
4. It is a conflict in which you have to choose between two or more actions and have moral
reasons for choosing each action.
5. A step wherein you have to filter your choices and separate the ethical from the
unethical choices bearing in both your motives and the potential consequences of your
action.

Assignment
What stage in the Stages of Moral Development do you belong? Explain briefly.

Criteria Points
Content(Relevance to the topic) 10 points
Organization(Unity of thought, flow of discussion) 10 points
Total 20 points

References:
www.landfonline.com www.intheblack.com www.woodhouse.com www.intheblack.com

www.literaryterms.net Ethics: Foundations of Moral Valuation Book

 GE 8
ETHICS
Instructor:Lezel A. Magdasal
Facebook account: Lezel Magdasal II
Email address:[email protected]