ACES TAGUM COLLEGE

BA 4 – Good Governance and Social

Responsibility

MODULE 1- Lesson 3

Lesson 3: THE RELATIONSHP OF ETHICS WITH

OTHERS SCIENCES AND OTHER PHASES OF
HUMAN LIFE
‘The unexamined life is not worth living.”
- Socrates
INTRODUCTION

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature and the morality
of human conduct. To some extent, Ethics is related to other sciences because
it also deals with the investigation of the nature of man as a rational being and
a being in relation with other beings. But unlike other sciences, the focus and
the locus of Ethics is to study man’s nature and his behaviour from the
standpoint of morality. The material object of Ethics is the human conduct and
the formal object is morality.

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

• Understand the scope of ethics as a science that
investigates the nature of the human conduct
OBJECTIVES • Distinguish ethics from other sciences that study
man’s nature and behavior
• Differentiate ethics from etiquette and the professional
codes of conduct.
LESSON PROPER

THE RELATIONSHIP OF ETHICS WITH OTHER SCIENCES

AND OTHER PHASES OF HUMAN LIFE

1. Relationship of Ethics with other Sciences

The following discussion is focused on how Ethics, as a science which
studies the nature of man and the human conduct, is especially related to other
sciences which likewise deal with the study of human nature and human
conduct.
1. Ethics and Logic
Ethics is the study of correct action or doing, while Logic studies
the process of correct and organized thinking. Doing follows thinking.
Logic therefore is aimed at the right thinking and Ethics is aimed at the
right acting or right doing and behavior.
Based on perceiving information, Ethics focuses first and foremost
on the demands of the subjective human world, or world of people and
relationships. In communication, ethics focuses and studies people’s
feelings and emotional states based on nonverbal information and how
things are said. Logic is focused on the demands of the material,
nonhuman world, or world of “things” in one’s environment. In
communication, Logic focuses on and studies what is done and said, or
the content of one’s speech.
On intellectual qualities, Ethics is people-oriented while Logic is
task-oriented. Ethics is focused on enhancing relationships, modifying
content and forms of speech to match or contradict what others expect
to hear. Logic is focused on not misleading a person and giving him
correct information.
 Lastly, on behavioral relationships, Ethics shows people’s feelings
for their partners directly through emotions; while logic shows their
feelings for their partners by doing things for them.

2. Ethics and Psychology

Both Ethics and Psychology deal with the study of man and his
behavior. However, Psychology studies how man behaves, while Ethics
studies how man ought to behave. Psychology is not interested in the
morality of human behavior, while Ethics is concerned with man’s moral
obligation or the result of his behavior. Ethics is the study of human
behavior from the perspective of morality. Psychology is the scientific
study of mental and behavioral characteristics, associated with a
particular kind of behavior.

3. Ethics and Sociology

Sociology deals with the study of the social order while Ethics
deals with the study of moral order in the society. There is no social
order if there is no moral order. Therefore, the foundation of any society
depends on the moral values of people and their perspective concept of
what is good and bad in human relationships.

4. Ethics and Economics

Man support himself by earning a living. Earning a living to support
his expenses makes a man an economic being. Economics as a science
deals with the study of wages, labor, production and distribution of
wealth. The study of these issues also involves relationships among
individuals. For example, wages: between employer and employee;
production: between seller and customer. These fiduciary relationships
 must be governed by human values that can only be understood in the
light of moral principles and the nature of values themselves.
According to Charles K. Wilber (1986), there are three ways in
which Ethics enters economics. First, economists have ethical values that
help shape the way they do economics. This builds into the core of
economic theory a particular view of how the economy does work and
how it should work. Second, economic actors (consumers, workers,
business owners) have ethical values that help shape their behavior.
Third, economic institutions and policies impact people differentially and
thus, ethical evaluations, in addition to economic evaluations, are
important.

2. Relationship of Ethics with Other Phases of Human Life

The study of Ethics crosses religious and cultural boundaries and is
directed at the question of how critical decisions are to be made so that an
organization may work best together, to build a community and social
relationships in a positive and productive way. How we live ethically becomes
more important as we are required to make complex decisions concerning
customer relations, employer-employee relationship and other business issues.
5. Ethics and Law
Ethics and law are closely related. Ethics deals with morality, and
when we speak of morality, we mean primarily the moral law. Law may be
defined as crystallized ethics. Law and morality presuppose the concepts
of right and wrong, good and bad, even the rules of conduct.
However, there is a difference between what is moral and what is
legal. Laws are intended to regulate the external actions of man while
ethics investigates and probes the internal disposition of man, such as his
motivations and his thoughts.
 Though law often embodies ethical principles, law and ethics are far
from co-extensive. Many acts that would be widely condemned as
unethical are not prohibited by law-lying or betraying the confidence of a
friend, for example. A man can also commit a thousand adulteries in his
mind, yet that same person cannot be legally or criminally be guilty
because this exercise is innate and private to the person himself. Though
he may not be legally or criminally liable for entertaining adultery in his
thoughts, that same person can be morally responsible for entertaining
adulterous intents and motives in his thoughts. Law therefore is focused
on external regulations of man’s actions while ethics is concerned with
the investigation of the internal disposition of man from the moral
perspective.

6. Ethics and Religion

Ethics is a discipline or set of moral principles and values governing
an individual or institutional behavior. Religion generally refers to the
service and worship of God (or some other object) and is typically
expressed as a personal or institutional set of beliefs, attitudes, and
practices.
Ethics evaluates the behavior of man against his values regardless
of the source of those values. While religion certainly can create an
impact on individuals and may actually include mandates for ethical
behavior, it is a distinct concept from ethics. It is however, in the practice
of religion that ethics and religion may overlap.
Religion and ethics are two phases of human activity which are
closely related. Both ethics and religion are based on the same
postulates, e.g., they both suggest and assume the existence of God who
created everything, man’s freewill and the immortality of the soul.
Moreover, ethics and religion have the same end or purpose – that is, the
attainment of man’s happiness in this life and beyond. Lastly, ethics and
religion prescribe right living as the means of attaining the goal of man in
this world.
Authentic ethics cannot be separated from the existence of God. If
there must be a moral law; and if there is a moral law, there must be a
lawgiver, and this ultimate lawgiver can only be God Himself.
Ethics and religion likewise presuppose the concept of the
immortality of man’s existence, e.g., that there is life after death. For this
reason, we believe that the soul of the person which continues to exist
even after physical death is a soul that is immortal.
Lastly, ethics and religion both seek the absolute truth. Ethics
seeks the absolute truth by using human reason alone, while religion tries
to understand this same absolute truth by virtue of one’s faith and his
adherence to divine revelation. In this case, faith is our response to
God’s disclosure to us.

7. Ethics and the Professional Codes of Conduct

The era of globalization has created a need for specialized skills
and knowledge. This is brought about by paradigm shifts in almost all
facets of human activities that have resulted into a more complex society
that we have today. Full automation has almost taken over a lot of jobs
done by an unskilled labor force that in turn, creates a demand for
workers with special skills. The need for specialized skills and knowledge
in business has created a trend which prods people and organizations to
be identified with a particular profession basically because it brings with it
prestige, a sense of respect, personal esteem and status symbol.
Based on the Webster’s dictionary, the meaning of professional is
relating to or characteristic of a profession; engaged in one of the
professions; participating for gain in an activity not engaged in by
amateurs. Professionalism on the other hand is the conduct that
characterizes a profession or a professional person; or it can also be the
pursuit of a profession for gain or livelihood, e.g., as a manager, engineer
or as a lawyer.
The words “profession” and “professional” imply a public
declaration with the force of a promise. Professions are groups which
declare in a public manner that their profession and that the same group
and in some instances, the society may discipline those who fail to
conform to its prescribed ways. The traditional professions include
medicine, law, education and clergy.
Carpenters, plumbers, barbers, athletes, gardeners, beauticians and
even soldiers may be considered professionals because they have
extensive knowledge and training of their crafts and they are also paid for
the practice of it. These “professionals,” however, may undergo
extensive training but what they do can’t be classified as a profession.
Membership of a profession requires sophisticated skills and extensive
training as well as advanced education so that they become competent in
their line of work. The medical and legal professions fit the description of
the word profession because the skills of lawyers and doctors cannot be
mechanized and require good judgment to apply the appropriate
treatment/advice to their patients/clients. There is also the trust or
secrecy that is shared by the doctor/lawyer with their patients/clients
that is not observed with other professionals. What makes the job of the
medical and legal professions important is that they are expected to
serve the good of the public or society. This is also the main reason that
constitutes to their being in the group of professionals. Members of the
profession create their own set of rules; set standards for practice of the
profession, and at the same time discipline their own members. This set
of standards of the profession is reflected in their own professional codes
of conduct. A professional code of ethics is a set of behavioral guidelines
that members of a profession are required by their association to observe
in the course of their professional practice. These guidelines, in general
terms, prescribe responsibilities that members must adhere to and
questionable situations in which they must not be involved.
 In some cases, members must be sanctioned for violation of the
code. These sanctions may include the following:
• Payment of a fine;
• Payment of the cost of any investigation;
• Reprimand;
• Impositions of conditions on membership;
• Suspension from membership; and
• Expulsion from membership

8. Ethics and Etiquette

The word etiquette came from a French word which means ticket.
During the medieval times, when people visit the palace of their king, they
were required to follow in-house instructions that were posted (ticket) in
the different areas of the palace. Hence, the word etiquette practically
means rules and conduct of behavior that are supposed to be followed in
special situations and circumstances, including one’s visit to the palace
of the king. Today, the word etiquette refers to a special code of behavior
or courtesy, like saying “thank you”, “You are welcome,” and saying,
“congratulations” to the groom and “best wishes” the bride, and the like.
Although the rules of etiquette are generally non-moral in
character, the violation of these rules of etiquette however may have
moral implications. For example, a boss and his secretary develop a
special friendship in the workplace and the boss, because of this
closeness to the secretary now fondly calls the same secretary as
“sweetheart.” This scenario in the workplace may have tacit moral
implications if, for example, the wife of the boss may drop by one day at
her husband’s office and discovers that her husband calls his secretary
“sweetheart.” This definitely will create a suspicion on the part of the
wife.
However, the scrupulous observance of the rules of etiquette will
not make a person moral. In fact, it an even hide or camouflage important
moral issues. For instance, the Civil Rights issue of racial discrimination
in the U.S. in the late 1950s and 1960s when the white Americans
claimed superiority over the African Americans and others minorities.
During this time, the Americans were taught, as part of their etiquette,
that when a white man enters a bus with no available seat for him, it was
imperative for the black person or the minority to offer his seat to the
white man because people thought it was the proper thing to do during
those times. The black Americans and the other minorities were made to
believe it was the proper etiquette. The real moral issue, however, was
racial discrimination.

9. Ethics and Education

Education is defined as an instruction or training by which people
learn to develop and use their mental, moral and physical powers and
abilities. It is also one way of gaining experience about human life. Since
man however, is primarily a rational moral being, the purpose of education
is to perfect the moral character in man.
A great educator once said “education is co-extensive with life.”
Hence, we can say that ethics is life because it is the one that gives life
its direction, purpose, and meaning.

10. Ethics and Art

Art is concerned with the use of imagination to make things of
aesthetic significance. Ethics is aimed at conforming to an accepted
standard of good behavior. Ethics also stands for moral goodness, art, and
beauty.
It may be difficult to ascertain whether a piece of art which is
offensive to morals can be considered beautiful. Both true art and true
ethics have the same aim: that is, to arouse and to inspire the noble
emotions of man, thereby creating no conflict at all. Consequently, an art
which arouses the lower impulses of man defeats the very purpose of art.
LESSON 3: ACTIVITY

Case: The Confused Accountant

Yvonne Pillar is a young accountant who came from a poor family. She
was recently hired by a big company called Chameleon Co.
When it was time to audit the accounting books of the company, Yvonned
was instructed by her boss to manipulate the numbers in order to reduce the
taxes the company will have to pay the government. The company official said
that if she would not heed the command, she would be terminated.
The employment condition that time was really tight and the chance of
finding another job is very minimal.

Questions:

1. If you were Yvonne Pillar, will you obey your boss? Why or why not?
2. Are you morally obligated to follow an order that is illegal?
3. Explain the moral implication of the military slogan: “Obey first before you
complain.”