PA116-Ethics & Accountability in Public Service

Topic1- Nature of Ethics R.A 6713 section 2

Topic Objectives - It is the policy of the State to promote a high
• To define the meaning of ethics standard of ethics in public service. Public
• To explain how ethics affects human officials and employees shall at all times be
conduct. accountable to the people and shall discharge
• To explain the nature, scope of ethics their duties with utmost responsibility, integrity,
competence, and loyalty, act with patriotism
Ethics defined and justice, lead modest lives, and uphold
- Ethics is the philosophical study of morality. public interest over personal interest.
It is one of the main branch of Nature of Ethics
philosophy which corresponds to the - Ethics refer to guide what human ought to
traditional division of philosophy into formal, do, usually in terms of right, obligations,
natural and moral philosophy. It can be fairness and specific virtue. It is related to
turned into a general study of goodness, issues of propriety –rightness and
right action, applied ethics, meta-ethics, wrongness, what is right in ethical, what is
moral psychology, and metaphysics of moral wrong in unethical. Sometimes the word
responsibility. The general study of ‘proper’ , ‘fair’ and ‘just’ are also used in the
goodness and right action is the main task place of right and ethical.
of ethics. It has correlatively its substantive - The brief analysis about the nature of ethics
question as: how are we rational beings and clearly shows that it is concerned with
what moral principles should govern our human life and that it judges human
choice and pursuit? behaviour from normative point of view. That
- The word Ethics is derived from the Greek is why various definitions of ethics have
word ‘ethos’ which means character or been formulated by various thinkers.
conduct. Ethics is also called as moral Mackenzie points out that ethics is a
philosophy or philosophical thinking general study of ideal involved in human
about morality. This morality has been life. Dewey says that the subject matter of
further elaborated as action and behavior ethics is to point out what is right and good
which is concerned with ‘good’ or ‘evil’, of in conduct. G. E. Moore considers supreme
particular traditions, groups or individual. good as subject-matter of ethics. All of 5
- Ethics is that science which is concerned these indicate that the subject matter of
with moral behavior or with right or wrong ethics includes social behaviour of man. The
and good or evil of human behavior. It nature of ethics is incomplete, unless and
propounds those principles which make our until we explain nature of normative
conduct moral. It becomes clear when we science:
explain the derivation of the words right and Scope of Ethics
good. The word right is derived from Latin  The scope of ethics includes its own
word ‘rectus’, which literally means ‘straight’ subject-matter. Ethics is a normative
or ‘according to rule’. It means that we are science that deals with moral ideals or good
concerned with those principles which make in the nature of our conduct. As a science of
our conduct right or straight. morality it does not enquire into the origin of
Why study ethics? human conduct but emphasizes on the
1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XI section 1 contents and various problems of moral
- Public office is a public trust. Public officers consciousness like motives, intentions,
and employees must, at all times, be voluntary actions and so on.
accountable to the people, serve them with  Thus morality is an important trait of human
utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and personality. The Scope of Ethics is wide
efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, which is mainly concerned with the
and lead modest lives. principles or causes of action as :
- What obligation is common to all ?
- What is good in all good acts?
 - The sense of duty and responsibility. act. In the terminology of classical realistic
- Individual and Society philosophy, a human act is actus humanus;
an act of a person is actus hominis.
 Ethics has been a tool for moral excellence
of the person to establish an amicable Human Acts vs. Acts of a Person
relation with others for present and future.  breathing
Whenever there is operation of human  beating of the heart
conduct there may be problems for ethics.  telling the truth
These spheres may be broadly divided into  perspiration
four ways :  finishing your homework
- Moral  giving money to the poor
- Social  growing of the nails
- Religious
 returning a lost item
- Political
 Moral - a life of virtue can bring about the
good for the individuals as well as for the Elements of Human Acts
society - that virtue accounted man will also
 The essential elements of a human act are
be a good citizen. The life of virtue is also
three: knowledge, freedom, actual
called a life of reason.
choice.
 Social - in every society there are
- Knowledge: A person is not responsible
institutions, customs and conventions. But for an act done in ignorance, unless the
with the passage of time, they exert ignorance is the person's own fault, and is
undesirable influence on the minds of the therefore willed, in which case he has
people. knowledge that he is in ignorance and ought
 Religious- is concerned with the problems to dispel it. Thus, in one way or another,
as the existence of God, immortality of the knowledge is necessary for responsible
soul, religious consciousness etc. human activity.
 Political - A moral conduct is concerned for - Freedom: A person is not responsible for
political considerations. All political an act over which he has no control unless
considerations ultimately are judged by the he deliberately surrenders such control by
moral ideals as aspirations of the people. running into conditions and circumstances
which rob him of liberty. Thus, in one way or
another, freedom is necessary for every
human act.
• - Actual choice or voluntariness: A
person is not responsible for an act which
he does not will, unless he wills to give up
Ethics and Human Acts his self-control (as a man does, for instance,
 The term human act has a fixed technical in allowing himself to be hypnotized, or by
meaning. It means an act (thought, word, deliberately becoming intoxicated). Thus, in
deed, desire, omission) performed by a one way or another, voluntariness or actual
human being when he is responsible; when choice enters every human act.
he knows what he is doing and wills to do it. Thoughts to remember…
An act is perfectly human when it is done  a human act is a willed act. It proceeds from
with full knowledge and full consent of the the will, following the knowledge and
will, and with full and unhampered freedom judgment of the mind or intellect. Since what
of choice. If the act is hampered in any way, refers to the freewill is usually described as
it is less perfectly human; if it is done moral, a human act is a moral act. Since the
without knowledge or consent it is not a will is free, a human act is a free act.
human act at all. An act done by a human  A human act comes from the will directly or
being but without knowledge and consent is indirectly. When the act itself is the choice of
called an act of a person but not a human the will, it comes directly from the will and is
 said to be willed in se or in itself. When the
act comes indirectly from the will, inasmuch
as the will chooses rather what causes or
occasions the act than the act itself, it is
said to be willed in its cause or in causa.
Modifiers of Human Acts
 Ignorance. Ignorance that may be
overcome by due diligence is called vincible
ignorance or culpable ignorance; ignorance
that cannot be expelled by due diligence is
called invincible ignorance or inculpable
ignorance. The reasoned ethical principle on
this point is: Invincible ignorance destroys
voluntariness and relieves the agent of
responsibility; vincible ignorance lessens
but does not remove voluntariness and
responsibility.
 Concupiscence. By concupiscence we
mean any of the g human impulses or
tendencies technically called the passions.
These are: love, hatred, grief, desire,
aversion, hope, despair, courage, fear,
anger. When concupiscence sweeps upon a
person without his intending it, it is called
antecedent concupiscence; when a person
wills it (as in the case of a man who nurses
his injuries, or stirs himself to revenge, or
who allows a suddenly envisioned obscene
image to remain in his mind or before his
eyes) it is called consequent
concupiscence. The ethical principle here is:
Antecedent concupiscence lessens
voluntariness and responsibility but does
not take them away; consequent
concupiscence does not lessen
voluntariness and responsibility.
 Violence. Coercion or violence is external
force applied by a free cause (that is, by
human beings) to compel a person to do
something contrary to his will. The ethical
principle with respect to violence is: An act
owing to violence to which due resistance is
made, is not voluntary, and the agent is not
responsible for it.
 Habit. Habit is readiness, born of repeated
acts, for doing a certain thing. The ethical
principle is: Habit does not take away
voluntariness; acts done from habit are
voluntary, at least in cause, as long as the
habit is permitted to continue.