CHAPTER 1

THE ETHICAL DIMENSION

OF HUMAN EXISTENCE
GROUP 1
INTRODUCTION
“There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature
without a renewal of humanity itself.” - Pope Francis,
2015
VALUE OF ONES LIFE
 Ethics, generally speaking, is about matters such as the good
thing that we should pursue and the bad thing that we should
avoid; the right ways in which we could or should act and the
wrong ways of acting.

 It is about what is acceptable and unacceptable in human

behaviour. It may involve obligations that we are expected to
fulfil, prohibitions that we are required to respect, or ideals
that we are encouraged to meet. Ethics as a subject for us to
study is about determining the grounds for the values with
particular and special significance to human life.
We face decisions all the time about what to do and what to be, both as individuals
and as members of larger groups. Should we stay up late watching movies or should
we get some extra sleep? What should we strive for in our lives? In what ways should
we respect and care for other people or other living beings? Should we let other
species go extinct when we could prevent this from happening?
These should questions are all ultimately ethics questions. Ethics is the study of
what is right and wrong, good and bad, what we should and should not do or be, and
related topics. Clearly, ethics is important to many aspects of our lives. But studying
ethics can be very challenging, by forcing us to examine, question, and rethink our
deeply held notions of how we should live.
The purpose of this lesson is to improve your ability to engage in ethical thinking.
We say improve your ability because you, as a living, conscious human being,
already possess some ability to think ethically. We all do. We might have different
thoughts and reach different conclusions about ethics, but the core ability to think
ethically is something that unites all humans – and perhaps members of some other
species as well.
Why Study Ethics?
So why study ethics? There are several reasons. First, studying ethics helps us
improve our own intuitions. Often, upon closer inspection n, we find that some
aspects of our intuitions conflict with each other, or have implications that
trouble us. After thinking it through, we may want to change our intuitions and
our ethical views that rest on them. Since the ethical views that we hold serve
as the foundation for what we should be and what we should do, changing our
views can lead to very major changes in our lives.

Second, studying ethics helps us spot the ethics implicit in what other people
say and do. Ethics spotting is an important ability because it enables us to
understand why people are making certain arguments, decisions, etc. Quite
often, disagreements between people are at heart disagreements about ethics.
If we can spot the ethics on different sides of a disagreement, we can
understand what the disagreement is really about. Because ethics spotting is
such an important ability, we will have an ethics spotting activity towards the
end of this lesson, after we have learned more about specific ethics views that
we might spot.
 CLARIFICATIONS AND TERMINOLOGY

 Recognizing the notions of good and bad, and right and

wrong, are the primary concern of ethics.
 KINDS OF VALUATION
 Our first point of clarification is to recognize that there are
instances when we make value judgements that are not considered
to be part of ethics.
 I could say that this new movie I had just seen was a “good” one
because I enjoyed it, or a song I had just heard on the radio was a
“bad” one because it had an unpleasant tone. These are
valuations that fall under the domain of aesthetics. The word
“aesthetics” is derived from the Greek word aesthesis (“sense” or
“feeling”) and refers to the judgements of personal approval or
disapproval that we make about what we see, hear, smell, or taste.
 Similarly, we have a sense of approval and disapproval
concerning certain actions which can be considered relatively more
trivial in nature. I may think that it is “right” to knock politely on
someone’s door, while it is “wrong” to barge into one’s office.
Perhaps I may approve of a child who knows how to ask for
something properly by saying, “please” and otherwise, disapprove
of a woman that I see picking her nose in public. These and other
similar examples belong to the category of etiquette, which is
concerned with right and wrong actions, but those which might be
considered not quite grave enough to belong to a discussion on
ethics.
 We can also consider how a notion of right and wrong actions
can easily appear in a context that is not a matter of ethics. This
could also be when learning how to bake, for instance, I am told
that the right thing to do would be to mix the dry ingredients first,
before bringing in any liquids: this is the right thing to do in baking,
but not one that belongs to a discussion of ethics.

 We derive from the Greek word techne the English words

“technical” which are often used to refer to a proper way (or right
way) of doing things, but a technical valuation (or right and wrong
technique of doing things) may not necessarily be an ethical one
as these example show.
 Recognizing the characteristics of aesthetics and technical valuation allows
us to have a rough guide as to what belongs to a discussion of ethics.
Matters that concern life and death such as war, capital punishment, or
abortion and matters that concern human well-being such as poverty,
inequality, or sexual identity are often included in discussion of ethics.
However this general description is only a starting point and will require
further elaboration.

 One complication that can be noted is that the distinction between what
belongs to ethics and what does not is not always so clearly defined.
 ETHICS AND MORALS
 Our second point of clarification is on the use of the words
“ethics” and “morals”. This discussion of ethics and morals
would include cognates such as ethical, unethical, immoral,
moral, morality, and so on.
 We should be careful on the use of the word “not” when
applied to the words “moral” or “ethical” as this can be
ambiguous. One might say that cooking is not ethical, that is,
the act of cooking does not belong to a discussion of ethics.

 The term “morals” may be used to refer to specific beliefs
or attitudes that people have or to describe acts that people
perform. Thus it is sometimes said that an individual’s
personal conduct is referred to as his morals, and if he falls
short of behaving properly, this can be described as
immoral.
 However, we also have terms such as “moral judgement” or “moral
reasoning”, which suggest a more rational aspect. The term “ethics”
can be spoken of as the discipline of studying and understanding
ideal human behaviour and ideal ways of thinking. Thus, ethics is
acknowledge as an intellectual discipline belonging to philosophy.
However, acceptable and unacceptable behaviors are as generally
described as ethical and unethical, respectively. In addition, with
regard to that acceptable and unacceptable ways of behaving in a
given field, we have the term “professional ethics” (e.g. legal ethics,
medical ethics for nurses and doctors; and media ethics for writers
and reporters).
 The word “philosophy” is rooted in the Greek words that
translate to “love of wisdom”. The word philosophy had been
first used by thinkers to refer to their striving to better
understand reality in a maintained and systematic manner.
Philosophy started among the ancient Greeks around two and a
half thousand years.
 As time passed, asking certain specific questions would
develop into specific methods; these particular topics and the
ways addressing them established themselves as discipline in
their own right, which is why we now have the empirical science
such as biology or the social sciences such as psychology.
The different branches or areas of philosophy
• Metaphysics wonders as to what constitutes the whole of reality
• Epistemology asks what is our basis for determining what we
know
• Axiology refers broadly to the study of value and is often divided
into aesthetics, which concerns itself with the value of beauty
• Ethics which concern itself with the value of human actions.
DESCRIPTIVE

• A study of ethics reports how people, particularly groups, make

their moral valuations without making any judgement either for or
against these valuations.
NORMATIVE

 A study of ethics, as it often done in philosophy or

moral theology, engages the question: What could or
should be considered as the right way of acting?
In other words, a normative discussion prescribes what
we ought to maintain as our standards or bases for moral
valuation.
MORAL ISSUE

 Often used to refer to those particular situation that are often the
source of considerable and inconclusive debate.
EXAMPLE:
FOR Iinstance, imagine a situation wherein a person cannot afford a
certain item, but there is the possibility presents itself for her to steal
it.
MORAL DECISION

 The one is placed in a situation and confronted by the

choice of what act to perform.
Example:
For instance, I choose not to take something I did not pay
for.
MORAL JUDGEMENT

 When a person is an observer who makes an assessment

on the action or behavior of someone.
Example:
For instance, a friend of mine chooses to steal from a
store, and I make an assessment that it is wrong.
MORAL DILEMMA

 The matter of choosing right over wrong or, good over bad, and
considering instead the more complicated situation wherein one is
torn between choosing one of two goods or choosing between the
lesser of two evils.

Example:
SOURCES OF
AUTHORITY
L A W
Authority
Authority is the right to exercise power, which can be
formalized by a state and exercised by way of judges,
appointed executives of government, or the ecclesiastical or
priestly appointed representatives of a God or
other deities.

Authority, in the sense of "authorization", can also mean

the right to complete an action or execute an order.
Positive Law
The term positive law refers to the different rules
and regulations that are posited or put forward by
an authority figure that require compliance.
“Ethics? It is simple. Just
follow whatever the law
says.”
Prohibited Nature of Law

✓ The Law does not tell us what we should do,

it works by constraining us from
performing acts that we should not do.

✓ The law cannot tell us what to pursue, only

what to avoid.
Contrac HIT-AND-
tualiza RUN
tion TODDLER
SOURCES OF
AUTHORITY
RELIGION
 “Love the Lord, Your God,
therefore, and always heed his
charge: his statutes, decrees, and
commandments.”
Deuteronomy Chapter 11, New American Bible
Divine Command Theory
Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism) is
a meta-ethical theory which proposes that an action's status
as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God. The
theory asserts that what is moral is determined by what God commands,
and that for a person to be moral is to follow his commands.
Nature of Religion

✓ Religion is not simply prohibitive, but it also

provides ideals to pursue.
“Ethics? It is simple. Just
follow whatever your
religion says.”
MULTIPLICITY OF RELIGIONS
UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN
ETHICS AND DIVINE
 Euthyphro

Euthyphro: But I would certainly say that the holy is what all the gods
love, and the opposite, what all the gods hate, is unholy.

Socrates: Well, Euthyphro, should we examine this in turn to see if it is

true? Or should we let it go, accept it from ourselves or anyone else
without more ado, and agree that a thing is so if only someone says it is?
Or should we examine that a person means when he says something?

Euthyphro: Of course. I believe, though, that this time what I say is true.

Socrates: Perhaps we shall learn better, my friend. For consider: is the

holy loved by the gods because it is holy? Or it is holy because it is loved by
the gods?
Any questions???