Chapter 1

ETHICS
GenEd 4
Content
CHAPTER I: The Ethical Dimension of Human Existence
 Value
 Sources of Authority
 Senses of the Self
CHAPTER II: Utilitarianism
 The Principle of Utility – Kyle Pascual
 Principle of the Greatest Number
 Justice and Moral Rights – Evelyn Quibedo
Content
CHAPTER III: Natural Law
 Thomas Aquinas – Felicity Yadao
 The Greek Heritage – Kurt Prince
 The Essence and Varieties of Law – Aiza Mundin
CHAPTER IV: Deontology
 Duty and Agency – Ritchel Repolido
 Autonomy – Ryan Nebla
 Universalizability – Giemer Bernabe
Content
CHAPTER V: Virtue Ethics
 Happiness and Ultimate Purpose – Shari’a de Dios
 Virtue as Excellence – Lhee Lopez
 Moral Value and Mesotes – Dave Abiera
CHAPTER VI: Synthesis: Making Informed Decisions
 The Moral Agent and Contexts – Mara de Castro
 Moral Deliberation – Kelly Reyes
 Self, Society, and Environment – Haruo Isowaki
ETHICS: Foundations of Moral Valuation
The Ethical Dimension of Human Existence
• Value
• Sources of Authority
• Senses of Self
Objectives:
Identify the ethical aspect of human life and the
scope of ethical thinking;
Define and explain the terms that are relevant
to ethical thinking; and
Evaluate the difficulties that are involved
in maintaining certain commonly-held notions
on ethics
What is Ethics?
 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.
Determining the grounds for the
values with particular and special
significance to human life.
The Importance of Rules to Social Beings
1. Rules protect social beings
by regulating behavior.
2. Rules help to guarantee
each person certain rights and
freedom.
3. Rules produce a sense of
justice among social beings.
4. Rules are essential for a healthy economic
system
Kinds of Valuation
Aesthetics
• “aisthesis” which means “sense”
or “feeling”
• refers to the judgments of
personal approval or disapproval
that we make about what we see,
hear, smell, or taste
Kinds of Valuation
Etiquette
• concerned with right or wrong
actions, but those which might
be considered not quite grave
enough to belong to a
discussion on ethics
Kinds of Valuation
Technical
• “techne” proper way —
(or right way)of doing things
Ethics and Morals
“Morals”
• specific beliefs or attitudes
that people have or to
describe acts that people
perform.
• “moral judgment” or “moral
reasoning,”
Ethics and Morals
• Discipline of studying and
understanding ideal human
behavior and ideal ways of
thinking.
• Acknowledged as an
intellectual discipline
belonging to philosophy.
Ethics and Morals
Ethics - is the branch of philosophy that
studies morality or the rightness or wrongness
of human conduct.
Morality, speaks of code or system of

behavior in regards to standard of right and
wrong behavior.
Descriptive and Normative
A descriptive study of A normative study of ethics, as is
often done in philosophy or
ethics reports how moral theology, engages the
people, particularly question: What could or should
groups, make their be considered as the right way
of acting? In other words, a
moral valuations normative discussion prescribes
without making any what we ought to maintain as
judgment either for or our standards or bases for moral
valuation.
against these
valuations.
Issue, Decision, Judgment, and Dilemma
A situation that calls for

moral valuation can be
called a moral issue.
When one is placed in a

situation and confronted
by the choice of what act
to perform, s/he is called
to make a moral decision
When a person is an
observer making an
assessment on the actions
or behavior of someone,
s/he is making a moral
judgment.
When one is torn between

choosing one of two
goods or choosing
between the lesser of two
evils, this is referred to as a
moral dilemma.
Characteristics of Moral Standards
A. Moral standards
involved serious wrongs or
significant benefits.
B. Moral standards ought

to be preferred to other
values.
Characteristics of Moral Standards
C. Moral standards are not
established by authority
figures.
D. Moral standards have
the trait of universality.
E. Moral standards are based
on impartial considerations.
F. Moral standards are
associated with special
emotions and vocabulary.
Dilemma and Moral Dilemma
Three Levels of Moral Dilemma
A. Personal Dilemma
B. Organizational Dilemma
C. Structural Dilemma
Activity
1. Give your own example of a moral dilemma
that occurs in any of the three levels discussed
above?
2. List down the possible choices for this dilemma
and how the choices would influence other
moral levels?
3. Insight: why do you think it is more important to
choose a course of action in a moral dilemma
than to not make any choice at all? Explain
and support with an example
Only Human Beings can be Ethical
A. Only human beings are

rational, autonomous, and
self–conscious.
B. Only human beings can
act morally or immorally.
C.Only human beings are
part of the moral
community.
Reasoning
• What reasons do we give to decide or to judge that a
certain way of acting is either right or wrong?
• A person’s fear of punishment or desire for reward can
provide him/her a reason for acting in a certain way.
• The promise of rewards and the fear of punishments
can certainly motivate us to act, but are not in
themselves a determinant of the rightness or
wrongness of a certain way of acting or of the good or
the bad in a particular pursuit.
• Beyond rewards and punishments, it is possible for our
moral valuation — our decisions and judgments — to
be based on a principle.
Sources of Authority
Law
 It is supposed that law is one’s
guide to ethical behavior.
 In the Philippines, Filipinos are
constrained to obey the laws
of the land as stated in the
country’s criminal and civil
codes.
 The law cannot tell us what to
pursue, only what to avoid.
Sources of Authority
Culture
 Our exposure to different societies and
their cultures makes us aware that there
are ways of thinking and valuing that
are different from our own, that there is
in fact a wide diversity in how different
people believe it is proper to act.
Therefore, what is ethically acceptable
or unacceptable is relative to, or that is
to say, dependent on one’s culture. This
position is referred to as Cultural
relativism.
Discussion Points
1. Identify a list of (a) obligations we are expected
to fulfill, (b)prohibitions we are required to
respect, and (c) ideals we are encouraged to
meet. Discuss whether these are ethical in
nature or not.
2. Come up with a list of common Filipino values.
Consider the strengths and weaknesses of each
of these values.
3. Comment on this statement: “What I believe
must be true if I feel very strongly about it.”

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ETHICS

Morality, speaks of code or system of

A situation that calls for

When one is placed in a

When one is torn between

B. Moral standards ought

A. Only human beings are

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