UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS

College of Criminal Justice Education

Notes in
PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICAL STANDARDS (former POLICE ETHICS
AND VALUES)

Things that will destroy man: Politics without principle; pleasure without conscience;
wealth without work; knowledge without CHARACTER; business without morality;
science without humanity; worship without sacrifice. - Mohandas Gandhi

UNIT I
Introduction to Ethics and Values

The meaning of PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy is deduced from the Greek words “philein” meaning “love” and “sophia”
meaning “wisdom”. Etymologically, philosophy means “love of wisdom”. Philosophy is the
science of beings in their ultimate reasons, causes and principles, acquired by the aid of human
reason alone.

Branches of Philosophy
1. Logic
2. Ethics – is the study of the nature and morality of human acts.
3. Epistemology
4. Metaphysics
5. Aesthetics
6. Social/Political philosophy

UNDERSTANDING ETHICS

Etymologically, the word ethics is coined from the Greek word “ethicos”, or that which
pertains to “ethos”, the English translation of which is “custom” or “character”. From this
etymological meaning, ethics is taken to mean as a philosophical science that deals with the
morality of human conduct or human acts.
Ethics is a philosophical science. This means that ethics is one of the many disciplines
in philosophy.
Four Disciplines / Divisions in Philosophy:
a. Descriptive or Speculative – a discipline in philosophy that posits the question:
what is the nature of reality? (Metaphysics)
b. Normative – a discipline in philosophy that posits the question: What is good and what
is bad? Or what is right action and wrong action? (Moral philosophy)
 c. Practical philosophy – a discipline in philosophy which reflects upon truth in relation to
action. (Logic)
d. Critical philosophy – a discipline in philosophy that posits the question: What is truth?
(Epistemology)

What do we mean by “morality of human acts?” Morality of human acts refers to the
goodness of the badness, the rightness or the wrongness of human acts.

Other definitions of Ethics:

- Ethics refers to the philosophy of morals or the standard character set up by any
race or nation. It also refers to the study and philosophy of human conduct,
emphasizing the determination of right and wrong or the basic principles of right
action.
- Ethics are external standards, provided by the institutions, groups or culture to which
an individual belongs. For example, lawyers, policemen and doctors all have to
follow an ethical code laid down by their profession, regardless of their own feelings
or preferences.
- Ethics can also be considered as a social system or a framework for acceptable
behavior.

CHARACTER VS. PERSONALITY

CHARACTER PERSONALITY
It is objective in nature. It is within a person. It is subjective. It changes at point in time.
A particular system of trait that is permanent to A set of characteristics that each person
each person. possesses.
It is molded depending on his environment. It influences how one behaves as well as one’s
motivation.
One’s character shows on how the person acts The image that one presents in front of other.
and reacts to his or her peers and how she or he
deals with everything that happens around him or
her.

UNDERSTANDING MORALITY

Difference between Ethics and Morality

Ethics outlines theories of right or wrong. It provides the principles on the morality of
human acts; it equips man with a (theoretical) knowledge of the morality of human acts. We
know, however that knowing is different from doing. It does not necessarily follow that man does
what he knows. This means that ethics does not actually guarantee that man will be moral or
good. One can only become moral (or good human person) when one applies ethics. In other
words, when one does the theories of ethics one actually performs the theory, meaning one is
actually doing ethics. This is morality: the praxis of the theory.
NOTA BENE:
 Moral integrity is the only true measure of what man ought to be. The most successful
professional, is nothing unless he too is morally upright. Thus, the philosophers speak of Ethics
as the “only necessary knowledge”.
Morality is the foundation of every human society. Without civic morality, communities
perish; without personal morality their survival has no value. Every culture admits the
importance of morality as a standard of behavior. When the moral foundation of a nation is
threatened, society itself is threatened.
Morality is the quality of human acts by which they are constituted as good, bad or
indifferent.

ETHICS VS. MORALITY

ETHICS MORALS / MORALITY

What is it? The rules of conduct recognized in Principles or habits with respect to
respect to a particular class of right or wrong conduct. It defines
human actions or a particular group, how things should work according to
culture, etc. It defines how thing are an individual’s ideals and principles.
according to the rules.
Source Social system / External Individual / Internal
Why we do it? Because society says it is the right Because we believe in something
thing to do. being right or wrong.
Flexibility Ethics are dependent on others for Usually consistent, although can
definition. They tend to be change if an individual’s beliefs
consistent within a certain context, change.
but can vary between contexts.

MORALITY AND HUMAN EXISTENCE

 There is morality because there is man.

1. Man is the only Moral Being by virtue of the following reasons.

a. Man is a being of action.
b. Man has intellect.
c. Man has will.
2. Man as an Animal
3. Man as a Rational Animal
4. Intellect compared with will
5. Concrete Basis of Morality

UNDERSTANDING VALUES

Undeniably, there is a metaphysical dependence of values in ethics, for values have

ethics as one of their indispensable carriers. True enough, ethics and values support each
other. An ethics without values is hollow and shallow and, therefore, weak. Values without
ethics are paralytic. Needless to say, values are values even if they are not put into practice
because primarily – not absolutely - values are objective. If values are construed this way, it can
be inferred that they have nothing to do with ethics. The contention can be justified in view of
the fact that not everything which is good is moral or ethical. In other words, not all values
(good) are necessarily moral. The good in a glass of water – because it satisfies our thirst –
does not quality water as moral. The good in food – because it satisfies our hunger – does not
make food moral as well.
In principle, actions presuppose values. The radix of actions is the values of a person.
The kind or quality of an act which a person performs is a manifestation of his values. Values
are implicitly related to a degree of behavioural freedom or autonomy by human beings; values
steer or guide the person, on the basis of internally chosen options. Thus, values imply the
(conscious) prioritising the different behavioural alternatives which are perceived to be possible
for the individual. Values can apply to groups or individuals, and can be both processes and a
goal.
Values should necessarily have carriers. In the interplay of values and ethics, it is the
latter that serves as the carrier of values. This is why values are rooted in ethics. Ethics or moral
philosophy is not the only carrier of values, however. Values are also carried by culture, religion,
beliefs and the like.

Axiology – a branch of philosophy that studies values and value judgments.

General definition of Values

- Values are the object of human desire and striving; they are also the subjective
assessment of a particular object insofar as it is good.
- Values are our beliefs, those beliefs which we hold to be true. Thus values inspire us to
struggle towards our proximate and ultimate ends.
- Values refer to things, person, ideas or goals which are important to life; they enable us
to direct, understand, and evaluate our lives. Thus, they refer to our ideals and our
principles by which we live. Further, values are those which we like, approve, esteem,
enjoy and prize.

Properties of Values
1. Values are subjective – when we say values are subjective, we mean that the existence and
the validity of values are dependent upon on the feelings or attitudes of the subject.
2. Values are objective – when we say values are objective, we mean that the existence and the
nature of values are independent of a subject.
3. Values are relative – this means that values have intrinsic limitation and imperfection.
4. Values are bipolar – this mean that values do not exist alone; they always exist with their
counter values. Thus, values are either positive or negative.
5. Values are hierarchical – when we say values are hierarchical, we do not classify values but
rather we rank them. When we rank values, we establish order of importance among them. The
closest meaning of ranking values is prioritizing values.

Classification of values
1. Intrinsic and Instrumental values – Intrinsic values are those which are considered values in
themselves. Instrumental values are those construed as desired good because of their good to
us and to others. In comparing the two, the former is called primary while the latter, secondary
values.
2. Accidental and Natural Values – The former is subject to variability, temporality and
impermanence while the latter are those that are permanent in human nature.
3. Primary and Secondary values – The former refers to values that are chosen, acted upon,
cherished, and are necessary for human development while the latter refers to those values that
are obligatory in nature.
4. Religious values – They are those that enable us to encounter the Absolute: God.
5. Cultural Values – They are those values that embrace poetry, painting, architecture, music,
literature, etc.
6. Social Values – These are understood as perfect, attributed to an object or attitude from the
standpoint of relationship between means and ends in society.

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN ACTS

Human acts are actions that proceed from the deliberate free will of man. In a broader
perspective, the term human acts refer to any activity performed by man. This activity could
either be physical, spiritual, internal, or external. Moral philosophy, however, treats the term
human acts not in its broader but in its stricter meaning. Moral Philosophy, therefore,
understands human acts as actions that are proper only to man. These actions are those which
man does not share with the brutes for human acts are rational and willed acts.

HUMAN ACTS VS. ACTS OF MAN

HUMAN ACTS ACTS OF MAN

It requires man’s rationality. It does not require man’s rationality.
It requires knowledge, freedom and voluntariness These are man’s action which man shares with
the brutes.
It does not need man’s freedom and will.
It does not make man responsible for his action.

Three-fold Elements of Human Acts

1. Knowledge
- A human act is an act done with knowledge.
- Doing an act with knowledge makes the act deliberate.
- Agent has intellect knowledge of the act.
- Agent has awareness about the mean to employ as he performs an act.
- Agent has also the awareness of the end to achieve in his actions.
2. Freedom
- An act done with freedom means that the agent does an act under the control of his
will.
- This suggests that when the agent performs an act with his freedom, his will is not
affected or influenced by any constraint either within himself or outside himself.
3. Voluntariness
- These require the presence of the two other constituents.
- This means that the voluntary act is synonymous with human act.
- It must always be remembered that an action can only be qualified a human act if it
has the three constituents.