Chapter 1: Key Concepts in Ethics and the Sense of Morality

Lesson 1. Moral Standards/Rules and Non-moral Standards/Rules

Learning Outcomes
Students should be able to:
✓ Define key concepts in the study of ethics;
✓ Differentiate moral standards/ rules and non-moral standards/rules towards developing sense
of morality;
✓ Cite examples of standards/rules that *promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and
policies for sustainable development.

• Ethics – branch of Philosophy that studies morality or the rightness or wrongness of human conduct.
• Morality – code or system of behavior in regards to standards of right or wrong behavior

Ethics (Moral Philosophy)

- Greek “ethos” = character/manners (concerned with human actions and reasons for action, character)
- Questions: what is the good? Who is a moral person? What are the virtues of a human being? What makes
an act right? What duties do we have to each other?
- Evaluates moral concepts, values, principles, and standards
- Normative study of human actions
- Rules with regard to behavior

1. Importance of Rules to Social Beings

Rules
- explicit/understood regulations or principles governing conduct within a specific activity or sphere
- foundation for healthy society (without rule = anarchy)
a. Protect social beings by regulating behavior
o Limits on behavior (ex. Punishment)
b. Help to guarantee each person certain rights and freedom
o Form framework for society (ex. Constitution/governing law)
c. Produce a sense of justice among social beings
o Prevent exploitation & domination (ex. Even the rich and most powerful have limitations in their
actions)
d. Essential for a healthy economic system
o Ex. Monopoly (threatens strength & competitiveness of the system – product safety, employee
safety, product quality)
“UPHOLD COMMON WELFARE”

2. Moral and Non-Moral Standards

Not all rules are moral rules. That is, not all standards are moral standards. Morality may refer to the
standards that a person or a group has about what is right and wrong, or good or evil. Accordingly, moral
standards are those concerned with or relating to human behavior, especially the distinction between good
and bad (right or wrong) behavior.
Moral standards involve the rules people have about the kind of actions they believe are morally right
and wrong, as well as the values they place on the kinds of objects they believe are morally good and morally
bad.
Non-moral standards refer to rules that are unrelated to moral or ethical considerations. Either these
standards are not necessarily linked to morality or by nature lack ethical sense. Basic examples of non-moral
standards include rules of etiquette, fashion standards, rules in games, and various house rules.
The following characteristics of moral standards further differentiate them from non-moral standards:
a. Moral standards involve serious wrongs or significant benefits. Moral standards deal with matters which
can seriously impact, that is, injure or benefit human beings.
b. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values. Moral standards have overriding character or
hegemonic authority. They are not the only rules or principles in society, but they take precedence
over other considerations, including aesthetic, prudential, and even legal ones.
c. Moral standards are not established by authority figures. Moral standards are not invented, formed, or
generated by authoritative bodies or persons such as nations’ legislative bodies.
d. Moral standards have the trait of universalizability. Simply put, it means that everyone should live up
to moral standards. To be more accurate, however, it entails that moral principles must apply to all
who are in the relevantly similar situation.
e. Moral standards are based on impartial considerations. Moral standard does not evaluate standards on
the basis of the interests of a certain person or group, but one that goes beyond personal interests to
a universal standpoint in which each person’s interests are impartially counted as equal.
Lesson 2. Moral Dilemmas

Learning Outcomes
Students should be able to:
✓ Enumerate the Features of Genuine Moral Dilemmas;
✓ Analyze real life moral dilemmas like academic infrastructure imperatives and challenges vis
a vis *building and upgrading education facilities that are
✓ child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective
learning environments for all;
✓ Narrate an experience about academic dilemma (shortage of education facilities).

Moral Dilemma
→ refers to 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.
→ a person is experiencing moral dilemma when she/he can choose only one from a number of possible
actions, and there are compelling ethical reasons for the various choices.
→ Situation in which a tough choice has to be made between two or more options, especially more or
less equally undesirable ones
→ Involves conflicts between moral requirements
Ex: Your mother may be conflicted between wanting to feed you, but recognizing that it
would be wrong for her to steal.

*Ethical Dilemma
→ human beings are forced to decide between two morally sound options, but they may have
conflicting ethical standards with the established boundaries of a business, a governmental agency,
or the law.
→ An ethical dilemma differs from a moral dilemma because it very much involves following rules
rather than one’s morality and moral reasons, although one’s conscience can certainly move an
individual to consider breaking the rules.

Key Features of a Moral Dilemma:

a. The agent is required to do each of two (or more) actions;
b. The agent can do each of the actions but the agent cannot do both (or all) of the actions;
c. Neither of the conflicting moral requirements is overridden.

Lesson 3. Moral Dilemmas Levels

Learning Outcomes:
Students should be able to:
✓ Identify the three levels of moral Dilemmas;
✓ Analyze structural dilemmas vis a vis *enhancing international support for implementing
effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to
implement all the Sustainable Development Goals, including through North-South, South-
South and triangular cooperation

Moral dilemmas can be categorized according to these levels:

a) Personal Dilemmas
✓ Experienced and resolved on the personal level
✓ Starts with the personal and individual interaction of people with situations in their daily
lives.
✓ Conflict arises when a person is asked to choose between two important values for him or her.
Example: choosing between one’s duty to his/her family and one’s love for another person.

b) Organizational Dilemmas
✓ Encountered by institutions, businesses, or organizations in their decision making processes.
✓ Usually affect more than one person, and they can be part of the internal group or part of an
external stakeholder.
Example: organ donation; company layoff; soil health (organic farming vs use of chemical);
Market Demand vs. Environmental Impact

c) Structural Dilemmas
✓ Affect network of institutions and operative theoretical paradigms like universal health care,
juvenile laws, and immigration
✓ Can affect a community and even a society at large
Example: Legalizing Marijuana; death penalty; fossil fuel vs. renewable energy
Suggested Readings and Videos:
Ethical Dilemma: What's The Right Thing To Do? | MONSTER BOX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pybEfIGwBFk
Would you sacrifice one person to save five? - Eleanor Nelsen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg16u_bzjPE
Storyboard That. (2013, November 19). Teaching Moral and Ethical Dilemmas. Storyboard That;
https://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/e/dilemma#:~:text=An%20ethical%20dilemma%20differs%2
0from,to%20consider%20breaking%20the%20rules

Let’s analyze!
The Case of Jodie and Mary
In August 2000, a young woman from Gozo, an island south of Italy, discovered that she was
carrying conjoined twins. Knowing that the health-care facilities on Gozo couldn’t handle such a birth,
she and her husband went to St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, England. The infants, known as Mary
and Jodie, were joined at the lower abdomen. Their spines were fused, and they had one heart and
one pair of lungs between them. Jodie, the stronger one, was providing blood for her sister.
No one knows how many sets of conjoined twins are born each year, but the number seems to
be in the hundreds. Most die shortly after birth, but some do well. They grow to adulthood and marry
and have children themselves. However, the outlook for Mary and Jodie was grim. The doctors said
that without intervention the girls would die within six months. The only hope was an operation to
separate them. This would save Jodie, but Mary would die immediately.
The parents, who were devout Catholics, opposed the operation on the grounds that it would
hasten Mary’s death. “We believe that nature should take its course,” they said. “If it’s God’s will that
both our children should not survive, then so be it.” The hospital, hoping to save Jodie, petitioned the
courts for permission to perform the operation anyway. The courts agreed, and the operation was
performed. As expected, Jodie lived and Mary died.
In thinking about this case, we should distinguish the question of who should make the decision
from the question of what the decision should be. You might think, for example, that the parents
should be the ones to decide, and so the courts were wrong to intrude. But there remains the separate
question of what would be the wisest choice for the parents (or anyone else) to make. We will focus
on that question: Would it be right or wrong to separate the twins?

Lesson 4. Moral Acts and Freedom as its Foundation

Learning Outcomes:
Students should be able to:
✓ Explain why only human beings can be ethical;
✓ Relate freedom as foundation of moral acts in relation to *ensuring public access to
information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and
international agreements;
✓ Discuss main points on Philosophical Insights of Freedom;
✓ Elaborate the three elements of moral acts.

1. Only Humans can be Ethical

Most philosophers hold that unlike animals, human beings possess some traits that make it possible for
them to be moral.
a. Only human beings are rational, autonomous, and self-conscious. Having these qualities makes a being
capable of achieving certain values and goods.
Example: attain dignity and self-respect – able to consciously select his actions rather than be led by
blind instinct; values of appreciating art, literature, and the goods that come with deep personal
relationships
b. Only human beings can act morally or immorally. Only beings that can act morally can be required to
sacrifice their interests for the sake of others unlike animals which pursue their good at the expense
of others (cannot be said immoral).
c. Only human beings are part of the moral community. Moral community is defined in terms of the social
relations that exist between or among beings. Distinctively, only humans can possess or practice values
such as love, honor, social relationships, forgiveness, compassion, and altruism. Moreover, only human
beings can communicate with each other in truly meaningful ways. Another thing human beings have
that no animal has is the ability to participate in a collective cognition. That is, we, as individuals, are
able to draw on the collective knowledge of humanity in a way no animal can.

2. Freedom as a Foundation of Morality

Morality is a question of choice; practically, it is choosing ethical codes, values, or standards to guide
us in our daily lives. Philosophically, choosing is impossible without freedom. Morality requires and allows
choice, which means the right to choose even differently from our fellows.
 Thomas Beauchamp and James Childress “The Four Principles”
- Can be used as a guide in creating a moral judgment
1. Respect for autonomy. Acknowledgement that every person has the right to make choices, to hold
views, and to act based on one’s values and beliefs as long as the person is conscious and has
proper understanding of the matter on-hand.
2. Beneficence. Promotion of doing good as much goodness as possible refers to the acts of kindness,
compassion, and generosity.
3. Non-maleficence. Avoidance of any unjustifiable and unnecessary harm. If the harm outweighs the
benefits, then it is unethical to do.
4. Justice. The distribution of resources equally and fairly.

3. Minimum Requirement for Morality: Reason and Impartiality

Moral judgments must be backed by sound reasoning and that morality requires the impartial
consideration of all parties involved (Rachels, 1999).
a. Reason. Human feelings may be important in ethical decisions, but they ought to be guided by reason.
Sound reasoning helps us to evaluate whether our feelings and intuitions about moral cases are correct
and defensible. It is the capacity to see the interconnectedness of things and the logic behind the
processes involved. One looks for the causes and effects of actions and provides supports for
hypothesis.
b. Impartiality. Each individual’s interests and point of view are equally important. Also, it is a principle
of justice holding that decisions ought to be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of
bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons.

References:
De Guzman, JM D. (2018). Ethics: Principles of ethical behavior in modern society. Mutya Publishing House,
Inc.

Frontlearners - Ethics - 03 Freedom as Foundation for Moral Acts_with TTS. (2024). Starbooks.ph.
https://k12.starbooks.ph/pluginfile.php/10189/mod_resource/content/3/index.html

Rachels, J & Rachels, S. 1941–2003. Elements of moral philosophy. Eighth edition. New York. McGraw Hill
Education. BJ1012.R29 2014

Bulaong, O., Calano, M.J., Laglivia, A., et al (2018). Ethics, foundations of moral valuation. First edition.
Manila, Philippines, Rex Bookstore, Inc.