CHAPTER THREE

The Idea of morality and Ethics

3.1 Definition of morality and ethics

What is Ethics:- is the field of study that is concerned with moral values.
The concept of ethics has come from two Greek words ethos which means character.
 Ethics is also defined as “a set of principles prescribing a behavior code that
explains what is good and right or bad and wrong and outlines moral duty and
obligations”.
 We can give a working definition of ethics as follow: Ethics is a branch of
philosophy that is concerned with rightness or wrongness (morality or immorality)
of human conduct/behavior.

Working definition of Ethics: Ethics is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with rightness or wrong
(morality or immorality) of human conduct/behavior.

 Ethics is concerned with human conduct because only human beings are said to
be moral or immoral.
We cannot speak or think about morality of other things or animals. We do not say, for
example, a table or Got is moral or immoral.
Hence, morality is a major quality that distinguishes human beings from other animals.
It is in this sense that man is defined as moral animal.
 Consideration of the will... A person is regarded or evaluated as right or wrong,
moral or immoral, good or bad only if he/she did the action willingly, by his/her
free will or choice.
 We cannot blame a person who performed an action without his/her will or choice
(or did it forced to do); or we do not regard such person as immoral or bad person.

3.2 moral values and ethical standard

3.2.1 MORAL values :- Moral values are values that determine human conduct
(behaviors, actions, decisions) as right or wrong, good or bad, moral or immoral.

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 o MORAL VALUES :-are socially accepted evaluations of objects of the
surrounding world.
o They are general idea or standards that people share about what is good and bad,
right or wrong e.t.c
o Thus moral values serve as standards to judge or evaluate our actions and those of
others.
o Moral values can be two

 Moral Values held at societal level are usually called social values .Those social
values are shared assumptions of a society.
 Morality as a social institution cannot exist without at least some consents across
society.
 individual values. This means that as an individual. You have a system of values
for deciding what is the most important in your life.
 Your value systems indicate the general direction toward which your actions
should be in claimed.
 For instance. You may give value to famous and try to achieve it through music or
sport.
 What you are trying to achieve are those what you have highly valued your
values are the results of socialization
 Since moral values are mostly learned through socialization. They change when
social events and circumstances change .
 Thus they are dynamic and differ from time to time and from society to society as
well.
 For example. The value systems of the Ethiopian society have changed with the
change of government in Ethiopia from monarchy to socialist government and
then to the present government.
Moral norms.
 Are forms of ethical standards which regulate peoples conduct through general
prescriptions
 This means that moral norms are rules that state “what you should or should not
think, or say or do under given circumstance” thus moral norms are specific
guidelines for action.
Some examples of norms include-
o Do not tell lies

 Keep your promises’

 Do not take what does not belong to you
 Don’t hurt other people’
 Respect elders’ and so on.

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  Sometimes norms are made explicit or open to the people like written laws and
biblical commandments.
 But more often norms are unspoken customs that people implicitly know and
follow.
 In that case norms are written in the minds of every human being.
*Like values. Norms vary from time to time and from society to society, or even
from group to group within a single society.
Most norms are situational that is they apply to specific circumstance and settings.
For example the norm silence is applied:-
 in the library,
 in the patients rooms of hospitals,
 in the church,
 in the classroom, and similar other places.
 You do not expect the norm silence’:in the market place.
 .Some norms also apply to a particular category of people.
For instance, norms applied to female category are different from the
norms applied to male category.
Females sit down when urinating. But not males.
again norms applied to Christian category are different from norms
applied to Muslim category. The Muslim norms of praying are different
from the Christian norms of praying.
Norms applied to the youngsters are different from norms applied to the
older people. Similarly. You can cite many other human categories and
apply the respective norms of each category.
Here, Moral norms are divided into two: -
 (1) Mores
 (2) Folkways.
o Mores are the norms people consider vital to their well-being and to their
most cherished values.
o Mores are important because they are grounded (based) in deep-seated
cultural values.
o Examples of mores include incest taboo and cannibalism. Incest taboo is
prohibition against incest.
It is prohibition to either marriage or sexual intercourse within the nuclear family
(that is between mother and her son, father and his daughter and sister.) No
societies permit those actions.
o If society permits either marriage or sexual inter course between the member of
nuclear family ,that society will be destroyed due to completion and conflict between
family members and certain hereditary diseases
o Cannibalism is the habit of eating one’ species . When man eats another man, we
can say there is cannibalism.

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 o When man eats his own fellow, society cannot survive. So, insured to
survive, society must formulate rules of conduct which govern its
members.
o Mores have thus great moral significance. They usually apply to any one
in any situation.
o This means that mores are universal rules of conduct. They are crucial to
the existence of society.
o People who violate mores are considered unfit, to society.
o Thus, people who violate mores may be ostracized, beaten, locked up in
prison or sent to a mental hospital, exiled or even killed or executed.
2. Folkways
o are norms that are simply every day habits or way of doing things (the way
of the folk)
o Examples: eating habits, greeting habits, e.t.c thus folkways are norms that
have little significance.
o People obey folkways without giving much to the matter.
o You may laugh at a man who violates folkways but you may not totally
dismiss him from society.
o unlike mores folkways are highly variable from one situation to another.
o What is important is that every society is governed not only by written laws but also
by those interwoven moral values and norms which are the backbones of any society.
o When you violate moral values and norms of your society you will face sanctions.
o What are sanctions? Sanctions are negative or positive responses from others.
Sanctions reward you for conformity and punish you for deviance.
o Sanctions can be formal or informal
o Informal sanctions: sanctions administered by parents, friends, relatives and people
living around you.
o Formal sanctions: sanctions administered by the public including arrest by the
police and imprisonment by courts of law

3.3 Ethics and morality in the context of profession

Ethical rules or values are standards by which we distinguish wrong actions from right
actions similarly there are quite a lot professional ethical rules by which members of a
profession are governed.
Just like social norms these rules inform the worker the type of conduct normally
considered as acceptable or right in that profession. It is true that there are different
professional ethics depending on the type of profession. but still there are ethical rules
that are commonly found in almost every profession’
This include :-
 Punctuality
 Proper utilization of resources
 Cooperation and good relationship among workers

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  Competence and efficiency and active participation

3.4. Corruption :-
3.4.1 Corruption is an act of using ones’s power or authority for self –enrichment by
violating the law and rights of the public and individual in a country.
Corruption is an age ole problem . It has existed for thousands o f years .Archaeologists
found carvings in Syria that show bribes were being taken in the 13 th century B.C that
is ,over three thousand years ago.
Though the degree of the act could vary ,corruption exists in almost all countries of the
world at almost all levels including higher government officials in nine governmental and
in almost all activities

3.4.2 Forms of corruption

Bribery :-this is a payment of goods or money to gain influence and be favored illegally
Nepotism :- is a form of corruption where the official use their power to help friends and
family
Embezzlement:- occurs when official convert public money or property under their care
to their own use
Intimidation:-is a form of corruption where public officials threaten people for their own
gain e.g an official might make a member of the public afraid that his home should be
destroyed in order to get money from the individual
Vote buying : this is when a candidate pays people to vote for him/her
3.4.3. Factors that Causes corruption
 Bad political and administrative system
 Absence of clear laws rules and regulations to govern the ethical conduct
of officials and the administrative
 Absence of transparency in the government ’t administrative system
 Centralized power and weak justice administration system
 When there is not enough control over how the government money is
spent also when the government provide goods
3.4.4 Measures to be taken to handle corruption
Individual’s role
If everybody is honest and truthful in his/her day today activities, then corruption can
easily combated. in order to effectively and efficiently fight against corruption
individuals must :-
 Develop the behavior of truthfulness and honesty in their life

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  Have respect for rules and regulations of the country
 Decide to fight corruption in every legal means
Ones individual develop these qualities they can easily fight against
misappropriation of public property and maladministration by disclosing any
corrupt practices
Institutional role
The fight against corruption presupposes the existence of the active and full participation
of the public and the unreserved commitment among others of each and every
government institution.
If they are to respect the constitution government officers must make their activities open
to the public .
More over officials must be held accountable for every misdeed they commit in their
official duties.
Transparency and accountability play a great role in combating corruption .To achieve
this every government office must do the following and other tasks to ensure
transparency and accountability:-
 Nominate an ethics officer whose responsibility is to investigated the cause and
ways for corrupt practices ;and
 Encourage its employees and others to express their views or feelings about their
institutional activities
 Strong justice system and institution of anti-corruption are needed for an efficient
implementation of laws .Ethiopia has these institution ,but they are not efficient
and have no coordinated efforts to corruption

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