INTRO TO ETHICS

1. ETHICS comes from the Greek word “ethos” which means custom.
2. What is the latin word for morality? MORALIS & MORALIA
3. t/f: In ordinary usage, ethics and morality cannot be used interchangeably.
4. ETHICS deals with the notion of morality, virtue, duty, and responsibility.
5. MORALITY refers to standards of behavior by which human acts are judged good or bad,
right or wrong.
6. SPECIAL ETHICS refers to the application of these theories and principles to various
moral issues such as abortion, euthanasia, divorce, and genetic engineering, among
others.
7. GENERAL ETHICS is concerned with fundamental principles and theories of morality.
8. NORMATIVE ETHICS deals with the norms of morality or standards for what is right and
wrong, good and evil.
9. NON-NORMATIVE ETHICS is concerned with the philosophical justification of different
ethical theories.
10.CONSEQUENTIALIST determines the moral rightness or wrongness of an act on the basis
of the consequences of such act.
11.NON-CONSEQUENTIALIST judges moral rightness or wrongness not on the basis of the
consequences of the act but on moral imperatives or duties.
12.METAETHICS seeks to answer the ultimate questions on the nature of ethics particularly
on philosophical justifications of moral principles.
13.DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS seeks to answer the question on motivations behind a social
group’s tendency to act in particular ways or adoption of certain sets of moral values.
14.MORAL PRINCIPLES are axioms, norms, or standards of what is right or wrong, good or
evil, moral or immoral, ethical or unethical.
15.UNIVERSALITY pertains to the moral principle’s applicability to all, that is, it is
universalizable and reversible.
16.PRACTICABILITY allows for the every-day- life practice of the moral principle with relative
ease in which observance does entail great burden.
17.PUBLICITY denotes knowledge and understanding of the moral principle by the people to
whom it applies.
18.OVERRIDINGNESS signifies the moral principle’s primacy and priority over other
pinciples. Moral principles should be overriding.
19.PRESCRIPTIVITY refers to the principle’s inherent injunctive or imperative power to
prompt or proscribe action.
20.2 distinctions of ethics.
GENERAL ETHICS
SPECIAL ETHICS

21. By virtue of the source of morality, ethics may be _ or _.

THEISTIC ETHICS
ATHEISTIC ETHICS

22.2 divisions of ethics.

NORMATIVE ETHICS
NON-NORMATIVE ETHICS

23.2 characteristics of normative ethics.

CONSEQUENTIALIST ETHICS
NON-CINSEQUENTIALIST ETHICS
24.2 divisions of non-normative ethics.
METAETHICS
DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS

25.3 divisions of metaethics.

NATURALISM
NON-NATURALISM
NON-COGNITIVISM

26.2 classifications of descriptive ethics.

ABSOLUTISM
RELATIVISM

27.differentiate subjective, objective, relative, absolute and moralism from each other.
28.5 elements of moral principles.
PRESCRIPTIBITY
UNIVERSALITY
OVERRIDINGNESS
PUBLICITY
PRACTICABILITY

HUMAN ACTS
1. BERTRAND RUSSEL says that “We have two kinds of morality side by side: one
which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom
preach.”
2. KNOWLEDGE is the sufficient & prior understanding of the nature & consequence of
the act.
3. VOLUNTARINESS means willful, deliberate, or intentional commission or omission of
an act or the freedom to commit or omit the act.
4. FREEDOM means choices are available.
5. PERFECT VOLUNTARINESS accompanies an act that is done with knowledge and
willfulness of the consequence of the act.
6. DIRECT VOLUNTARINESS is present in an act which is intended in itself either as an
end or as a means to an end.
7. INDIRECT VOLUNTARINESS refers to a situation or consequence which is indirectly
willed.
8. SIMPLE VOLUNTARINESS is present when a person willfully performs an act that he
either likes or dislikes.
9. IMPERFECT VOLUNTARINESS occurs when a person does not fully know and intend
the act.
10.NEGATIVE SIMPLE VOLUNTARINESS requires the omission or non-performance of an
act like smoking, using prohibited drugs, or spreading fake news.
11.CONDITIONAL VOLUNTARINESS occurs when a person performs an act under
circumstances beyond his/her control.
12.POSITIVE SIMPLE VOLUNTARINESS entails the commission or performance of an act
such as cleaning the house, studying, or taking a bath.
13.MORAL AGENCY refers to the person’s performance an act knowingly, freely, and
voluntarily.
14.MORAL RESPONSIBILITY follows necessarily from moral agency. Without moral
agency, there is no moral responsibility. The word “responsibility” means quite a
number of things.
15.MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY follows from moral responsibility. When one is morally
responsible for an act, consequently, he/she is accountable for it, that is, he/she is
under obligation to give account for his/her action and is subject to punishment or
reward.
16.CONCUPISCENCErefers to the eleven human passions, namely, love, hatred, joy, grief,
desire, aversion, hope, despair, courage, fear, anger. Passions are either antecedent or
consequent.
17.VINCIBLE IGNORANCE refers to the absence of knowledge which can be corrected by
simple diligence.
18.INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE is the absence of knowledge which no amount of diligence
can dispel.
19.IGNORANCE is defect, absence, or lack of knowledge.
20.HABIT refers to “lasting readiness and facility, born of frequently repeated acts.”
21.FEAR is defined as the “shrinking back of the mind from danger.”
22.VIOLENCE refers to the employment of external force to coerce a person to commit an
act against his will.
23.THE END OR MOTIVE OF THE AGENT refers to the agent’s motive or purpose for
doing an act.
24.THE ACT ITSELF is good or evil, right or wrong, beneficial or harmful, acceptable or
unacceptable.
25.THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF AN ACT who, what, where, with whom, why, how and
when) may be mitigating, aggravating, justifying, or exempting.
26.CONSCIENCE is derived from the Latin “conscientia” which means “trial of oneself”
both in accusation and defense.
27.AQUINAS defines conscience as a practical judgment of reason which requires the
commission of a good act and the omission of an evil act.
28.BONAVENTURE conscience in two parts.
29.T/F: If any or all of these three constituents are missing such act is called human act.
30.T/F: A human act is knowing, free, voluntary.
31.T/F: There is moral responsibility arising from an act of man.
32.T/F: To act knowingly, freely, and voluntarily denotes authorship of an act. An actor who
acts knowingly, freely, and voluntarily is a moral agent.
33.T/F: The notion of moral responsibility specifically refers to the imputability of an act to
the doer of such act- the moral agent- which involves the concept of guilt and
innocence, praise and blame.

34.What constitutes human acts?

KNOWLEDGE
FREEDOM
VOLUNTARINESS
35.An act is a human if it is done.
KNOWINGLY
FREELY
VOLUNTARILY

36.6 types of voluntariness.

DIRECT VOLUNTARINESS
INDIRECT VOLUNTARINESS
PERFECT VOLUNTARINESS
IMPERFECT VOLUNTARINESS
SIMPLE VOLUNTARINESS
CONDITIONAL VOLUNTARINESS

37.2 types of simple voluntariness.

POSITIVE SIMPLE VOLUNTARINESS
NEGATIVE SIMPLE VOLUNTARINESS

38.5 modifiers of human acts.

IGNORANCE
CONCUPISCENCE
FEAR
VIOLENCE
HABIT

39.6 moral quality of human acts.

a good or evil act
right or wrong act
beneficial or harmful act
acceptable or unacceptable act
moral or immoral act
ethical or unethical act
40.Determinants of morality.
THE ACT ITSELF
THE END OR MOTIVE OF THE AGENT
THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF AN ACT

41. 2 parts of conscience according to Bonaventure.

innate and unerring power for discovering moral principles
the application of moral principles to specific or general situation.

42.6 States of conscience.

True or correct conscience judges good as good and evil as evil.
Erroneous or false conscience judges what is good as evil and what is evil as good.
Certain conscience is subjectively sure and has no fear of being in error.
Doubtful or dubious conscience is hesitant and admits the possibility of error. It is
not morally permissible to act under the state of a doubtful conscience.
Scrupulous conscience is a rigid and overly meticulous conscience, one that strictly
demands solid proofs of rectitude before it acts.
Lax conscience is an erroneous conscience which looks at immoral acts as
permissible and something grave as not serious.