CHAPTER ONE

UNDERSTANDING CIVICS AND ETHICS

1.1. Defining Civics, Ethics, Morality
1.1.1. Civic Education
Different authors define civic education in different ways. The most cited definition is an education that studies
about the rights & responsibilities of citizens of a politically organized group of people.
➢ Right Education - in South Africa
➢ Citizenship Education - in USA and Germany
➢ Citizenship and Character Education - in Singapore
➢ Civics and Ethical Education - in Ethiopia

1.1.2. The Definition and Nature of Ethics and Morality

A. What Ethics is?
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that attempts to understand people’s moral beliefs and actions.
We used the terms, ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’; ‘ethical’ and ‘moral’ interchangeably.
Morals and moral - to the conduct itself
Ethics and ethical - refer to the study of moral conduct
Morality is related to praxis, but ethics is related to theory.

B. What is Morality?
From a dictionary definition; “manner, character, proper behavior” which refers to the concept of human
action which pertains to matters of right & wrong also referred to as “good & evil”.
It is the generally accepted code of conduct in a society, or within a subgroup of society. It relates to values
expressed as: a matter of individual choice, those values to which we ought to aspire and those values shared
within a culture, religious, secular, or philosophical community.

1.2. Ethics and Law

Laws are norms, formally approved by state, power or national or international political bodies. Many laws are
instituted in order to promote well-being, resolve conflicts of interest, & promote social harmony.
For morality & ethics to justify or criticize laws, many writers maintain that the main function of a legal system
is to enforce a society’s moral and ethical consensus.

However, there are several reasons why ethics is not law.

First, some actions that are illegal may not be unethical.
Example: Speeding is illegal, but one might have an ethical obligation to break the speed limit in order to
transport someone to a hospital in an emergency.

Second, some actions that are unethical may not be illegal.

Example: Most people would agree that lying is unethical but lying is only illegal under certain conditions, e.g.
lying on an income tax return, lying when giving sworn testimony, etc.

Third, laws can be unethical or immoral.

Example: The United States had laws permitting slavery in the 1800s but most people today would say that
those laws were unethical or immoral. Although we have moral & ethical obligations to obey the law, civil
disobedience can be justified when immoral or unethical laws exist.

Fourth, we use different kinds of mechanisms to express, teach, inculcate, and enforce laws and ethics.
Laws are expressed publicly in statutes, penal codes, court rulings, government regulations, and so forth.
Although ethics and morals are sometimes made explicit in religious texts, professional codes of conduct, or
philosophical writings, many ethical and moral standards are implicit.
Finally, we use the coercive power of government to enforce laws.
People who break certain laws can be fined, imprisoned, or executed. People who violate ethical or moral
standards do not face these kinds of punishments unless their actions also violate laws. Often we “punish”
people who disobey moral or ethical obligations by simply expressing our disapproval or by condemning the
behavior.

1.3. Importance/Goal of Moral and Civic Education

It teaches citizen of a country about the values of respect and the culture of tolerance to make responsible &
efficient member of their community.
To teach individuals to make responsible decisions, solve problems, care about others, contribute to society, &
be tolerant and respectful of diversity.
To producing self-confident citizens who decides on issues based on reason.
It is also aimed at creating a generation who has the capability to shoulder family and national responsibility.

Generally, the necessity of delivering the course emanates from:

1. The need to instill citizens about their rights and duties:
Sastry; presented four issues to look into the interplay between rights and duties.
A)One’s right implies the other's duty.
B) One’s right implies one's duty to recognize similar rights of others.
C) One should exercise his rights for the promotion of social good.
D)The State being a nucleus organ needs to take care of the social and legal interests of all its individuals.
2. The Need for Participant Political Culture
Political culture defines the roles which an individual may play in the political process.
Almond and Verba; construct three political cultures:
a. Parochial cultures,
b. Subject cultures, and
c. Participant cultures
3. The Need for Relevant Knowledge, Skills and Positive Attitudes
4. The issue of fostering intercultural societies
5. The issue of peace-building.
Chapter Two
Approaches to Ethics
2.1. Normative Ethics: Contain theory of obligation, theory of moral value & theory of non-moral value.
The ultimate concern of the normative theory of obligation is to guide us in the making of decisions and
judgments about actions in particular situations.
2.1.1. Teleological Ethics (Consequentialist)
It is referred as “the end justifies the means”.
it stress that the consequences of an action determines the morality or immorality of a given action.
Which means an action is judged as right or wrong, moral or immoral depending on what happens because of it.
2.1.2. Egoism: Ethical and psychological Egoism
2.1.2.1. Ethical Egoism
Ethical egoist insisted that if you don’t take advantage of a situation, you are foolish. The claim that it makes
good sense to look after yourself, and morality is a result of that self-interest/selfish.
2.1.2.2. Psychological Egoism
one always seeks one's own advantage or welfare, or always does what he thinks will give him the greatest
balance of good over evil.
➢ "self-love" is the only basic "principle" in human nature
➢ "ego-satisfaction" is the final aim of all activity or that "the pleasure principle" is the basic "drive" in every
individual.
❖ we must recognize this fact in our moral theory and infer that our basic ethical principle must be that of
self-love.