TH 409 APPLIED ETHICS

Lesson 1
(19 February 2025)

Topic:

Introduction

I. Introduction
Philosophy is the love of wisdom. It reflects on
fundamental questions about knowledge, reality
and values. The scope of the philosophical
discourse covers all aspects of human existence
with all its challenges. Philosophy seeks to
examine these challenges in other to proffer
possible solutions to them.
There is often a gap between theory and practice
in the philosophical discourse. Theory and
principles should always be supplemented by
human experiences, right action, motivation, and
the like. The meaningfulness of ethical
judgements lies in the fact that they guide our
practice. However, in situations involving
dilemmas, moral rules may conflict. This is where
ethics comes in.

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 Morality and Ethics
Morality comes from the Latin word moralis. It
signifies a body of standards or principles derived
from a code of conduct of a particular philosophy,
religion or culture, or from a standard that
someone believes should be universal.
While often used interchangeably, "ethics"
generally refers to a set of rules or standards of
conduct established by a community or
profession, while "morality" refers to an
individual's personal beliefs about right and
wrong, based on their own values and
conscience.
Ethics are external guidelines, while morality is
an internal compass. Ethics is more communal
while morality is more personal. Ethics is based
on communally agreed norms, while morality is
based on certain values that go beyond human
existence.

Values
Values are our judgements about what is
important in terms of the end and goal of human
life. Values can be understood as those states of
affairs which are desired by and for people. At
the level of individual as well as the society we
work towards increasing them. Examples include
Health, Wealth, Happiness, Freedom, Equality,
Welfare, Justice, Democracy, Rule of Law and
others.

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What is Ethics?
Ethics is from the Greek word ethos and this
means “character” or “behaviour.” Ethics is one
of the branches of philosophy which is concerned
with the principles and rules of human conduct.
As a discipline, it is the science of human
behaviour that examines the appropriateness of
human conduct whether they are right or wrong

It is about making judgement of what a good

action is. It is about possessing the knowledge of
what is good and what is bad and the ability to
act in a good way. It involves knowledge and
action. Socratic: “To know the good is to do the
good.” He is built some essential questions like:
What is the best possible way to live? How do we
become good?
Ethics is also referred to as the Philosophy of
Morality. It is the study of moral, duties, values
and virtues that are aimed at practical human
interactions.
Ethics is concerned with Human Actions, that is,
actions that are voluntary, deliberate, and
willingly done without compulsion or force. The
person must have the possibility of doing the
alternative. E.g., the act of stealing.
Ethics is not concerned with Acts of Man. These
are acts that are involuntary and which a person
has no control over. They are not done willingly.
E.g., the act of sneezing.
Ethical Theories and Principles: these are the
general concepts used to sum up a range of
morals, values and virtues in order to derive
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moral imperatives from them. A moral imperative
refers to a moral law or rule.

There are three main ways of studying ethics and

deriving theories and principles from them:
1. Descriptive Ethics: Descriptive ethics is the
study of morality from a scientific point of view.
Here, the description and explanation of the
moral life focusses on the way it is manifested in
one’s moral experience and society’s moral code.
Descriptive ethics is the scientific study or the
empirical knowledge of moral phenomena in the
life of an individual and in the structure and
functioning of the society. This branch of ethics
takes into account the beliefs people hold about
morality and conceptual models in order to gain
insight into the moral phenomena, behaviour,
and thinking. This type of ethics looks into the
decision making process of people based on
which actions are categorized as right or wrong,
and the characteristics of moral agents are
judged as virtuous/vicious.

2. Normative Ethics: Normative ethics studies the

systematic construction of a valid ethical system
(a set of moral standards of evaluation and moral
rules of conduct applicable to all mankind). Here
the task is to evaluate what is right or wrong and
lay out moral rules for actions, behaviour, and
ways of life. The purpose of normative ethics is to
discover or construct a consistent system of
moral norms that stands valid for everyone. The
objective of ethical theories is to guide us to
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know and perform what is morally right and to
avoid what is wrong. Some significant normative
ethical theories are;

Deontology: Deontology is a duty-based ethics.

We have a moral duty to do things which are
right and to not do things which are wrong.
According to Immanuel Kant moral principles and
laws guide the individual’s choices of what they
ought to do. Kantian reasoning is called non-
consequentialist or
deontological since it does not look at the
consequence but rather considers the law or duty
which governs our actions. In Groundwork of the
Metaphysics of Morals (1785) Kant grounds our
duty and morality in rationality itself. He
postulates the first formulation of the Categorical
Imperative, which argues that one must act in
such a manner that one can simultaneously will
that the maxim of one’s action (the reasoning
which guides our intention) should become
universal law.
● Consequentialism: According to this view, the
consequences or results of one’s actions are
regarded as being the ultimate basis for any
judgment about the rightness or wrongness of
that particular action. According to classical
Utilitarianism, given by Bentham (1823) and Mill
(1863), happiness is the only consequences
which matters. That action is said to be right
which brings
about more happiness in comparison to any other
action in the given situation. The good entails in
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the greatest good of the greatest number by
minimizing
pain and maximizing happiness.
● Virtue Ethics: Morality is not just about the
consequences or abiding by moral laws and
duties, instead it is about the virtuous character.
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle emphasises a
study of human nature i.e. certain characteristic
virtues that we value in ourselves and others. He
focuses on what and how to be a good person
and explains that to live a meaningful life people
should develop good virtues of character, like,
honesty, integrity and courage and the like.
3. Meta-ethics or Analytic ethics: Meta-ethics or
analytic ethics is considered to be logically prior
to normative ethics since its subject matter of
inquiry are the very presuppositions of normative
ethics. It does a two-fold inquiry; the first task is
a semantical and conceptual analysis, to be
undertaken in order to analyse the meaning of
the terms, i.e., words and sentences, used in
moral discourse. The second task is a Meta
inquiry into the nature of ethics itself, to be
undertaken in order to analyse the logic of moral
reasoning.

Types of Ethics
There are three main types of ethics:
1. Normative Ethics: This is the type of ethics
that studies and stipulates what ought to be
done, what ought to be avoided, and what ought
to be taken as the standard of behaviour.

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It studies and determines the features of an act
which makes it either good or bad.

2. Meta-ethics: This is the type of ethics that

examines ethical claims and values
philosophically. This is the most abstract type
which goes beyond specific human conducts and
considers the nature of ethics itself.
It studies philosophical questions about the
meaning of ethical words and the nature of
ethical facts.
E.g., does ethics exist independent of humans?
Does ethical claims exist eternally? These and
other questions are examined philosophically and
answers are offered in ethical theories and
principles.

3. Applied Ethics: Applied ethics is a branch of

ethics that applies ethical theories, principles and
methods of philosophical reasoning to resolve
particular ethical problems.

What is Applied Ethics?

Applied ethics examines the nature of moral
challenges which we experience in the process of
living our daily lives. Its concern per se is how to
take decisions based on those ethical theories
and principles.
It deals with the moral questions and
controversial issues that people face in their
lives.

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Issue like: abortion, euthanasia, treatment of the
elder, sick and poor, sex before marriage, death
penalty, war etc.
It fills the gap between theory and practice.
Applied ethics uses the tools arguments and
critical analysis to examine ethical issues and to
proffer possible solutions.

Applied ethics is also known as practical ethics.

From the beginning of the philosophical
enterprise, philosophers have always been
interested in the practical utilization of their
theories and principles.
Aristotle has always regarded philosophy as a
practical discipline aimed at a happy life.
As a unique field of philosophy, the term applied
ethics gained prominence in the 1970s when
ethicists and philosophers started addressing
pressing problems in various parts of society like
the family, medicine, law, science and
technology, media, business, administration,
politics, environment, etc.
Before the inception of applied ethics,
philosophers were mainly concerned with
arguments on the essence of ethical theories and
principles. This practice is mainly in the realm of
meta-ethics.
According to John Haldane, the following factors
contributed to the shift from meta-ethics to
applied ethics:
i. The experience of two World Wars
ii. Genocide
iii. Use of weapons of mass destruction
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 iv. The rise of totalitarianism
v. Technological development
These factors compelled ethicists to begin to
apply their theories and principles to the
circumstances around them.

Ethical Dilemma
An ethical dilemma arises when two or more
ethical principles clash or tend to conflict or
contradict each other, and one is not able to
decide which one to apply. In such a situation, a
rational/critical reflection or dialogue will be
helpful to resolve the ethical dilemma.
Examples: When a patient asks for his life to be
terminated due to the severity of his pains
(euthanasia), this puts his family, friends,
medical practitioners, legal experts etc. in an
ethical dilemma.
When a prominent business is caught in a sex
scandal, there is a dilemma or conflict between
his right to privacy and the right of the public to
get information.

Branches of Applied Ethics

Applied ethics can be classified into 3 branches:
1. Bioethics: This is the ethics of human life
because it deals with the various circumstances
of human life.
First introduced by Van Rensselaer Potter in
1971, bioethics deals with the application of
ethical theories and principles issues of human

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life. E.g., issues of medicine, healthcare,
reproduction, genetics, biology etc.
It considers the essence of human life, the
beginning, existence and end of human life, how
human life should be treated, the relationship
between the physician and the patient, the use of
science and technology in relation to human life,
responsibility towards the sick etc.
Examples:

2. Business Ethics: This is a branch of applied

ethics that studies the nature of ethical issues
that are involved in private and commercial
enterprises. Such issues like social
responsibilities of corporations, collective
responsibility for environmental pollution, the
morality of bribery and corruption, justifiability of
whistleblowing against one’s colleagues and
competitors are tackled by business ethics.

3. Environmental Ethics: This is a branch of

applied ethics that considers the rightness of our
relationship with the rest of the natural world.
The concern here is how best to treat nature.
Such issues like pollution, exploitation of natural
resources, overpopulation, treatment of animals,
and the value of ecosystem are better handled
by environmental ethics.

Benefits of Studying Ethics

Ethics is a very important subject for the
individual as well as the society. It is with the

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help of this subject that we attain the ideals and
virtues of life.

There are certain directions for good behaviour

and development of character in the subject for
the individual as well as the society.

The importance of ethics lies in telling us the

difference between good and bad, right and
wrong. In a backward society ethics is all the
more important because it dispels the darkness
of evil and helps in establishing the higher values
and virtues of life.

The importance of ethics is twofold:

First is its constructive value by virtue of which it
develops a critical and moral attitude in man.
Moral sense is an important asset of human
personality. Ethics must help us in the overall
development of personality.

Second aspect of the importance of ethics is

destructive. It is by virtue of this aspect that it
removes and destroys the evils and ills of
humanity. In short the following are the uses of
the study of ethics.

1) Development of character: Ethics is greatly

helpful to us in the development of character and
personality. It is through this subject that we
learn various values and virtues of life. It is the
basis of all good conduct. Character also depends
upon our desire, wish and will.
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2) Knowledge of ideals, values and virtues: In
every society, certain ideals and virtues are laid
down for the individuals. A comprehensive
knowledge about these ideals and virtues is
given to us by ethics.Ethics deals directly with
these ideals and virtues. In their absence,
morality will come to an end. Ethics helps us to
lead a virtuous life. The prime value of life as per
ethics is self realization. The character of
individual depends upon values of life.

3) Responsibility and Duty: Ethics is helpful to us

in another way. It is with the help of moral rules
that we come to know about our duties and
responsibilities. We have duties towards
ourselves as well as towards society. Every
individual must have a code of personality. This
is what we call the principles of life. Such a code
should be self- imposed. Ethics can help us in
framing this code. Secondly there are certain
duties and responsibilities towards society also.
Ethics can make us conscious of them.

4) Social problems: There is no society in the

world where social problems are not found. Every
society faces social problems. The evils and
problems such as crime, unemployment, drug
addiction, over-population, child marriage, dowry
system and women's oppression are found
everywhere, more so in backward countries. In
such circumstances, ethics as a subject can help
us a lot in solving these problems. According to
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Prof. Dewey, "Ethics can go a long way in
removing evils of humanity."

5) Law, Justice and Order: In modern times,

justice has acquired social and economic
dimensions. Ethics is quite helpful in
understanding the real meaning of the concept of
justice as well as the maintenance of law and
order.

6) Utility in Religious, Political and Economic

fields: Ethics teaches an individual to adopt the
just means of earning. It discourages corruption.
Ethics and religion are closely connected. Ethics
checks religious dogmatism and purges it of
impurities. It preaches morality and aims at
bringing fine virtues in the political, economic
and religious field.

7) Ultimate end: The most important aim of

ethics is that it makes one aware of the ultimate
end or the summum bonum of life. It is the end
which ultimately gives direction to all the
activities of man.

8) Utility in the psychological field: Ethics

analysis mental phenomena like desire, wish and
will etc. Evaluation of the modes of the mind
helps in the assessment of personality.

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 The End

Thanks and God bless

Any questions?

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