Lesson II.

The Need to Study

Ethics
Ours is an age of specialization. This leads many to believe that what we really need
are the things that can make our knowledge more specialized, knowledge that can earn us a
living and secure for ourselves life‟s necessities and comforts. Many claim that the study of
ethics is unproductive and a waste of our valuable time. So, why do we need to study ethics
in the first place?

What to Expect:
1. Explain the importance of studying ethics
2. Discuss the foundations of ethics as a critical discipline

Lesson Outline
I. Importance of Studying Ethics

We study "ethics" because society cannot function without a series of commonly

accepted moral codes that define boundaries of acceptable behavior. We also study ethics
because there is not always a consensus on what types of behavior are acceptable.

Since ethics, as a practical science, is the study of choices people make regarding
right and wrong, and since most of us make a number of moral choices in our everydaylives,
it is quite obvious why the study of ethics is important.

We study ethics because of the choices and decisions that we make every day that
affects the kind of life we live. We became good or bad persons based on our choices.

Another reason is the fact that making moral decisions is oftentimes difficult. This is
very true when we are confronted and come face to face with moral dilemmas. In here, there
is a need for us to pause and reflect as to what particular action to take. Another thing is that
the study of ethics can provide us with certain moral paradigm or perspectives that will, in
anyway, guide us in determining what is right and wrong under such condition.

Ethics makes clear to us why one act is better than another. Ethics contribute an
orderly social life by providing humanity basis for agreement, understanding some principles
of rules of procedure. Moral conduct and ethical systems both the past and the present must
be intelligently appraised and criticized. Ethics seeks to point out to men the true values of
life.

The study of ethics will also enable us to reason out our moral beliefs and of why we
hold them. It is not enough to have certain beliefs on what is good and bad. We also have to
know the reason why we have them. Ethics as a critical discipline will enable us to examine
more closely the ground and foundation of our moral beliefs and claims.

II. Foundations of Ethics as a Critical Discipline

1. Ethics and Law

Why do we still need ethics if we have laws to guide us on how to be good? Are the
laws that we have not enough to tell us what is right and wrong? It is not that ethics
essentially consists of rules concerning right and wrong, on what we ought to do or not to
do?

Ethical rules are necessary even if we have the laws that are implemented by civil
authorities since legality is not identical with morality. We can be good in terms of what the
law requires but we may still fall short of becoming a „moral” or “ethical” person. At times,
what is legal is not always moral. At other times, what is moral is not always legal. Ethics is
not identical with the law.

Another reason why morality is still important even if we have laws to guide us in our
daily conduct is that laws are only concerned with actions that are usually “public;” actions
that in a way often harmed those around us. These types of actions are external ones that
society forbids because they are detrimental to the common good or the general public.

Moreover, ethics goes beyond the concern and parameters of law, for it includes
human motivations in its investigations. It includes thoughts and feelings of individuals and
their acts and conducts are subject to moral analysis and evaluation.

Morality goes beyond legality. Even actions that we do in private are covered under
the umbrella of ethics. Morality includes things that we do not directly harm others or even
ourselves. Here, our innermost motives and intentions, even they are not carried out in
concrete, fall under the scope of morality.

Our laws are usually product of a collective agreement. It is a kind of a social contract
where people come together and decide among themselves what is good and bad. This
means that laws, more often than not, are decided by a majority vote. Morality is not all
about how many people say that something is good or bad, or of how individuals favor and
decide that a certain act is right or wrong.

In short, morality precedes legality. Its scope and implications are deeper and wider
than that of law.

2. Ethics is Prescriptive
Ethics is a philosophical study that attempts to critically and systematically assess or evaluate
the morality of human conduct as to whether they conform to certain ethical rules and
guidelines. This specific task of evaluating the rightness or wrongness of human actions is
very important area of ethical reasoning in particular and in moral philosophy as a whole.

When ethics does evaluate human conduct with the aid of certain ethical theories and
philosophies, it judges whether the act is good or bad and prescribes what is proper and
what is not.

As a prescriptive discipline, ethics therefore tells us what we ought to do or not to do,

what actions we are supposed to perform and avoid.
In short ethics is concerned with the very ground and foundations of

morality. 3. Ethics is Normative

Ethics makes the value of judgments through ethical norms it has developed. Value
and prescriptive judgment may be both called normative judgments to distinguish them from
purely descriptive and factual statements about something. They usually express or
presupposed norms or standards that are rather than simple and objective descriptionsabout
something (Holmes, 2003).

Thus, a normative statement expresses a value judgment of some kind. Its

correctness is essentially determined by reference to a norm or standard, which in ethics we
call ethical/moral norms (Holmes, 2003)

Norms are standards. An investigation such as ethics is said to be normative since it

examines which ideas ought to be norms, values, or standards. Ethics as a normative
discipline, attempts to find out the standards of right or wrong in terms of human conduct. It
leads human to choose which of these are more reasonable and consistent.

Some people, especially those who are more reflective, are not content merely to
live. They feel driven to evaluate their lives as they try to judge the value of the goals they
are pursuing and the various purposes that in a way fueled their actions (porter, 1995).

In short, people assess their conduct against some sort of an ideal or norm that
strikes them with force of an external authority. They may be in the form of God, conscience
or rational principle that they are able to develop within themselves. Whatever it is, one thins
is at least clear; we all want, to certain extent, justify our actions in a way that it would helpus
find sense and meaning in our lives.

One of the aims of normative ethical theory is to provide us with standards to attain the best
ethical belief. As moral intellectual beings we all, to certain varying extent, possess different
beliefs as to what is good and bad, right and wrong with regard to how we behave.

Therefore, the study of moral theories in ethics helps us to avoid to be swamped with
unthinking opinions that have long characterized our ethical reasoning. The goal here to
have our beliefs grounded on logical reason and reflection-beliefs that can withstand therigor
of philosophical analysis and criticism.

Lesson III. Assumption and

Objects of Ethics
Like any other discipline, ethics proceeds from some basic assumptions.
Assumptions are fundamental beliefs or statements that are accepted to be true without the
burden of proving or of proof which consider that man is a rational being and man is free.

What to

Expect
1. Explain why man is a rational being and free
2. Discuss the object of ethics
I. Man as a Rational Being

First, that man is a rational being. This means that man is rational and acts ' with a
purpose, unlike brutes who merely act out of instinct and reflex. Man is capable of knowing
both the intentions and the consequences of his actions and is capable of judging them as
right or wrong, or as good or bad. The assumption implies the moral awareness or the
capability of man to know and distinguish right from wrong and good from bad.

2. Man is free.

Ethics assumes that man is free to act according to his will and he has the power to
act, speak or think if he chooses to without restraints. In general this assumption tells us that
man has the capacity to exercise choice in his actions. It implies that man has the capability
to choose what to do and what is good.

If we look closely, these two assumptions are not simple presuppositions but
necessary conditions for moral judgments to be possible. Without assuming the existence of
rationality and freedom in man, it is impossible to judge acts as ethical or unethical, and as
moral or immoral. Because he thinks and is free, man is thus responsible for his actions.
These two elements could mitigate or aggravate the degree of people‟s moral responsibility.
This is the reason why we cannot rightly judge the action of a five-year-old child, or a person
who has gone insane to be unethical, even if their acts harm or injure other people. Or judge
the action of an automated machine designed to rescue people from rubble as moral, even if
it has already saved hundreds of lives, or, the act of a carnivorous animal as immoral, even
ifit has devoured an entire village. Moral responsibility is, thus, basically defined based on
these two assumptions.

II. The Objects of Ethics

The principal cause of actions is usually attributed to doer. If for instance, Jose committed
a crime, Jose and not any malicious demon or spirit is responsible for his act or for the crime
he committed. Because Jose did the act, it is expected that he suffer the moral or legal
consequence of his act. Hence, a person in control of his faculties e.g. intelligence, and will is
judged as moral, if he performs an act observed a particular standard of morality, and
immoral
if he commits an act that violates any given moral standard.

This is putting the matter in the simplest possible way. It is important to distinguish,
however, between the moral agent or the doer of a moral act, and the act performed by the
moral agent.
The Physical Object of Ethics

The doer of an act and the act done by the doer are two different objects of ethics. The
doer of an act is the physical object of ethics (e.g. moral agent). The physical object of ethics
does not only refer to other person, but to an institution (e.g. the business firm, the
government, etc.) and to other forms of social organization (e.g. non-
governmentorganizations, clubs, fraternity, associations, etc.) that perform moral actions and
other rational activities as decision-making, moral calculations and others.

The Nonphysical Object of Ethics

On the other hand, the action made by a moral agent, such as the act of telling the truth,
helping others in distress, fulfilling a promise, forgiving others faults, humility, including
malicious deeds. Such as murder, stealing, lying, and others are called the nonphysical
object of ethics. Though considering the nature of the moral agent is important in ethical
analysis, it is the act and not the doer of the act which is considered to be the formal objectof
ethics
Chapter Summary

• Ethics comes from the Greek word ethos, meaning character.

• The Greeks thinkers called themselves the “wise men”
• The history of ethics as a philosophy can be traced back in the 7th century B.C. • The
Greek moralist, Socrates was the first to recognize the value of questions that affect how
a person should live. He made his investigations through a process which philosophers
called the Socratic Method.
• Ethics helps us understand why one act is better than another. It is basis for agreement,
understanding some principles of rules of procedure. It also seeks to point out to men
the true values of life.
• The assumptions of ethics are man is a rational being and man is free. • The doer of an
act and the act done by the doer are two different objects of ethics. The doer of an act is
the physical object of ethics
• The action done by a moral agent, such as the act of telling the truth, helping others in
distress, fulfilling a promise, forgiving others faults, humility, including malicious
deeds. Such as murder, stealing, lying, and others are called the nonphysical object
of ethics