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ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS
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Reason and Impartiality
 Human behavior has consequences for the welfare of others.
 Reason requires impartiality.
 Reason and impartiality are not absolute while morality is absolute.
 Fairness is given importance where people are supposed to be treated equally before the law.
Reason
 It is the capacity for consciously making sense of things, establishing and verifying facts, applying logic, and changing or justifying
practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information.
Ethical Reasoning
 The proper role of ethical reasoning is to highlight acts of two kinds:
a. Those which enhance the well-being of others
b. Those that harm or diminish the well-being of others
 Developing one’s ethical reasoning abilities is crucial because there is in human nature a strong tendency toward self-justification and
self-deception.
Reasoning and Ethics
 If you have no good reason for an act or a belief, then you can’t have thought it through very well and maybe you shouldn’t be doing
it or believing it at all.
Predicting Consequences:
 When the likely beneficial outcomes of acting on an ethical presumption seem to outweigh the likely adverse outcomes, then
predicting consequences confirms our presumption.
 But when we predict that the adverse consequences will outweigh the beneficial consequences, even when we are obeying an ethical
rule or following an inspiring story, then we should consider whether to make an exception to the rule.
Impartiality
 It is also called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness.
 It is the concept that tells people to judge without being biased but to judge in accordance with a specific criterion.
Consequences of the Fundamental Principle of Impartiality
 It establishes non-discrimination as its key value
 Although the need to enjoy the confidence of all is mentioned about the principle of Neutrality, this also applies to the principle of
Impartiality.
 No one can genuinely claim to be impartial, but he/she can continually review his/her own feelings and thoughts about someone or a
situation in order to acknowledge this and then monitor and adjust where necessary his/her practice as a mediator in the light of his
awareness.
 Anyone supporting people in dispute will be more effective if he/she maintain his/her impartiality in the situation, even if one of the
people involved is someone he/she knows.
 Impartiality serves a purpose in supporting conflict resolution whether we are mediator or not.
Reasoning and Feelings
 Ethics is concerned with making sense of institutions about what is right and good.
 Biologists verify that emotion is never truly divorced from decision making, even it is channeled aside by an effort of will.
 Physicists now confirm that seeing the world with complete objectivity is not possible, as our observations affect what we perceive.
 Sensitivity requires rationality to complete it and vice versa.
 We rely on feelings to move us to act morally, and to ensure that our reasoning is not only logical but also humane.
 In empathy we experience another human being directly as a person—that is, as an intentional being whose bodily gestures and
actions are expressive of his or her experiences or state of mind.
 Conscience, at its best, reflect our integration of moral sentiments and principles.
 Both our feelings and our reason reflect our participation in a moral community, or more likely several moral communities.
Ethics vs. Feelings
 Many times, there’s a conflict between what we naturally feel and what is considered to be ethical.
Moral Reasoning Model
 Ethical reasoning is how to think about issues of right or wrong.
 Ethical reasoning is hard because there are so many ways to fail.
 Ethical behavior is far harder to display than one would expect simply on the basis of what we learn from our parents, from our
school, and from our religious training.
Steps in Moral Reasoning:
1. Identify the Problem (What facts make this an ethical situation?)
2. Identify the potential issues involved. (What level of ethical issues are we dealing with: systematic, corporate or individual?)
3. Review relevant ethical guidelines. (Given the facts and the ethical issues, what alternative actions are possible in the situation?)
4. Know relevant laws and regulations. (Who will be affected by the alternatives and to what degree?)
5. Obtain consultation
 Use ethical principles to decide on the best alternative.
 The ethics of each of the most plausible alternatives is assessed using ethical principles or rules.
6. Consider possible and probable courses of action
 Can the best alternative be put into effect?
 Having decided on one alternative, we need to see whether there are any practical constraints which might prevent that
alternative from being acted upon.
7. List the consequences of the probable courses of action
8. Decide on what appears to be the best course of action
 Implementing the best alternative.
 Having selected the best alternative which is not ruled out by practical constraints, we need to decide on the steps necessary to
carry it out.
The Difference Between Reason and Will
 Will, generally, is that faculty of the mind which selects, at the moment of, decision, the strongest desire from among the various
desires present.
 The will is important as one of the distinct parts of the mind.
 Will is the innermost essence, the core, of every particular thing and also of the whole. It appears in every blindly acting force of
nature, and also in the deliberate conduct of man.
 The will is a practical reason.
 Reason has, in other words, the capacity to direct action and the will is guided by reason freely.
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MORAL THEORIES
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 A theory is set of statements used to explain or predict a sect of facts or concepts.
 A moral theory explains why a certain action is wrong or why we ought to act in certain ways.
 A useful theory provides a way of understanding the dynamics of the complex strategic environment, recognizable indicators or
warning signals of change, and agreed-upon means of dealing with change.

1. CONSEQUENTIALISM
 This theory states that only the consequences or outcomes of actions matter morally.
 It can be criticized sometimes because it can be difficult, or even impossible, to know what the result of an action will be ahead
of time.
 It is based on two principles:
a. Whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of the act;
b. The better consequences an act produces, the better that act.

2. MORAL SUBJECTIVISM
 Right and wrong is determined by what you, the subject, just happen to think or feel is right or wrong.
 If you are moral subjectivist, you cannot object to anyone’s behavior assuming people are in fact acting in accordance with what
they think or feel is right.
 A statement to be considered morally right merely means that it is met with approval by the person of interest.
Types of Moral Subjectivism:
A. Simple Subjectivism – The view that ethical statements reflect sentiments, personal preferences and feeling rather than objective
facts.
B. Individualistic Subjectivism – The view originally put forward by Protagoras, that there are as many distinct scales of good and
evil as there are individuals in the world.
C. Moral Relativism – The view that for a thing to be morally right is for it to be approved of by society, leading to the conclusion
that different things are right for people in different societies and different periods in history.
D. Ideal Observer Theory – The view that what is right is determined by the attitudes that a hypothetical ideal observer would
have.
E. Ethical Egoism
 Right and wrong is determined by what is in your self-interest.
 It is actually based upon Psychological Egoism – that we, by nature, act selfishly.
 We may be required to forego some immediate pleasures for the sake of achieving some long-term goals.
F. Utilitarianism
 it is a theory that holds that the best way to make moral decision is to look at the potential consequences of each available
choice, and then pick the option that either does most to increase happiness or does least to increase suffering.
 It is also known as consequentialism.
G. Deontology
  It is an approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or
wrongness of the consequences of those actions of to the character and habits of the actor.
 In contemporary moral philosophy, deontology is one of those kinds of normative theories regarding which choices are
morally required, forbidden, or permitted.
H. Virtue Ethics
 It emphasizes an individual’s character as the key element of ethical thinking, rather than rules about the acts themselves or
their consequences.
 Three Main Elements of Virtue Ethics
i. Eudaimonism
 It states that the proper goal of human life is eudaimonia which means happiness or good life.
 Happiness can be achieved by a lifetime of practicing virtues in one’s everyday activities to resolve any conflict or
dilemmas which might arise.
 By honing virtuous habits, people will likely make the right choice when faced with ethical challenges.
ii. Ethics of Care
 It calls for a change in how we view morality and virtues, shifting towards virtues exemplified by women, such as
taking care of others, patience, the ability to nurture, self-sacrifice, etc., which have been marginalized because
society has not adequately valued the contributions of women.
iii. Moral relativism
 It is a theory which states that no one person’s morals are better or worse than any other.