Ethical Systems

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that

studies the systems of morality wherein
one can either defend, recommend, or
augment right or wrong conduct.
The word “ethics” is derived from the
What is Ancient Greek word, “ethos,” referring
to the customs and practices of a
Ethics? certain group of people or society.
Ethics is a concept that has strong ties
with the idea of morality. Morality is the
actual practice or action taken by
human agents.
What is ethics?
• While mostly used
interchangeably with ethics,
morality is often assigned to
the actual action taken by
human subjects.
• The fact that humans have
freewill and autonomy,
makes the study of ethics
challenging and interesting.
• Morality is code of conduct
or more importantly, an
order of values.
 • The study of ethics is motivated by the fact that
people are agents of their own actions, and
their actions have consequences that can affect
society.
• Humans are subject to the influence of norms
What is or customs that are responsible for integrating
them to society. However, they are also subject
ethics? to the call and beckon of their autonomy and
freewill that might be contrary to established
norms and customs.
• This relationship permeates every facet of life
that we experience on a day to day basis.
What is ethics?

• Crime for example,

might be a violation of
ethical norms, but a
crime is often
committed in
circumstances wherein
norms are violated for
the sake of fulfilling an
end or goal. (i.e. to eat
or to survive)
 What is ethics?

• Ethics must account for

instances wherein moral norms
are violated for a certain goal.
• Perhaps in ethics, it is possible to
study violations of moral norms
in order to understand the
context and limitations of Poverty might not be an excuse for crime, but it can certainly
Tell us why people are reduced to the life of crime just for the
existing moral norms. Sake of fulfilling certain ends.
Importance of ethics
• Autonomy is both the source of • The importance of the study of
problem and solutions in any ethics lies in the possible effects
discourse in ethics. of human agency to society as a
• We are all autonomous to a whole.
certain degree, despite the • All human actions find its
belief that there is an derivation from society, and
“influence” in what we choose these acts can either lead to
to do, choosing what to “do” is a good or bad consequences.
matter of selectivity.
• For example, Martin
Shkreli, CEO of Turing
Pharmaceuticals, raised
the prices of anti-retroviral
drugs from 13.50USD to
750USD.
• He claims that he made
this decision to increase
research for AIDS
medication.
 • In the study of ethical systems, it would be wise
to avoid generalizations or “universalizations” of
values without establishing proper context.
• The idea of a universalized system of values is
problematic because it creates a very
A word of mechanical approach towards the
understanding of ethics.
caution • While it is possible to say that there is indeed an
objective value for any ethical system, it will be
difficult to prove that there is an all-
encompassing rule or law that can guide human
subjects.
Classification and types
 • Ethical systems can be classified as
either normative or non-normative.
Normative • Normative ethics is responsible for
and Non- setting and determining moral
normative standards to follow so that human
actions can be aligned towards
ethics moral good. It follows two areas:
general and applied ethics.
 … is a search for principles of human
conduct including a critical study of the
major theories about what things are
good, what acts are right, and what acts
are evil. It attempts to determine what
moral standards to follow so that our
General actions may be morally right or good.
ethics
…tries to defend a system of basic
ethical principles that presumably
are valid for everyone.
 • …is an attempt to explain
and justify positions on
specific moral problems or
issues, like capital
punishment, abortion,
Applied ethics
discrimination, etc. The
applied ethicist uses the
general principles in an
attempt to resolve a
specific moral problem.
Non-normative ethics

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Non-normative ethics or Moreover, non-normative Non-normative ethics can
descriptive ethics deals with ethics can in turn provide an be categorized as either
establishing the context of insight into the context of scientific or meta-ethical.
an ethical position without normative values by looking
producing an ethical at the practices that validate
judgment as to whether it is its “rightness” or
right or wrong. “wrongness.”
 • The scientific or descriptive study of
morality involves the factual
investigation of moral behavior. It is
concerned with how people do in fact
behave.
• Anthropologists and sociologists, for
Scientific example, investigate and describe moral
attitudes, they report on how moral
attitudes and codes differ from society to
society, and investigating and describing
the values and behaviors of different
societies.
Meta ethics
• Meta ethics is a technical discipline investigating the meaning of
ethical terms, including a critical study of how ethical statements can
be verified.
• It is concerned with the meaning of terms like right, obligation,
responsibility, etc.
• The meta-ethicist would be concerned about the meaning of the term
good and bad, that what we think is good and bad, or what we mean
when we say right or wrong.
• Meta-ethics is concerned with how certain ethical positions are
justified and what concepts that they employ for this justification.