ETHICS

What are RULES?

• Meant to set order in the society
• Intended for human persons
• They do not limit a person’s freedom to choose and do what is good,
rather rules are meant to help
• Those who do good don’t even feel the presence of a rule but those
who don’t feel the suffocating and limiting presence of rule
• When society is ideal, when all persons are doing good and do what is
ideal then there will be no more need for rules and laws (Confucius,
Lao Tzu)
Ethics
• Greek word “ethos” meaning “custom” in the works of
Aristotle
• The term “moral” is the Latin equivalent
• Ethics deals with morality
• A branch of philosophy which deals with moral standards,
inquires about the rightness of wrongness of human
behavior or the goodness or badness of personality, trait or
character.
• “Moral” is the adjective describing a human act
Cicero
• A Roman Orator
• “O tempora o mores” (Oh what time and what morals)
• Expression of dismay of the morality of his time
Moral Standards
• Are norms or prescriptions that serve as the frameworks for
determining what ought to be done or what is right or wrong, what is
good or bad character
• Consequence standards or non-consequence standards
• Non compliance – sense of guilt
Consequence Standards
• Like Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism
• Teleological (tele, which means end, result, consequence)
• Depend on results or outcome
• An act that results in general welfare, in the greatest good of the
greatest number, is moral
Non-consequence Standards
• Natural law (law of God)
• Deontological
• Situation Ethics
• On good will or intention, and sense of duty
• To preserve human life is in accordance with the natural law,
therefore it is moral
• “Do good and avoid evil”
• Rosen and Gardner considered deontology as the better moral
standard because it synthesizes all the other theories of norms
Non-moral Standards
• Aristotle’s virtue, St. Thomas’ natural law, Immanuel Kant’ good will
or sense of duty
• Social rules, demands, good manners
• Guides of action which should be followed
• Sometimes others may not follow
• Folkways
• Actions where moral categories cannot be applied
• Non-compliance – shame or embarassment
Some famous lines for moral standards…
• “Do unto others what you like others to do unto you” Confucius
• “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time
will that it should become a universal law.”
• For theist origin of moral standards is God
• For non-theists the origin of moral standards is the moral frameworks
Moral/Ethical Dilemma
• Is a problem in decision making between two possible options,
neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable.
• Also called ethical paradox in moral philosophy
• There is tension between moral values and duties
• Decision-maker is a deadlock
The Unfaithful Wife
You are an emergency worker that has been called to the scene of an
accident. When you arrive, you see that the car belongs to your wife. Fearing
the worst you rush over, only to see she is trapped in her car with another
man. He is obviously her lover, with whom she’s been having an affair.
You reel back in shock, devastated by what you have just found out.
As you step back, the wreck in front of you comes into focus. You see your
wife is seriously hurt and she needs attention straight away. Even if she gets
immediate attention there’s a very high chance she’ll die. You look at the
seat next to her and you need to stem the flow of blood immediately.
If you attend to your wife, her lover will bleed to death, and you mat
not be able to save her anyway. If you work on the lover, you can save his life,
but your wife will definitely die.
Who should you choose?
The Deliberate Infection
Ken is a doctor. One of his patients, whom he has diagnosed as HIV positive,
is about to receive a blood transfusion prior to being released from the hospital. He
has told Ken, in the confidence of their doctor-patient relationship, that after he
gets his transfusion, and his medicine from Ken, he intends to infect as many
people as possible with HIV starting that evening.
Because Ken is bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, there is no legal way
to stop this man from carrying out his plan. Even if Ken warned the police, they
would not be able to arrest him, since his medical information is protected.
It occurs to Ken that he could contaminate his medication by putting an
untraceable poison in it that will kill him before he gets a chance to infect others.
Should Ken poison this man in order to prevent him from spreading HIV?
False Dilemma
• Is a situation where the decision-maker has a moral duty to do one
thing, but is tempted or under pressure to do something else.
• A choice between right and wrong
• Example: a lawyer or an accountant can face an opportunity to
prioritize self-interest over the client’s interest
What to do when faced with a Moral
Dilemma?
• In a state of emergency, necessity demands no moral law.
• Decide on best judgment
• Principle of lesser evil
• Greater good or urgency
• Situation ethics approach
• The extent of one’s obligation and responsibility is the extent of one’s
ability and the measure of the “extent” is one’s capacity for love.
• “Love and do what you will” (St. Augustine)
Three Levels of Moral Dilemmas
• Individual – personal dilemma
• Organizational – organizational benefits vs. individual members welfare
• Structural – faced by groups or individuals as a result of structural
relationships
a. differentiation vs integration
b. gap versus overlap
c. lack of clarity vs lack of creativity
d. flexibility vs strict adherence to rules
e. excessive autonomy vs excessive interdependence
f. centralized vs decentralized in decision making
Freedom as Foundation for Moral Acts
• Choice or freedom is a prerequisite of ethics or morality
• Every human person has freedom or choice and is expected to be
ethical or moral
• Lower forms of animals have no choice, but governed by instincts, so
ethics is not applicable
• To be truly ethical or moral, we must internalize or possess not just
adhere to moral standards.
Fasticity
• Refers to the “givens” of our situation such as our language, culture,
our environment, our previous choices, and our very selves in their
function.
• The “absolute freedom” that the existentialist and phenomenologist
are talking does not course exist in vacuum but exists in a world with
all its spacio-temporal conditions.
Culture
• Integrated pattern of human knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors
• Way of life
• Non-material and material
• Is learned not inherited
• Influences the human person, who is the moral agent
• Affects human behavior
• Not all cultures are morally acceptable
Enculturation
• Process of learning the components of life – material as well as non-
material – in one’s culture
Inculturation
• Is making the Gospel take roots in a culture and introducing the
transformed culture to Christianity
Acculturation
• Is the process by which people learn and adapt a new culture
Cultural Relativism
• Is the “idea that a person’s beliefs, values and practices should be
understood based on that person’s own culture, rather than the
judged against the criteria of another”
Absolute Relativism
• States that “there are no absolute truths: which is an absolute truth
itself, so absolute relativism contradicts itself”
• Is self contradictory and impossible
Cultural Perspective
• Is to understand people’s beliefs, values, and practices in the context
of their culture.
• Having an understanding of others’ culture does not follow that
morality must be based on said culture.
The Filipino Character
(Senator Shahani’s Report, 1988)
1. Extreme family centeredness
2. Extreme personalism
3. Lack of discipline
4. Passivity and lack of initiative
5. Colonial mentality
6. Kanya-kanya syndrome, talangka mentality
7. Lack of self-analysis and self-reflection
8. Emphasis on porma rather than substance
Values Education
• Now Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (K to 12)
• Was introduced as a separate subject in the BEC under the values
education program of Dr. Lourdes Quisumbing
• The values education framework was conceptualized in 1987
• In 2002, the BEC integrated values in the major learning areas or
subjects
• In the K to 12 in 2013, values education was renamed for grades 1-10
• In the senior high curriculum, there is no course with the title but
core courses such as philosophy and personal development
The Human Person as a Moral Agent
• “Moral” comes from the Latin “mores” referring to society’s patterns,
standards, rules of doing things
• “Agent” comes from the Latin “agree” to do, act
• Moral Agent is “a being who is capable of those actions that have
moral quality and which can be properly denominated good or evil in
a moral sense”. Performs an act according to moral standards.
• An insane person cannot be a moral agent
Fundamental Option
• Is a human person’s basic choice or inner orientation either for a good
life or for a bad life
• Man as a moral agent adopts the fundamental option, a free choice
to say yes to God’s invitation to follow his way.
• There is no pre-fixed plan for the human person as a moral agent
The Moral Agent
From Christian POV
• A human person’s destiny in the world is not only to achieve cultural
and moral perfection, but to attain the eternal happiness of the soul
after death of the body.
• As a moral agent his duty is to know, to love, and to serve God, his
ultimate end
The Moral Agent
For the Existentialist, like Jean Paul Sartre
• The human person, the moral agent, becomes what he/she makes of
himself/herself by choice. He/she is nothing no “essence” until
he/she starts his/her “existence” by making choices.
The Moral Agent
For the process philosophers like Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North
Whitehead
• Whatever a human person, the moral agent, is or will be is a result of
a creative process. The moral agent has to create his/her end,
purpose, or directions.
• He/she has to invent his/her destiny. Since there is no goal or end
designed for him/her, he/she would completely be the author of what
he/she turns out to be. He/she will be totally responsible for what
he/she will be.
The Moral Agent
For other groups like Martin Heidegger, Garbriel Marcel, and Martin
Buber
• See the moral agent as a being-with-others, who is inseparably
related to his/her fellow man. Together with other moral agents, the
human person goes through life, designing his/her end guided by
messages unveiled in a life of dialogue with others and with the
world.
The Moral Agent
For Brabander
• The moral agent directs his/her life to improve, refine, develops this
world in order to bring out the world to come.
Defining Moment
• Refers to a significant life-changing event or moment that
reverberates throughout your career and personal life and so changes
everything.
• Example quote to explain:
“You make thousands of decisions everyday… Each choice shapes what
is to come in some small way, but occasionally, a decision has the
magnitude to be life-changing.”
Human Act
• Is an action that is considered to be carried out voluntarily
• An individual can make a conscious decision whether or not to carry out
that act
• For an individual human act to be moral, its object must be free from all
defect; it must be good, or at least indifferent. The end or purpose
intended by the agent for that at must likewise be good
• Object of the act is the act itself
• Circumstances surrounding the human act such as time, place, person, and
conditions surrounding the moral act may either increase or diminish the
moral goodness or evil of human act.
• A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of
the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the
object is good in itself.
Act of Man
• Is an involuntary action
• Is the natural act of vegetative and sense faculties such as digestion,
the beating of the heart, growing, bodily reactions, and visual or
auditory perceptions.
“The End does not justify the means”
• End, or purpose is the intention of the acting subject
• For example:
Rendering free service to a neighbor with the intention of boasting
about it. Or helping a neighbor inspired by love of God.

The first instance is immoral. While the second is moral.

Three bases for moral accountability:
• Knowledge
• Freedom
• Voluntariness
Modifiers of Human Act
• Ignorance – absence of knowledge
a. vincible – does not free us from responsibility
b. invincible – when it cannot be overcome by the due amount of diligence.
It can be gross or supine when scarcely effort has been made to remove it.
Beyond one’s ability to overcome, removes moral responsibility
• Passion – positive emotions like love, desire, delight, hope, and bravery and
negative emotions like hatred, sadness, despair
• Fear – is the disturbance of the mind of a person due to an impending danger or
harm to himself or loved ones. Acts done with fear is voluntary but acts done
because of intense or uncontrollable fear or panic is involuntary
• Violence – any physical force exerted on a person by another free agent for the
purpose of compelling said person to act against his will. Actions performed by
person subjected to violence or irresistible force are involuntary and not
accountable
Ignorance Classification
• Gross or Supine – exists when scarcely an effort has been made to
remove it.
• Affected Ignorance – exists when a person deliberately avoids
enlightenment in order to sin more freely
Feelings in decision-making
• Feelings can be obstacles to making right decisions but they can also
help in making the right decisions
• Feelings can help persons in making the right decisions if they are
reasonably managed.
• Acting on one’s convictions imply involvement of both reason and
feeling
• One teaches effectively when he/she touches the heart. This is the
main feature of values education that works
• To be an ethical person, one must manage his/her feelings well
Reason
• Conducts the study, research, investigation, fact-finding.
• It uses the logic, the principle of consistency, avoids fallacious
reasoning to come up with a truthful and accurate proposition.
Will
• Is the faculty of mind that is associated with decision making.
• It is the one that says yes or no
• The “will” is what “disposes” what the “intellectual purposes”
• Strengthening of the will calls for courage which is self-affirmation in-
spite-of-non-being (Paul Tillich). Purity of heart is to will one thing (S.
Kierkergaard)
Free Will
• Is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action
unimpeded, the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
• It is the power of self-determination.
• When the will is free, there is freedom
Ethical Framework
• Is a set of codes that an individual uses to guide his or her behavior.
• Another term for “moral standards” as discussed in the early part of
this text
- virtue or character of ethics of Aristotle
- natural law or commandment ethics of St. Thomas
- deontological and duty framework of Immanuel Kant
- utilitarianist, teleological, and consequentialist approach
- love and justice framework
Virtue or Character Ethics of Aristotle
• For Aristotle, the ethical person is virtuous, one who has developed
good character or has developed virtues.
• One attains virtues when he/she actualizes his/her potentials of
possibilities, the highest of which is happiness.
• Happiness is the joy of self-realization, self-fulfillment, the experience
of having actualized one’s potentials.
Natural Law or Commandment Ethics of St.
Thomas
• For St. Thomas, what is right is what follows the natural law, the rule
which says. “do good and avoid evil”
Deontological and Duty Framework of
Immanuel Kant
• Deon or duty
• Centers on the “rights of individuals and the intentions associated
with particular behavior… equal respect… given to all persons”
• Based on the universal principles such as honesty, fairness, justice,
and respect for persons and property.
Utilitarianist, Teleological and
Consequentialist Framework
• Focuses on consequences
• Is concerned with the utility of decision
• What really counts is the net balance of good consequences over bad
• The rightness of an action depends on the said net balance of good
consequences
Love and Justice Framework
• What is ethical is that which is just and that which is loving
• Justice giving what is due to others (justice) while is giving even more
than what is due to others.
Principle of Love
Three well-known concepts of love originating from the Greeks
• Agape or charity
• Erotic or passionate sexual encounter
• Philia the affection between friends
Distributive Justice
• Justice that is concerned with the distribution or allotment of goods,
duties, and privileges in concert with the merits of individuals, and
the best interests of society.
Egalitarianism
• Doctrine of political and social equality
• “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due
process of law; nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of
the law”
Capitalist and free-market systems
• Let the law of demand and supply follow its course
• It lets any excess of demand be regulated by the limits of supply, and
lets any excess of supply be regulated by the limits of demand.
• Self-regulation process
Socialists
• Follow the rule “from each according to his ability, to each according
to his needs.”
• Collective ownership of the means of production, distribution, and
exchange with the aim of operating for use rather than for profit
• Downside is there is no motivation for expansion and growth
Taxation
• Government’s getting a part of what its people can earn in order to
have money for public services, operating and maintaining public
places or properties, for people’s use.
Protection and Preservation of Public Welfare
• The government has constitution-granted power to govern, to make,
adopt and enforce laws for the protection and preservation of public
health, justice, morals, order, safety and security and welfare.
Property for Public Use
• The government has a constitution-granted power to take private
property for public use with just compensation.
• Citizen’s ownership of property is not absolute
Millennials and Fillennials
• Millenials, also known as Y Generation (1981-1996), come after the X
generation (1965-1980) and before the Z generation (1997-2012)
• Millenials in the Philippines are referred to as Fillenials.
Based on research Millennials are:
• Confident
• High self-esteem
• Assertive
• Achevement-focused
• More willing to put forth extra effort to help an organization succeed
• Feel accountable for their actions
• Enjoy working in teams
• Tolerant of diversity
• Are family-focused and have a better work/life balance
• Utilize technology a lot
• Socially responsible
Common complaints against millennials from
baby boomers (1946-1964)
• Lacking in social skills
• Overly service-focused
• Impatient for change
• Demanding (look-at-me generation) want-it-all, want-it-now
• Too confident
• Lacking in work ethic
• Overambitious
• Lower levels of cognitive reasoning
Fillennials
• Described as social-media dependent
• Selfie generation
• Usually spendthrifts who usually spend for luxury goods and so are
also described as broke
• Narcissit, “me,me,me generation”
• Fun-loving, self expressive, liberal
• Politically and socially engaged
GE 9 ETHICS
Disciplinal
Introduction - Philosophy

2
Introduction - Philosophy

3
Approaches of Philosophy

4
Historical Approach

SOCRATES ARISTOTLE PLATO 5

Historical Approach

6
Historical Approach

7
Historical Approach

8
Systematic Approach - Metaphysics

9
Systematic Approach – Metaphysics
(Psychology)

10
Systematic Approach – Metaphysics
(Psychology)

11
Systematic Approach

12
GE 9 ETHICS
Disciplinal
ETHICS

2
ETHICS - Three Major Divisions

3
ETHICS – Normative Ethics

4
ETHICS – Normative Ethics

5
ETHICS – Moral Dilemma

6
How important is Ethics today?

7
GE 9 ETHICS
Disciplinal
 Nature, Stages, & Modifiers of Human Act.

Terminologies

2
Essential Knowledge

3
Essential Knowledge

4
Essential Knowledge

5
Modifier of Moral Act - Ignorance

6
Modifier of Moral Act - Ignorance

7
Modifier of Moral Act - Concupiscene

8
GE 9 ETHICS
Disciplinal
 Determinants of Morality

Terminologies

2
 Determinants of Morality

Essential Knowledge

3
Determinants of Morality

4
Determinants of Morality

5
 Norms of Morality

Terminologies

6
 Norms of Morality

Essential Knowledge

7
Norms of Morality – Positive Law

8
Norms of Morality – Natural Law

9
Norms of Morality

10
Norms of Morality

11
Norms of Morality

12
GE 9 ETHICS
Disciplinal
 Explicate the nature and kinds of Rights and Duties in
connection with the concept of Human Freedom.

Terminologies

2
 Explicate the nature and kinds of Rights and Duties in
connection with the concept of Human Freedom.

Terminologies

3
 General Division of Rights

Essential Knowledge

4
General Division of Rights

5
General Division of Rights

6
General Divisions of Duties

7
General Divisions of Duties

8
General Divisions of Duties

9
Free Will

10
Free Will

11
Free Will

12
Explicate the ethical theories

13
Explicate the ethical theories

14
Explicate the ethical theories

15
Explicate the ethical theories -
Utilitarianism

16
Explicate the ethical theories -
Utilitarianism

17
Explicate the ethical theories -
Utilitarianism

18
Explicate the ethical theories -
Evolutionism

19
Explicate the ethical theories -
Evolutionism

20
Explicate the ethical theories

21
Explicate the ethical theories –
Deontological Ethics

22
Explicate the ethical theories –
Deontological Ethics

23
The following decision trees, hereinafter designated as DT,
depict the decision rule of each ethical theory.

24
The following decision trees, hereinafter designated as DT,
depict the decision rule of each ethical theory.

25
The following decision trees, hereinafter designated as DT,
depict the decision rule of each ethical theory.

26
The following decision trees, hereinafter designated as DT,
depict the decision rule of each ethical theory.

27
The following decision trees, hereinafter designated as DT,
depict the decision rule of each ethical theory.

28
The following decision trees, hereinafter designated as DT,
depict the decision rule of each ethical theory.

29
GE 9 ETHICS
Disciplinal
 Acquire an understanding of the history and nature
of, and key terms vis-à-vis, bioethics.

Nature of Bioethics

2
 Acquire an understanding of the history and nature
of, and key terms vis-à-vis, bioethics.

Discipline

3
 Acquire an understanding of the history and nature
of, and key terms vis-à-vis, bioethics.

Ethical Guidance

Internal Auditing

Inter-Disciplinary Approach

4
 Acquire an understanding of the history and nature
of, and key terms vis-à-vis, bioethics.

Structure

Clarification

5
 Examine the emerging bioethical issues

Terminologies

6
 Examine the emerging bioethical issues

Terminologies

7
 Examine the emerging bioethical issues

Essential Knowledge

8
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

9
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

10
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

11
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

12
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

13
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

14
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

15
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

16
Examine the emerging bioethical issues

17