Republic of the Philippines

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Office of the Vice President for Satellite Branches and Campuses
SAN PEDRO CAMPUS
United Bayanihan, San Pedro City, Laguna

COURSE TITLE Ethics

COURSE CODE GEED 10093
CREDIT UNITS 3.0
COURSE PREREQUISITE None
COURSE DESCRIPTION The course will introduce and justify in the learner the necessity of moral thinking and the choosing of meaningful moral positions and manners of acting and behaving in the face
of various situations requiring such. For the sake of flexibility, it should encourage the learner to draw out and analyze the correctness or wrongness of behavior from acquired
communal values/culture, from one’s situatedness at the level of person, society, environment, and later from the standpoint of classic ethical principles (Greek Virtue Ethics,
Augustinian/Thomistic Ethics, Kantian Deontology, Utilitarianism, and beyond).
The PUP PHILOSOPHY

As a state university, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines believes that:

1. Educationis an instrumentforthedevelopmentofthecitizenryandfortheenhancementofnationbuilding;and
2. That meaningful growth and transmission of the country are best achieved is an atmosphere of brotherhood, peace, freedom, justice and nationalists-oriented education imbued with the spirit of
humanistinternationalism.

VISION
PUP: THE NATIONAL POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

MISSION
Ensuring inclusive and equitable equality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities through a re- engineered polytechnic university by committing to:
1. providedemocratizedaccesstoeducationalopportunitiesfortheholisticdevelopmentofindividualswithglobalperspective
2. offerindustry-orientedcurriculathatproducehighly-skilledprofessionalswithmanagerialandtechnicalcapabilitiesandastrongsenseofpublicservicefor nationbuilding
3. embed a culture of research andinnovation
4. continuously develop faculty and employees with the highest level ofprofessionalism
5. engagepublicandprivateinstitutionsandotherstakeholdersfortheattainmentofsocialdevelopmentgoal
6. establishastrongpresenceandimpactinthe international academiccommunity
SHARED VALUES AND PRINCIPLES
• Integrity And Accountability • Inclusivity
• Nationalism • Respect For Human Rights And The Environment
• Spirituality • Excellence
• Passion For Learning And Innovation • Democracy
TEN PILLARS
Pillar 1: Dynamic, Transformational, and Responsible Leadership Pillar 6: Vigorous Research Production and Utilization
Pillar 2: Responsive and Innovative Curricula and Instructions Pillar 7: Global Academic Standards and Excellence
Pillar 3: Enabling and Productive Learning Environment Pillar 8: Synergistic, Productive, Strategic Network and Partnerships
Pillar 4: Holistic Student Development and Engagement Pillar 9: Active and Sustained Stakeholders’ Engagement
Pillar 5: Empowered Faculty Members and Employees Pillar 10: Sustainable Social Development Programs and Projects
 Institutional Learning Outcomes Program Outcomes Course Outcomes
1. Creative and Critical Thinking 1. Graduates with full capacity for academic and practical At the end of the course, students are expected to:
Graduates use their imaginative as well as a rational thinking application of the theoretical studies and critical analyses
abilities to life situations in order push boundaries, realize instilled by the program. 1. Develop and choose moral positions in the face of
possibilities, and deepen their interdisciplinary and general situations that require moral decision making
2. Graduates have excellent communication skills as
understanding of the world. 2. Argue for the correctness of the moral positions taken and
manifested by their understanding of not only of the subject
2. Effective Communication matter in its totality but also evident in the manner they for the inadequacies of alternatives
Graduates are proficient in the four macro skills in communication carry out reasonable life decisions and create good human 3. Comprehend and confidently articulate the most basic
(reading, writing, listening, and speaking) and are able to use these interactions. ethics principles and their relevance to the moral choices in
skills in solving problems. Making decisions, and articulating today’s world
3. Graduates are committed to achieve excellence for the
thoughts when engaging with people in various circumstances.
success of the learning process by being cognizant of how 4. Enhance awareness of others and how one’s moral
3. Strong Service Orientation reasoning must be exhibited in their relationship with others decisions and behavior affect them.
Graduates exemplify the potentialities of an efficient, well-rounded in the society.
and responsible professional deeply committed to service
excellence. 4. Graduates use the potent power of correct reasoning and
proper thinking by formulating good advocacies for the
4. Community Engagement development of communities.
Graduates take an active role in the promotion and fulfillment of
5. Graduates maintain a high literacy in the technologies used
various advocacies (educational, social and environmental) for the
advancement of community welfare. in the present social setting and, at the same time, can
adapt to any given situation with regard to technical
5. Adeptness in the Responsible Use of Technology equipment and facilities.
Graduates demonstrate optimized use of digital learning abilities,
including technical and numerical skills. 6. Graduates never cease to improve their knowledge of the
ever-changing development in the study philosophy and
6. Passion to Lifelong Learning logic in the world by pursuing graduate studies or joining
Graduates are enabled to perform and function in the society by workshops, conferences, and debate-oriented programs.
taking responsibility in their quest to know more about the world
7. Graduates are capable of leading any responsibility given
through lifelong learning.
to them with exemplary organizational skills.
7. High Level of Leadership and Organizational Skills
Graduates are developed to become the best professionals in their 8. Graduates have a strong sense of ethical conduct
manifested in their personal and professional attitude and
respective disciplines by manifesting the appropriate skills and
leaderships qualities. set of values as guided by their reason.
9. Graduate are rooted for a nationalist perspective in the
8. Sense of Personal and Professional Ethics
Graduates show desirable attitudes and behavior either in their manner they analyze issues concerning the Philippine
personal and professional circumstances. setting in general while exhibiting world-class caliber in
response to the demands of the global scenario.
9. Sense of National and Global Responsiveness
Graduates’ deep sense of national compliments the need to live in a
global village where one’s culture and other people culture are
respected.
COURSE PLAN

Week Topic Learning Outcomes Methodology Resources Assessment

1 Course Introduction and Overview • Students must be able to Lecture Course Syllabus Group Written Output: Choose
understand the necessity of ethical and Respond to 3 Situations
Group Activity Introduction from Ethel Albert, et. al., requiring moral choice
thinking, especially in considering
Great Traditions in Ethics(Belmont,
reasons behind action/behavior:
California: Wadsworth Publishing Co.,
the question, “how man ought to
1984)
live?”
Issues raised on Part I, First
• Students must be able to respond
Principles, Daniel Bonevac, Today’s
to commonplace examples that
Moral Issues(New York: MacGraw-Hill,
might require moral
inc., 2006)
decision/correction:Truth-telling,
Cheating, Stealing, Gossiping, Ethics and Morality, in AmableTuibeo,
Obeying Parents, Bullying, etc. Ethics for a Better World(Sta. Mesa,
Manila: Learning Tree Publishing,
• Students are able to distinguish 2016)
moral decision making from non-
moral ones
2 Examining one’s predispositions/tendencies • Students are able determine what, Interactive Discussion on “what do PowerPoint presentation on pursuits, Comparative Analysis
for them, is worth pursuing and we value?,” choices of goals and values in the contemporary
What is right/wrong from one’s perspective compare this with the pursuits of pursuits/values are presented world, photos and illustrations Seatwork on “ranking my list of
• What makes an individual happy others values and my justifications”
Socratic critique on “pleasure as the
• What do you value?
• Students realize what for them is highest good” in chapter 2, Ethel
A Socratic mode of questioning
most valuable from a list of values Albert, et. al., Great Traditions in
may be employed, especially with Ethics(Belmont, California: Wadsworth
regard to “what education is for?,” Publishing Co., 1984)
even “how corporate/market
interests affect our choices?”
3-4 Introducing Moral Dilemma • Exhibit critical thinking: Coming up Lecture, Examples of Moral Electronic source: 10 Moral Dilemmas, Group output: an oral and written
with best decision and good Dilemma: Contemporary and http://listverse.com/2007/10/21/top-10- report on the group’s
judgment on dilemmas Classic issues (The ring of Gyges, moral-dilemmas/, for examples, consensus/moral decision on a
is it necessary to be just?) printed material dilemma
• Integrate values, facts, weighing
advantages and disadvantages, Group Activity: Best group Chapter 2, Ethel Albert, et. al., Great
best possible outcomes in decision decision on an assigned moral Traditions in Ethics(Belmont,
making dilemma California: Wadsworth Publishing Co.,
1984)
• Understand that the “good” is
pursued for itself, not because of
any attachment
5-6 Understanding Human Freedom • Understand the human person as Lecture The section on Man as Liberty in Quiz: Briefly Explain a) man as
a fundamentally a moral agent Manuel B. Dy, Jr., Philosophy of Man: embodied subject and b) the three
Textual Reading and Analysis Selected Readings(Makati City: Katha positions on freedom
(destined to be free, to make moral
decisions), subjectivity and Question and Answer Publishing Co., Inc., 2012)
accountability
Ethics and Morality and its Social
• Explain man as embodied Origin in AmableTuibeo, Ethics for a
 subjectivity Better World(Sta. Mesa, Manila:
Learning Tree Publishing, 2016)
• Differentiate between crude
negative liberty and positive liberty Ethics as Radical Freedom (Simone
(the possibility of action) de Beauvoir) chapter 19 of Ethel
Albert, et. al., Great Traditions in
• Differentiate between three Ethics(Belmont, California: Wadsworth
standpoints: Sartrean Absolute Publishing Co., 1984)
Freedom, Determinism, and
“Situated” Freedom
7 Scheler’s Hierarchy of Values • Understand the progression into Text analysis/Read aloud Manuel B. Dy, Jr. Philosophy of Man: Recitation: Write down a concept
deeper levels of values: from Selected Readings(Makati City: Katha that you associate with “love”;
PowerPoint Presentation
Phenomenology of Love, Starting from an sensory-spiritual/holy-unholy Publishing Co., Inc., 2012)
encounter with solitude and into a loving (Scheler) Assignment: After the lesson, is
encounter your notion of loving encounter
• Understand Love as progression deepened? Justify/
from solitude to a disinterested
giving
• Differentiate between mere
contingencies and genuine loving
Encounter
8-9 Understanding Cultural Relativism • Appreciate the diversity of cultural Group Activity: Examining a Electronic Source: http://all-that-is- Group Output: Oral/Written
practices, critically strange culture/social practice interesting.com/7-bizarre-cultural- Presentation of examination and
practices, for illustrated examples of assessment of a strange culture
• Determine conditions that limit the Discussion: critique of cultural Cultural Practices Jay Early, (assigned)
“respect for autonomy” (some relativism, the limits of Transforming Human Culture(Albany,
cultures do more harm than tolerance/respect for autonomy. New York: State University of New Position Paper: Is Cultural
others) York Press, 1997) Relativism Defensible?
• Is it defensible?: Argue for or The section The Future of Human
against cultural relativism Civilization in AmableTuibeo,
• Criticize our own modern Introduction to Philosophy: A New
development and its moral Perspective(Sta. Mesa, Manila: FCA
implications Printhouse, 2010)
Daniel Bonevac, Today’s Moral
Issues(New York: MacGraw-Hill, inc.,
2006)
10 MID-TERM EXAMINATION
11-12 Virtue Ethics: Plato and Aristotle • Know and appreciate the Discussion with the aid of Socratic Ethel Albert, et. al., Great Traditions in Assignment: an essay appraising
contentions of Socrates and the approach: “why should anyone Ethics(Belmont, California: Wadsworth Socrates’s response to
Sophists concerning the necessity prefer a virtuous existence rather Publishing Co., 1984) Polemarchus and Thrasymacus in
of virtue, Socratic critique on than incontinence? Republic, Book 1, or similar theme
Plato, Republic(Indianapolis: Hacket
“pleasure as ultimate good”
Publishing Co., 1974)
Reading dialogue of characters in
• Articulate the meaning of virtue as selected dialogues Aristotle, Nicomachean
good life drawn from regulating the
Ethics(Hertfordshire: Wadsworth
soul: reason, will, appetites
Editions Limited, 1996)
• Connect and establish continuity of
thought of Aristotle to Plato by way
of the Doctrine of the mean:
 avoiding deficiency and excess
• Explain the Aristotleian notion of
intellectual vs moral virtue, and
how to practice ethics by
habituating right character
13 Augustine’s answer to the Problem of Evil • Assess the significance of free will Eliciting response: Why does and Daniel Bonevac, Today’s Moral Position Paper: Can the biblical
(St. Augustine) as determiner of omnipotent and omniscient God ssues(New York: MacGraw-Hill, inc., Divine ordinances be used as
Aquinas: NaturalLaw action, but as subject to the good allow evil, does He cause it? 2006) good basis for the constitutional
cause of the Divine laws?
Textual analysis, short reading Augustine, Confessions(Indianapolis:
• Understand the notion of natural excerpts from the Summa Hackett Publishing, 1943)
law as demonstrable and self- Theologica
evident in the rational being, law
as ordinance of reason
14 Kant, Duty, Categorical Imperative • Gain a decent understanding of Lecture Ethel Albert, et. al., Great Traditions in Group Activity: Can Kant’sMoral
Kantian deontology, how duty- Ethics(Belmont, California: Wadsworth imperative serve as a guide on
Elicit examples as supplement Publishing Co., 1984) one’s decision with regard to:
bound action is different from that
propelled by inclination Group reading and activity
Daniel Bonevac, Today’s Moral a) suicide,
• Explain the categorical imperative Issues(New York: MacGraw-Hill, inc., b) theft,
and the two fold test for the 2006)
principle behind the act c) lying,
d) borrowing without the capacity
to pay back (may be non-dilemma
situations)
15-16 J.S. Mill’s Utilitarianism • Differentiate consequentialist from Lecture on the basics of Mill’s Ethel Albert, et. al., Great Traditions in Music/film/literature
deontological/Non-consequentialist Utilitarian philosophy Ethics(Belmont, California: Wadsworth listening/review and comparative:
theory Publishing Co., 1984) Daniel what explains our predisposition
Discussion: what makes one truly Bonevac, Today’s Moral Issues(New to “lower” forms of aesthetic
• Apply and factor in human values happy and fulfilled? York: MacGraw-Hill, inc., 2006) values? Example, market driven
(intellectual, moral sentiment, pop-music/ some pop-culture
MusicListening, critique, reaction:
aesthetic, and the like) into the films, Dan Brown’s“Da Vinci
Maybe “Classical” piece
standard of “happiness” Code” and its misguided
(Mozart/Bach, etc.), can the youth
• Draw the line and appreciate: today still appreciate classical content—was Mill correct?
values fit for human subject and culture?
values fit for swines
• Explain why some choose lesser
values while maintaining p
reference to higher human values
in the light of Mill
17 FINAL EXAM

Reading and References

•
Course Grading System
Class Standing 70%
 • Quizzes or Long Tests
• Attendance
• Recitation/Participation
• Projects/Assignments/Seatwork/Special Report

Midterm / Final Examinations 30%

100%

Midterm Grade + Final Term Grade = FINAL GRADE

2

Classroom Policy
• Students are required to attend classes regularly and punctually starting from the first day of school.
• 10 minutes grace period will be given for the student before it will be considered late. Three (3) times late is equivalent to 1 absence. The students will be considered absent if the student does not arrive 30
minutes after the class starts.
• The maximum allowable number of absences per semester is not more than 20% of the school days except for valid reasons. A student incurring absences beyond 20% of the number of school days is
considered dropped from the subject unless otherwise decided by the Academic Head.
• Cheating is not only unethical; it is also against the University’s rules and is not tolerated. Any form of cheating in programming assignments, homework problems, quizzes, and exams will result in an action
according to the School rules.

Consultation Time
Schedule of meeting with the teacher to discuss a particular problem with a student in order to provide advice.

Reference by the Syllabi Committee:

Kristoffer A. Bolanos
Name of Faculty

Enhanced by: Reviewed and Checked by: Approved by:

Prof. Jayson Carl Esmasin Dr. Minerva D. Ferranco

Prof. Willie A. Buñag
Program Coordinator Campus Director
Faculty

March 15, 2022