Ethics (ETHN01G / ETHN02G)
GUIDE ONLY
Ethical Issue
- Ethical issues occur when a given decision, scenario or activity creates a conflict with a society’s
moral principles.
- is a problem or situation that requires a person to choose between two options, where both options are
morally wrong.
Philosophy
- (from the Greek phílosophía or philosophia,
meaning "the love of wisdom") is the study of
knowledge, or "thinking about thinking"
- is a field of study that attempts to answer
questions that cannot be answered by
providing some fact, but that require a deeper
understanding of the question.
- as a critical and comprehensive process of
thought involves resolving confusion,
unmasking assumptions, revealing
presuppositions, distinguishing importance,
testing positions, correcting distortions,
looking for reasons, examining world-views
and questioning conceptual frameworks,
which also includes dispelling ignorance,
enriching understanding, broadening
experience, expanding horizons, developing
imagination , controlling emotion, exploring
values, fixing beliefs by rational inquiry,
establishing habits of acting, widening
considerations, synthesizing knowledge and
questing for wisdom.
The Importance of Philosophy
1. Developing critical thinking skills.
2. Understanding language and our place in
the world.
3. Engaging in deep debates and evaluating
important questions.
4. Engaging in deep debates and evaluating
important questions.
5. Enhancing problem-solving, communication,
and writing skills.
Ethics
- refer to the philosophical study of the concepts of moral right and wrong and moral good and bad, to
any philosophical theory of what is morally right and wrong or morally good and bad, and to any
system or code of moral rules, principles, or values.
- According to Peter F. Drucker, there is only one ethics, one set of rules of morality, one code: that of
individual behaviour in which the same rules apply to everyone alike.
- According to Philip Wheel Wright, ethics is the branch of philosophy which is the systematic study of
selective choice, of the standards of right and wrong and by which it may ultimately be directed.
Why does ethics matter?
Ethics matters because (1) it is part of how many groups define themselves and thus part of the
identity of their individual members, (2) other-regarding values in most ethical systems both reflect and
foster close human relationships and mutual respect and trust, and (3) it could be “rational” for a self-
interested person to be moral, because his or her self-interest is arguably best served in the long run
by reciprocating the moral behaviour of others.
Nature of Ethics
Ethics lay emphasis on doing the right things. It is an enquiry into the truth and not into what people
believe is not true.
The nature of ethics is explained in the following points:
•The notion of ethics is applicable only to human beings as they possess the freedom of choice, i.e.,
alternatives and resources of free will. They can only make a decision about the degree of ends they
wish to follow and the means to realise the ends.
•Ethics is a vast study of social science wherein methodical knowledge about moral and ethical
behaviour is gained.
•Ethics is associated with human conduct, which is voluntary and not at all obligatory by
circumstances or any other human beings. It can be implied that at the basic level, ethics deal with
moral verdict regarding the directed human behaviour.
•Ethics is a normative science that involves the incoming of moral standards that control right and
wrong conduct.
How is ethics different from morality?
Traditionally, ethics referred to the philosophical study of morality, the latter being a more or less
systematic set of beliefs, usually held in common by a group, about how people should live. Ethics
also referred to particular philosophical theories of morality. Later the term was applied to particular
(and narrower) moral codes or value systems. Ethics and morality are now used almost
interchangeably in many contexts, but the name of the philosophical study remains ethics.
Characteristics of Ethics
1. Truthfulness
2. Accuracy
3. Objectivity
4. Accountability
Branches of Ethics
1. Descriptive Ethics - is a value-free approach to ethics which examines ethics from the perspective
of observations of actual choices made by moral agents in practice. It is the study of people's beliefs
about morality, and implies the existence of, rather than explicitly prescribing, theories of value or of
conduct. It is not designed to provide guidance to people in making moral decisions, nor is it designed
to evaluate the reasonableness of moral norms.
Descriptive Ethics is sometimes referred to as Comparative Ethics because so much activity can
involve comparing ethical systems: comparing the ethics of the past to the present; comparing the
ethics of one society to another; and comparing the ethics which people claim to follow with the actual
rules of conduct which do describe their actions.
2. Normative Ethics (or Prescriptive Ethics) is the branch of ethics concerned with establishing how
things should or ought to be, how to value them, which things are good or bad, and which actions are
right or wrong. It attempts to develop a set of rules governing human conduct, or a set of norms for
action.
3. Meta-Ethics
- is concerned primarily with the meaning of ethical judgments, and seeks to understand the nature of
ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments and how they may be supported or defended.
- A meta-ethical theory, unlike a normative ethical theory, does not attempt to evaluate specific choices
as being better, worse, good, bad or evil; rather it tries to define the essential meaning and nature of
the problem being discussed.
4. Applied Ethics is a discipline of philosophy that attempts to apply ethical theory to real-life
situations. Strict, principle-based ethical approaches often result in solutions to specific problems that
are not universally acceptable or impossible to implement. Applied Ethics is much more ready to
include the insights of psychology, sociology and other relevant areas of knowledge in its deliberations.
It is used in determining public policy.
