Ethics: Basic Concepts and Issues, Summaries of Ethics

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Module 1

Ethics: Basic Concepts and Issues

Lesson 1. Meaning and Scope of Ethics

Lesson 2. Normative Nature of Moral Statements

Lesson 3. Characteristics of Moral Standards

Lesson 4: The Issue of Ethical Relativism

3 General Areas of Ethics

1. Metaethics

• (^) It looks into the nature, meaning, scope, and foundations of moral values, beliefs, and judgments. Examples of metaethical questions are: Is morality objective or relative? Is morality based on reason, emotions, intuition, or facts? What are moral persons? What does it mean to be morally accountable?

2. Normative Ethics

• (^) It is concerned with the formulation of moral standards, rules, or principles to determine right from wrong conduct or ways of life worth pursuing.
• (^) Normative ethical theories are generally built on 3 considerations about acts: (a) that they lead to consequences; (b) that they follow or violate rules; and (c) that they are done by persons with character traits. Accordingly, these theories are generally classified into consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics.

3. Applied Ethics

• (^) It examines the particular moral issues occurring in both the personal and social spheres. It determines the moral permissibility of actions and practices in specific areas of human concern like business, medicine, nature, law, sports, and others.
• (^) Areas in applied ethics include business ethics, bioethics, environmental ethics, computer ethics, and social media ethics.

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Descriptive Ethics

• (^) Metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics are areas of Ethics taken as a philosophical study of morality. A non-philosophical study of morality which seeks to objectively record and present how people in a certain community make moral judgments or develop their capacity for such is called descriptive ethics. Descriptive ethics can be done in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, and psychology.

Examples:

Normative Statements Standards “You ought to return the excess change to the cashier.” Moral Standard “There should be unity, balance, and contrast in your painting.” Aesthetic Standard “You ought to use the preposition “in” rather than “on.” Grammatical Standard “It is illegal to make a U-turn there.” (“Based on the law, you ought not to make a U-turn there Legal Standard “You ought to cover your mouth when you laugh.” Standard of Etiquette

Lesson 3: Characteristics of Moral Standards

Moral Standards and Other Normative Standards

• Moral standards are often confused with other normative standards also

concerned with “good” or “proper” behavior, such as:

1. Standards of Etiquette: based on culture or conventional practices 2. Legal Standards: based on governmental laws 3. Religious Standards: based on religious laws

• What may be acceptable for these other normative standards may not be

acceptable for moral standards due to the characteristics of moral standards.

Lesson 4: The Issue of Ethical Relativism

Defining Ethical Relativism

• Ethical Relativism:^ the view which states that all moral principles are valid

relative to a particular society or individual.

• Ethical Relativism should be distinguished from:
  • Ethical Skepticism:^ the view which states that there are no valid moral

principles at all (or at least we cannot know whether there are any)

• Ethical Objectivism:^ the view which states that there are universally valid

moral principles binding all people.

Two Forms of Ethical Relativism

1. Individual Ethical Relativism /Ethical Subjectivism

• (^) The rightness or wrongness of an action lies on the the individual’s own commitments and interests.
• (^) There is no interpersonal basis by which to judge whether an act is morally good or bad, right or wrong.

2. Cultural Ethical Relativism /Ethical Conventionalism

• (^) The rightness or wrongness of an action depends on society’s norms.
• (^) Morality is social in nature. While there are no universal moral principles, there are valid moral principles justified by virtue of their cultural acceptance.
• (^) Considered more acceptable or reasonable than individual ethical relativism.

Some Arguments Against Ethical Relativism

1. Moral diversity or disagreement does not establish moral relativism.

• (^) When two people disagree about something, it may be that one of them is correct while the other is wrong.

2. Ethical relativism leads to absurd consequences.

• (^) First, moral criticism would be impossible or meaningless. It would be senseless to criticize an action by another individual or group however abhorrent or inhumane.
• (^) Second, morality would simply be a matter of following social norms, which would undermine our rational nature.
• (^) Third, moral progress would be impossible. For how can we change social practices for the better if we cannot criticize them?

3. Despite the fact that some moral beliefs and practices vary among cultures,

there are still universal moral standards that exist, such as those that respect

life and promote the pursuit of truth, justice, and peace.

• (^) Cultural practices may differ but the fundamental moral principles underlying them do not.