Download Beginning to Understand Ethics

Beginning to Understand Ethics
In two or three brief, clear sentences answer the following questions.
1. Ethics is a part of philosophy. What is the basic question of ethics?
Ans: Engineers and scientists come across a multitude of ethical decisions on a daily
basis and because of their position in society; they shoulder a lot of public trust. By
learning good ethical behaviour, decisions often tend to lead to good consequences. Even
casual observation of how people act shows that many approaches to ethics exist.
2. Describe ethics as Emotivism:
Ans: Emotivism is a meta-ethical view that claims that ethical sentences do not express
propositions but emotional attitudes. Emotivism can be considered a form of noncognitivism or expressivism. It stands in opposition to other forms of non-cognitivism
(such as quasi-realism and universal prescriptivism), as well as to all forms of
cognitivism (including both moral realism and ethical subjectivism).
3. Describe ethics as cultural relativism.
Ans: Cultural Relativism is the view that moral or ethical systems, which vary from
culture to culture, are all equally valid and no one system is really “better” than any other.
This is based on the idea that there is no ultimate standard of good or evil, so every
judgment about right and wrong is a product of society. Therefore, any opinion on
morality or ethics is subject to the cultural perspective of each person. Ultimately, this
means that no moral or ethical system can be considered the “best,” or “worst,” and no
particular moral or ethical position can actually be considered “right” or “wrong.”
4. Describe ethics as subjectivism.
Ans: Ethical Subjectivism holds that there are no objective moral properties and that
ethical statement are in fact arbitrary because they do not express immutable truths.
Instead, moral statements are made true or false by the attitudes and/or conventions of the
observers, and any ethical sentence just implies an attitude, opinion, personal preference
or feeling held by someone. Thus, for a statement to be considered morally right merely
means that it is met with approval by the person of interest. Another way of looking at
this is that judgments about human conduct are shaped by, and in many ways limited to,
perception.
5. If ethics is not a matter of feeling or opinion, what do you believe is the real
foundation or root of ethics?
Ans: The roots of ethics are to be found within man’s freedom and his ability to pursue
values from the choices he makes. These values may be sought within the structure of a
human being. Some of these values will corresponds to man vital needs yet they are not
to be interpreted as being genetically determine, since they are consciously interiorized
and experienced and planned at both individual and group level.
Chavar, you have copied material from the internet without give credit. This is a form of stealing that is
called plagiarism. It is unethical, can get you in lots of trouble with CCM and could cause you to lose a
job if you do this after you are hired. Rewrite these answers in your own words. Notice that the last
question asked what you believe. How do you make moral decisions? Think of a real experience when
you had to decide what was right or wrong. How did you come to a decision?