Download What is ethics

What is ethics
….
• Morals: derived from the term mos, moris
(way of life or conduct)
– Associated with personal behavior
• Ethics: derived from the Greek term ethos
meaning (custom or character)
• Ethics- standards of behavior that tell us how
we ought to behave in different situations
…
• Branch of philosophy that deals with the
moral component of human life (moral
philosophy
• Described as a set of principles or a code of
moral conduct/ a system of moral principles.
(It affects how we make decisions)
• It reflects a society’s assumptions about the
rightness and wrong ness of an act
…
• Well founded standards of right and wrong
that prescribe what humans ought to do,
usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits
to society or even specific virtues.
• It is concerned with what is good for
individuals and society.
importance
• Ethics looks into understanding the proper
course of action for man in a given situation.
• Ethics basically define for us how we treat or
deal with each other in society.
• Ethics also tell us ‘what ought to be’ between
people in society
• It is about the other (being able to give
thought beyond ourselves)
…
• Ethics emphasizes the need to show concern
for the other and to conduct or pursue
different endeavors in a manner that avoids or
reduces harm and conflicting situations.
• Ethics also define our obligations to one
another and also particular obligations which
come with a particular profession
Ethical behavior
• Actual ethical behavior is depended on many
factors including:
– The individual in a situation,
– the circumstance or the moral intensity of the
situation.
• Ethics do not always show the right answer to
moral problems, more often than not they
maybe several right answers and you have to
make a decision on the most appropriate
Ethical issues in communication
• falsehood/misleading information/
withholding information (plagiarism, selective
misquoting, misrepresenting numbers,
distorting visuals)
• Truth
• Privacy
• Confidentiality
• Conflict of interest
…
• Truth: indication of having respect of person
– Important for decision making
– Influences public opinion\society depend on
public communicators telling the truth
– Support democratic processes
– Have an understanding of what is going on…
– Be accurate , fair and balanced (avoid bias)
…
• Privacy-the right to be left alone
– Individual-autonomy-to be able to make a choice
– Balance between publics need to know about
something and the privacy of an individual (do
people really need to know about certain issues).
•
…
• Confidentiality: disclosing information in a
relationship of trust
– Information will not be divulged without your
consent
• Conflict of interest: credibility of information
is often questioned
– Affects neutrality of the communicator.
Ethical communication
• The communication process would have a
moral agent with a particular motive and acts
either verbal or non-verbal at a particular
individual or audience with some
consequences.
Communication process
• Moral agent- make ethical decisions (understand
the role of the moral agent)ethical standards
differ according to social roles
• Ethical decisions are always made within a
context (exerts a particular influence) eg political
climate
• Examine motives (good motives can sometimes
be used to justify wrong acts)
• assess motives in conjunction with the consequences
of the action
…
• Act- the behavioral component of the
communication process. Focus is on actions of
others that may lead us to describe them as
ethical or unethical
• Evaluate a situation in terms of the moral
agents relationship to the individual or
audience affected by an ethical decision.
• Ethical judgments produce consequenceseither positive or negative…
Branches of ethics
• Meta-ethics
• Normative ethics
• Applied ethics
Meta-ethics
• Are moral judgments universal or relative
• What is good from what is bad/Can moral
statements be true or false
• Is concerned with the study of the characteristics or
nature of ethics
• Examines meanings of terms ‘good, right, justice and
fairness
• What is the meaning of moral statements (meaning
of saying something is right or wrong)
…
• Moral realism vs moral anti-realism
• Realism- there are moral truths about what is right and wrong
– There are genuine moral obligations
• Anti-realism- rejects the existence of moral truths
– No specific way we ought to live
– No right or wrong course of action
Please visit this site for more information of meta ethics and other branches to
ethics.
www.davephilosophyethics.blogspot.com
Normative ethics
• prescriptive ethics, provides a criteria of what is morally right
and wrong
– Determine moral principles
– Prescriptive in nature: follow a particular way of doing
things
– Provide rules and principles that should guide our behavior
– Encourage adherence to moral principle without expecting
consequences/outcomes
•
Types of Normative Ethics
• Consequential ethics (teleogical)
• Deontological ethics
• Virtue ethics
Consequential ethics
• Holds that consequences of ones conduct are the ultimate
basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of
an act
– Judge morality of an act by its outcomes or consequences
– Behavior is justified if it maximizes positives
– Consequences matters and not duty or obligation
• Branches to consequential ethics
• Utilitarianism
• Ethical egoism
• Ethical altruism
• hedonism
…
• Utilitarianism
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Purpose of life is to make life better by increasing the amount of good things and
decreasing the amount of pain
Morality true: if it has a positive contribution to humanity
Utilitarian: Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) & John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Consequences or results of an action determine the rightness or wrongness of an
act
Choose an option that ‘maximizes utility’- action that produces the largest amount
of good for a lot of people
Greatest happiness for the greatest number of people
The end justifies the means (‘means’ not important as the ‘ends’)
There is no regard for individual right
…
• Ethical egoism
• Egoism derived from Latin term ‘ego’ meaning ‘I’
• Considering own utility-putting your own needs first without regard for
the needs and rights of others
• Choice or decision affect single person’s interest (no consideration of
other people’s interest)
• Actions done from a perspective of self-interest
• Action is moral conduct if it produces favorable consequences to the
individual
• One can pursue good but motive is own gain (good actions not out of
concern for others but for self)
• If action doesn’t benefit an individual, then it is morally acceptable for
them not to do it
…
• Ethic altruism
• Altruism derived from the French term ‘autres’ meaning others
• Actions motivated by the needs of others
• Actions or choices that would maximize the well being of a group except
the agent
• Conduct is moral if it produces desirable consequences for everyone
except the agent
• Hedonism
• Pursue actions that will maximize pleasure and happiness and minimize
pain
• Happiness and pleasure are the ultimate goals for life
Deontological ethics
• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• Rejects the importance of consequences in decision making
• Focuses on the intentions behind the actions/principles which
motivates actions
• Gives importance to rightness or wrongness of actions as
opposed to rightness of wrongness of consequences
• Guiding principle: never do anything to another person that
we would not want done to ourselves
…
• Kant: moral acts are either right or wrong on
principle and we have a duty to doing good no
matter the circumstances
• Deontological ethics are based on the
principles that:
– Do the right
– it is the right thing to do
– avoid things because they are wrong.
Kant Principles
• The categorical imperative
• Perform an action if you could agree that everyone be
permitted to act in that way
• ‘act according to that maxim by which you can at the same
time will that it should become a universal law’.
• Test of universalization
• Appeals to reason (ask questions-what if everyone did this)
• Moves away from cultural relativism
•
…
• Second formulation of the categorical
imperative
– ‘so act that you treat humanity, both in your own person and in the
person of every other human being, never merely as a means, but
always at the same time as an end’ Kant
• never abuse people in order to achieve your own goals
• don’t see people as a means to an end
• act out of willingness to do your duty regardless of the
outcomes
Virtue Ethics
• Describe the character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical
behavior
• Focus on character not actions
• Focus on the kind of person we ought to be
• People will naturally do what is good if they know what is right
• They follow values to make ethical decisions (justice, fairness, peace,
freedom
• Confidence in human ability to achieve natural law
• Discovered by reason (reason through why certain acts are good and why
others are not good)
• Ability to reason well-being able to handle a moral question
• Learn by practice in a community (family, friends, society)
Applied ethics
• A particular issue is examined from a moral standpoint
• Identifying the morally correct course of action in various
fields of human life.
• Moral permissibility of specific actions and practices
• Under what conditions are certain acts permissible
• Decision can be informed by principles of morality (thinking
about the good and bad)
• It is the link between theory and practice
…
•
•
•
•
Bio-ethics
Business ethics
Political ethics
Environmental ethics
References
• Dave Barret. Daves Philosophy-Ethics. Retrieved from:
www.davephilosophyethics.blogspot.com
• Dittmer, J. Applied ethic. Retrieved from: www.iep.edu/ap-ethic/
• Day, A.L. (2006). Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and
Controversies. (5th Ed).USA: Wadsworth
• Nathanson, S. Utilitarianism. Retrieved from:
www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/utilitarianism%20notes.htm
• What is ethics. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v3_t4obUc51A