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Welcome
to
Ethics 170202. Ethics and citizens rights
DR. BURTON A. AGGABAO
Professorial lecturer
[email protected]
FIRST WEEK
THE NATURE OF MORALITY
Learning Outcome
At the end of the lecture, students will be able to:
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Define Philosophy and explain the relationship of ethics to it.
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Define key terms concerning ethics or morality.
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Explain the various approaches to the study of morality.
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Understand what morality is and how it differs from aesthetics, non-moral behavior,
and manners.
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Understand to whom morality applies.
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Have some idea of where morality comes from.
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Distinguish between morality and the law.
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Distinguish between morality and religion.
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Understand why human beings should be moral.
What is Philosophy and Ethics’ relationships to it?
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Philosophy literary means love of wisdom.
The Greek words philia meaning love or
friendship, and sophia meaning wisdom.
Philosophers try to be a friend of wisdom
by asking questions and studying why
something is the case.
Ethics seeks wisdom by asking about right
and wrong, good and bad.
Five Branches of Philosophy
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Epistemolgy (study of knowledge)
Metaphysics (study the nature of reality)
Ethics (study of morality)
Aesthetics (study of values in art or beauty)
Logic (study of argument and reasoning(
Terms and Characteristics

Ethics comes from the Greek
ethos meaning character.
 Pertains
to the individual
character of a person or persons.

Morality derives from the Latin
moralis meaning customs or
manners.
Terms and Characteristics
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Ethics seems to pertains to the
individual character of a person or
persons, whereas morality seems to
point to the relationships between
human beings.
In philosophy, ethics is also used to a
specific area of study: the area of
morality, which concentrates on human
conduct and human values.
Terms and Characteristics

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Commonly we speak of people being
ethical or moral to mean good or right
and unethical and immoral to mean
wrong or bad.
Philosophical ethics is the study of
what makes something moral or ethical,
good or right, and unethical or immoral
bad or wrong.
Terms and Characteristics
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Philosophers have considered what makes something morally good
or bad, right or wrong in relation to a range of characteristics.
For example, does moral goodness involve some relation to
happiness or pleasure?
Does the good involve excellence of some sort? Or harmony and
creativity? Is it possible to be amoral – that is, indifferent to right
and wrong? What things are non moral? For example, my pen that I
write with appears neither moral nor immoral in itself but if I use it
as a weapon it enters the domain of morality.
Terms and Characteristics

Amoral means having no moral sense, or being
indifferent to right and wrong.
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This term can be applied to very few people.
The complete absence of a sense of right and wrong
may be caused by physical trauma to the brain.
Some criminal types are amoral despite moral
education.
Terms and Characteristics

Non-moral means out of the realm of morality
altogether.
 For
example, inanimate objects such as cars and guns
are neither moral nor immoral. A person using the car
or gun may use it immorally, but the things themselves
are non moral.
Approaches to the Study of Morality
Approaches to the Study of Morality
The scientific or descriptive approach emphasizes the observation of human
behavior and the positing of conclusions based on those observations.
A.
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This approach is most often used in the social sciences and, like ethics, deals with human
behavior and conduct.
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The emphasis here, is empirical; that is, social scientists observe and collect data about
human behavior and conduct and then draw certain conclusions.

Psychologists, for example, have claimed that human beings are basically selfish based
on observations of conduct. This approach is descriptive in that it is “value-free” making
no judgments about the rightness or wrongness of the behavior.
Approaches to the Study of Morality
B.
Philosophical approach, it has two parts.
1.
2.
Normative or Prescriptive Ethics
Metaethics (or sometimes called Analytic Ethics)
Approaches to the Study of Morality
Normative or Prescriptive Ethics. It deals with norms (or
standards) and prescriptions. How should or ought we to act?
1.
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Using the example that human beings often act in their own selfinterest, normative ethical philosophers would go beyond the
description and conclusion of the psychologists and would want
to know whether human beings should or ought to act in their
own self interest.
Approaches to the Study of Morality
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They might even go further and come up with definite conclusion, for
example:
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“Given these arguments and this evidence, human
beings should always act in their own self-interest
(egoism).
Or they might say, “Human beings should always act in
the interest of others” (altruism),
or “Human beings should always act in the interest of
all concerned, self included” (utilitarianism).
Approaches to the Study of Morality
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These three conclusions are no longer merely descriptions, but prescriptions:
that is, the statements are prescribing how human beings should behave, not
merely describing how they do, in fact, behave.
Approaches to the Study of Morality
Metaethics (or sometimes called Analytic Ethics). This approach is
analytics in two ways:
2.
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Metaethicists analyze ethical language (e.g. what we mean when we use
the word good).
They analyze the rational foundations of ethical systems, or the logic and
reasoning of various ethicists.
A metaethicist is committed to the analysis of the language, concepts
reasons and foundational structure of ethical systems.
Thiroux’s text is committed to synthesizing all of these approaches.
Morality and its Applications
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Aesthetics. Ethics like aesthetics is a part of philosophy concerned with
values.
Ethics differs from aesthetics in that it is concerned with moral value
although moral value and aesthetic value connect and overlap.
Non-moral uses of key terms. Good, bad, right and wrong are often used in
a non-moral sense, e.g., good meal, bad tooth, etc. These uses often refer
to function.
Aristotle argued that morality is tied to the function of a human being. This
should not be confused with any idea that meals or teeth are directly linked
to the ethical use of language or the moral domain of human life.
Morality and its Applications
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Manners or etiquette
unacceptable behavior.
are forms of socially acceptable and

For example, swearing or use of foul language is in most contexts
considered unacceptable.
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However there is no necessary connection between this and immorality. Of
course manners and morals overlap but care is required to distinguish them
when there is no obvious connection.
To whom or what does morality apply?
Morality may be applied to four areas:
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Religion. Morality determined by relation between human being and
supernatural being.
Nature. Morality determined by relation between human being and nature.
Individuality. Morality determined by relation the individual has to him or herself.
Society. Morality determined by relation between human being and society.
Most moral systems involve all four of these areas with one being primary.
To whom or what does morality apply?
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Who is morally responsible? Should only human
beings be held morally responsible? Are all animals
non-moral?