1

MODULE 1

WHAT IS ETHICS? BASIC CONCEPTS

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. Recall the meaning of ethics.

2. Define and explain the terms that are relevant to ethical thinking
3. Evaluate any ethical issues in connection to self, society, and environment.

Introduction

This module aims to introduce to you the basic meaning of ethics. The first part focuses
on the meaning of ethics, its areas, and clarifications of ethics terms while the second
part will discuss the relevance of ethics in our daily lives, especially in this COVID-19
pandemic crisis.

In this module, you are expected to define ethics and its basic concepts as well and
relate them into your present situations as a student and human being who belongs to a
community. Your task is not only to remember ethical concepts, but how to apply them
into your own life.

Lesson 1: Ethics: Basic Concepts

1.1. Ethics and Philosophy

Ethics is a branch of philosophy. It is also called moral philosophy. Philosophy is a field

of study that deals with fundamental questions of human existence. Philosophy means
love of wisdom, and a philosopher is a lover of wisdom.

Plato and Aristotle asserted that philosophy begins with wonder. To wonder is to ask
profound questions in connection to our lives such as who am I, what is the nature of
the universe, etc:

The task of philosophy is to make that wonder work in everyday life. What
strikes us in doing philosophy is the claim that to apprehend the reality of
things, one has to start from the point of view of wonder. 1

Ethics as a discipline of philosophy deals with the wrongness and correctness of our
actions. It evaluates whether a particular action is good or bad, right or wrong,

Ocampo, Ph.D, Ma. Liza A. 2018. Ethics Primer: A Young Person’s Guide to Mora Reasoning.
1

Quezon City: Vibal Group Inc. p 4.

 2

acceptable or unacceptable. The word ethics comes from the Greek word “ethos”
meaning “use, custom, way of behaving, character” and correspond to the Latin word
“moralitas” or morality. Ethics has four main areas:

 Normative ethics: Ethics is descriptive when we study a person, people, or

society’s moral beliefs or what they think about what is right and wrong. A
historian or sociologist who tries to study the morality of Filipinos is a good
example of descriptive studies.

 Normative Ethics: a normative study of morality asks with a question, “How

should I live? Its main concern is about what we “ought” to do or not? Normative
ethics provides guidelines, norms, and principles that we follow to act morally
and acceptably.

 Metaethics: metaethical concerns are not if our actions are good or bad (as
normative ethics) but deal with the nature and meaning of ethical terms. before
we know if the death penalty is morally bad, then we need to know first what do
we mean by morally bad?

 Applied Ethics: If normative ethics provides us norms, applied ethics is an

application of these norms into specific issues and cases. How can we apply
ethics into issues such as abortion, death penalty, euthanasia or mercy killing,
etc? Ethics can be also applied in a particular field so that we have business
ethics, environmental ethics, etc.

1.2. Clarification of Ethical Terms

Ethics and Morals

In terms of ethics and morality, this video from unwrapped ethics entitled “Ethics” will
give you a glimpse of the differences/relationships between these two terms. The short
video asserted that though ethics and morals may are different terms, they are related
interchangeably, which this course intended to be:
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/ethics

Descriptive and Normative

In studying ethics, we need to distinguish whether we are doing descriptive or

normative. In chapter 1 of Ethics, Foundation of Moral Valuation (5), Dr. Calano and his
colleagues asserted that “a philosophical discussion of ethics goes beyond recognizing
the characteristics of some descriptive theory; also, it does not simply accept as correct
 3

any normative theory. A philosophical discussion of ethics engages in a critical

consideration of normative theory the strengths and weaknesses of these theories.”2

Moral valuations in ethics

What valuation belongs to ethics? Does calling a movie bad and good needs moral
judgment? Or are we saying that someone is immoral when he/she closed the door
impolitely? Valuations that belong to Aesthetics (personal preferences or taste),
Technique (good or bad in baking), and Etiquette ( societal understanding of right or
wrong) are not considered in the discussion of ethics since they are personal, and not
severe. What belongs in the ethical discussion are issues that are severe with intensity,
questions that matter with life and death, the concern of well-being, and life itself. Issues
such as corruption, war, capital punishment, poverty, and killing are moral issues that
greatly affect human life. However, the question of what is grave is not always clearly
define? Can we say that wearing clothes is a matter of personal preference or taste or
does it call moral judgment when you are wearing shorts and sandos during church
services? Or can we say that not wearing masks and not following government
protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic are just bad manners or there is a need for
moral condemnation?

Issue, Decision, Judgment, and Dilemma

In any situation, it is vital to recognize the existence of an ethical issue. According to

Calano et al (2018), “a moral issue refers to those particular situations that are often the
source of considerable and inconclusive debate”3. Personal and communal issues on
abortion, divorce, capital punishment, etc., are examples of issues. In this video from
unwrapped ethics, the idea of Moral Myopia and ethical allows us to understand the
weakness and failure of recognizing ethical issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8KpQatf3mw

A person who is confronted with an issue that needs an action to perform is called to
make a moral decision. But we need to ask, “Who decides whether our action is good or
bad?” in this matter, when a person is an observer who assesses the actions or
behavior of someone, she is making a moral judgment”4.
A dilemma is a situation where one is forced to choose between two or more conflicting
options, either of which is acceptable.”5 By watching this link, Philonotes gave three

2
Calano, Mark Joseph, Oscar G. Bulaong Jr., Albert M. Lagliva, Michael Ner E. Mariano and
Jesus Deogracias Z. Principe. 2018. Ethics: Foundations of Moral Valuation, 1st ed. Manila: Rex
Bookstore: 5.
3
iid: 5.
4
Ibid. 5.
5
https://philonotes.com/index.php/2018/06/10/moral-dilemmas/
 4

conditions present in moral dilemma: “(1) The person or the agent of moral actions
obliged to make a decision about which course of action is best. (2) There must be
different courses of action to choose from. (3) No matter what course of action is taken,
some moral principles are always compromised”. 6

Ethics and Reasoning

How do we know if our decision is morally right or wrong? By making a decision based
solely on our emotions may lead you into error.
We will only know certainly what is right and wrong if we use reasoning. The reasoning
is an important tool for studying ethics. But talking about reasoning needs further
clarification. So that question is, “what kind of reasoning?’
Ethical or moral reasoning is in making informed-decision is not based on reward and
punishment. Our reason is shallow when we do not cheat because we are afraid to be
caught or we help so that people will praise our good works. For our reasoning to be
powerful, we need to ask the question “why”. Why cheating is bad or why I should help
people in need? This question reveals its purpose.
Asking the question “why” will lead us not superficial but beyond reward and
punishment. Our judgment will be based on principles, which define as “rationally
established grounds by which one justifies and maintains her moral decisions and
judgments”7. Why I should care for others and not cheat during exams? We do not only
follow a particular principle, but we also explain its reasons, that cheating is bad
because it touches the idea of fair play and validity of the exam, nor I will help others out
of duty. But how do we arrive with these claims? This is where moral theory enters.
Moral theory “is a systematic attempt to establish the validity of maintaining certain
moral principles”8. A moral theory is s system of ideas but also called a framework. A
framework is a “theory of interconnected ideas, and at the same time, a structure
through which we can evaluate our reasons for valuing a certain decision or judgment.”9
Throughout this course, we will tackle and use moral theories in evaluating ethical
issues. We will study moral theories such as Utilitarianism, natural law, deontology,
virtue ethics, and John Rawl’s theory of justice. We will also evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses

6
https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/ethics-articles/What_Is_an_Ethical_Dilemma%3F/
7Calano, Mark Joseph, Oscar G. Bulaong Jr., Albert M. Lagliva, Michael Ner E. Mariano and Jesus Deogracias Z.
Principe. 2018. Ethics: Foundations of Moral Valuation, 1st ed. Manila: Rex Bookstore. 6.
8 Ibid 6.

9 Ibid 6.
 5

of each theory but most importantly apply those theories into our daily lives, particularly
in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

Conclusion

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies our morality. Our task is to ask questions
about the morality of our existence, to examine and evaluate whether our actions and
conduct and evaluation on ethical issues of our lives. We do not just sit and relax, we do
ethics by the use of our reasoning because that should be our role in this society.

References

 Vaughn, Lewis. 2016. Doing ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues 4th
Edition. New York: W. W.Norton & Company Inc.: 3-12.

 Evangelista, Francis Julius N. & Mabaquiao Jr., Napoleon M. 2020. Ethics: Theories
and Applications. Mandaluyong City: Anvil Publishing, Inc. P 1-19.

 Ocampo, Ph.D, Ma. Liza A. 2018. Ethics Primer: A Young Person’s Guide to Mora
Reasoning. Quezon City: Vibal Group Inc.: 1-10.

 Calano, Mark Joseph, Oscar G. Bulaong Jr., Albert M. Lagliva, Michael Ner E.
Mariano and Jesus Deogracias Z. Principe. 2018. Ethics: Foundations of Moral
Valuation, 1st ed. Manila: Rex Bookstore: 1-5.

 https://philonotes.com/index.php/2018/06/10/moral-dilemmas/

 https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/ethics-
articles/What_Is_an_Ethical_Dilemma%3F
6