Welcometo

Ethics 170202. Ethics and citizens rights

DR. BURTON A. AGGABAOProfessorial lecturer

aggburt@yahoo.com

FIRST WEEK

THE NATURE OF MORALITY

Learning OutcomeAt the end of the lecture, students will be able to: Define Philosophy and explain the relationship of ethics to it. Define key terms concerning ethics or morality. Explain the various approaches to the study of morality. Understand what morality is and how it differs from aesthetics, non-

moral behavior, and manners. Understand to whom morality applies. Have some idea of where morality comes from. Distinguish between morality and the law. Distinguish between morality and religion. Understand why human beings should be moral.

What is Philosophy and Ethics’ What is Philosophy and Ethics’ relationships to it?relationships to it?

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 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 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

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 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. 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 MoralityA. The scientific or descriptive approach emphasizes the

observation of human behavior and the positing of conclusions based on those observations.

This approach is most often used in the social sciences and, like ethics, deals with human behavior and conduct.

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. Normative or Prescriptive Ethics2. Metaethics (or sometimes called

Analytic Ethics)

Approaches to the Study of Morality

1. Normative or Prescriptive Ethics. It deals with norms (or standards) and prescriptions. How should or ought we to act?

Using the example that human beings often act in their own self-interest, 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

They might even go further and come up with definite conclusion, for example:

“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 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 Morality2. Metaethics (or sometimes called Analytic Ethics). This

approach is analytics in two ways: 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 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 Manners or etiquette are forms of socially acceptable

and unacceptable behavior.

For example, swearing or use of foul language is in most contexts considered unacceptable.

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:

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? Who is morally responsible? Should only

human beings be held morally responsible? Are all animals non-moral?