Topic 1: Ethics

- It can be provisionally described as the empirical study of

moral decisions.
- A discipline concerned with what is morally good and
evil, right and wrong.
- It is a systematic analysis of the nature of human actions
- It is concerned about the correctness and wrongness of
the act.
 The branch of philosophy that asks the practical question:
What should we do?

This leads to the study of things like:

 Values - the things we hold to be good and therefore care
about most deeply. Things like justice, knowledge, family, and
equality.
 Principles - know what’s right
- Help us draw the line in the sand
- Determine the acceptable ways of getting what we value
 Beliefs Ethical Behavior
 Normals - These are actions that conforms to the majority of social
norms and is generally accepted by the public.
“Ethics is at the centre of everyday life”
Unethical Behavior
- These are actions that violate social norms or are deemed
unacceptable by the public.
Importance of Ethics Morals are shaped by the beliefs of an individual. Values are the
basis of the capacity of an individual to distinguish between
 through ethics people can determine the difference between
right and wrong. Morals build on this to form concrete, context-
right from wrong, good and bad:
 people can eliminate actions that do not conform to what is
right;
 people will be very careful to the actions and decisions to
make;
 people will not be disturbed of the internal and external
factors of not doing the right thing:
 establish good habits of characters of a person;
 come up to rational decisions in facing an ethical dilemma;
 it makes a person responsible in the family, school and
society;
 a person becomes sensitive to the needs of others more
than himself or herself, and driven rules that regulate the actions of an individual. They are
 reminds a person to fully need conscience in decision formed from the experience of a person's life and are subject to
making and a person can acknowledge the actions made. opinion.

Moral Standards
- Moral standards are those concerned with or relating to MORAL STANDARDS VS NONMORAL STANDARDS
human behaviour, especially the distinction between
good and bad behaviour. Moral Standards
- Moral standards involves the rules people have about the - These are personal or societal beliefs about what is
kinds of actions they believe are morally right and wrong. As right or wrong, or what is good or bad. These are often
well as the values they place on the kinds of objects they influenced by cultural, societal, and personal values and can
believe morally good and morally bad. be more subjective than ethics. Moral standards ar ethe
principles an individual or groups use to judge behavior in
Characteristics of Moral Standard terms of fairness, justice and goodness.
 Moral standards entail serious harm or benefit. Nonmoral Standards
 Moral standards are not determined by authority figures. - It refer to rules that are unrelated to moral or ethical
 Moral standards should be adopted over other values, considerations. Either these standards are not necessarily
including self-interest linked to morality or by nature lack ethical sense.
 Moral standards are focused on objective considerations.
 Moral standards are perceived to be universal. Examples of non-moral standards are:
 Moral standards are correlated with different feelings and
 standards of etiquette by which we judge manners as good
vocabulary.
or bad,
How are moral standards formed?  standards we call the law by which we judge something as
legal or illegal, and
  standards of aesthetics by which we judge art as good or The police arrive and ask for your version of the story. What
rubbish. would you say?

 Truthfulness and Integrity - This principle involves being

honest and transparent, even when it's difficult.
 Justice and Fairness - The aim here is to ensure that the
right individuals face appropriate consequences for their
actions.
Topic 2: Moral Dilemma  Responsibility and Accountability - Each person should
be held accountable for their actions.
- is a conflict in which you have to choose between two or
 Compassion and Empathy - This principle involves
more actions and have moral reasons for choosing each
understanding and considering the perspectives and
action.
hardships faced by others.
Moral dilemma is characterized as:
Types of Moral Dilemmas
 Making an option to one moral value over the other
1. Epistemic & Ontological Dilemmas
 A scenario where a person has a strong moral reason in
action, but not equally strong moral reason in acting in
another way
 A situation where moral values are significant

A moral dilemma is a conflict/situation where:

1. You are presented with two or more actions, all of which
you have the ability to perform.
2. There are moral reasons for you to choose each of the
actions. Hence, some moral principles will be
compromised.
3. You can not perform all of the actions and have to choose
which is the best course of action for actions (or
actions when there are three or more choices) to perform.

Example: Imagine you are walking to a store with your friend Gia.
She tells you that Kayla, a student at your school, stole money from
the cafeteria and blamed Gia for it. As a result, Gia was suspended
for two weeks and had to pay the money back.

As you and Gia walk into the store, you see Kayla. Gia pushes Kayla
slightly and drops a pair of earrings into Kayla's purse. The alarm
sounds once Kayla tries to walk out of the store. She is pulled aside
by security for shoplifting, and they call the police. Kayla tells them
that she is innocent and that Gia dropped the earrings in her purse.
Gia calls Kayla a liar and asks you to back her up..
2. Self-imposed & World-imposed Dilemmas

2. Individual Moral Dilemma

- A situation where individuals
confront with a number of
factors such as peer
pressure, personal financial
position, an economic and
social status which may
influence all individual
ethical standards.

3. Structural Moral Dilemma

- selecting a proper system of
responsibilities and
relationships, which is a
continuing universal
challenge.

To avoid structural moral dilemma then the following

characteristics must be maintained:

 Must have well-distributed jobs and the laws, policies, rules,

and regulations must be balanced through lateral
approaches.
3. Obligation & Prohibition Dilemmas
 Must have an implicitly defined job description, roles, and
duties to evade from gaps and overlaps.
4. Single Agent & Multi-person Dilemmas
 Must have a clear-cut expectation of the tasks in a wide
Three Levels of Moral Dilemmas range of goals

1. Organizational Ethical/Moral Dilemma

- situation that causes an
organization to respond
negatively or positively to an
ethical issue that affects
staff, shareholders, and
society, as well as corporate
ethics and customers.
 Must have a well-balanced interdependence and

coordination.