BACHELOR OF ARTS IN POLITICAL SCINCE-Ethics-module-1-and-2.pptx

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1. STANDARDS ETHICS MORAL AND NON-MORAL

2. Overview ☐ Over the past decade, intuitionist models of morality have challenged the view that moral reasoning is the sole or even primary means by which moral judgments are made. Rather, intuitionist models posit that certain situations automatically elicit moral intuitions, which guide moral judgments. According to these models, moral judgments are very often produced by reflexive mental computations that are unconscious, fast, and automatic. From this perspective, affective responses are automatically triggered by certain moral issues and provide a strong bottom-up influence on judgments and decision-making. As such, the role of moral reasoning is relegated to the role of post hoc justification or corrective control following the initial intuition, but is notthe causal impetus for a moral judgment. In the current paper, we present three experiments showing that moral evaluations are also susceptible to construal. Specifically, we show that people can deliberately construe a wide variety of actions through either a moral or a non-moral lens with different consequences for their evaluations. This chapter will discuss moral and non-moral standards.

3. MORALITY IS NORMATIVE AND NOT PURELY DESCRIPTIVE ☐ When we think about values, very often we are thinking about morality. What is distinctive about moral claims is that they are normative and not purely descriptive. They talk about right or wrong actions, what should or should not happen. However, although a moral claim is not purely descriptive, it can include some descriptive elements. For example, the last moral claim above implies the factual claim that the police did play music to drown out a protest. This is the descriptive element, and the normative component lies in the additional value judgement on what has been done. Notice also that descriptive claims about moral beliefs in themselves are not normative. A few years back a survey in Hong Kong drew the conclusion that many young people think there is nothing wrong with corruption. This conclusion is a statement about the a moral belief shared by many young people. But the conclusion is a purely descriptive statement that does not evaluate the shared belief.

4. ☐ Morality may refer to the standards that a person or a group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil. Accordingly, moral standards are those concerned with or relating to human behavior, especially the distinction between good and bad (or right and wrong) behavior. ☐ Moral standards involve the rules people have about the kinds of actions they believe are morally right and wrong, as well as the values they place on the kinds of objects they believe are morally good and morallybad. Some ethicistsequate moral standards with moral values and moral principles. ETHICS ☐ A kind of investigation and includes both the activityof investigating and the resultsof the investigation. Examines one’s moral standards or the moral standards of the society. MORALITY MORAL STANDARDS

5. Moral standardshave overriding character or hegemonic authority. If a moral standard states that a person has the moral obligation to do something, then he/she is supposed to do that even if it conflicts with other non-moral standards, and even with self- interest. Moral standards are not the only rules or principles in society, but they take precedence over otherconsiderations, including aesthetic, prudential, and even legal ones. b. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values. CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS Moral standards deal with matterswhich can seriouslyimpact, that is, injure or benefit human beings. It is not the case with many non-moral standards. For instance, following or violating some basketball rules may matter in basketball games but does not necessarily affect one’s life or wellbeing. a. Moral standards involve serious wrongs or significant benefits.

6. A person may be aesthetically justified in leaving behind his family in order to devote his life to painting, but morally, all thingsconsidered, he/she probablywas not justified. It may be prudent to lie to save one’s dignity, but it probablyis morally wrong todo so. When a particular law becomes seriously immoral, it may be people’s moral duty to exercise civildisobedience. There is a general moralduty to obey the law, but there may come a time when the injustice of an evil law is unbearable and thus calls for illegal but moral non-cooperation (such as the antebellum laws calling for citizens to return slaves to their owners). b. Moral standards ought to be preferred to other values. CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS

7. Moral standards are not invented, formed, or generated by authoritative bodies or persons such as nations’ legislative bodies. Ideally instead, these values ought to be considered in the process of making laws. In principle therefore, moral standards cannot be changed nor nullified by the decisions of particular authoritative body.One thing about these standards, nonetheless, is that its validity lies on the soundness or adequacy of the reasons that are considered to support and justify them. c. Moral standards are not established by authority figures CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS

8. Simply put, it means that everyone should live up to moral standards. To be more accurate, however, it entails that moral principles must apply to all who are in the relevantly similar situation. If one judges that act A is morally right for a certain person P, then it is morally right for anybody relevantly similar to P. This characteristic is exemplified in the Gold Rule, “Do unto others what you would them do unto you (if you were in their shoes)” and in the formal Principle of Justice, “It cannot be right for A to treat B in a manner in which it would be wrong for B to treat A, merely on the ground that they are two different individuals, and without there being any difference between the natures or circumstances of the two whichcan be stated as a reasonable ground for difference of treatment.” Universalizability is an extension of the principle of consistency, that is, one ought to be consistent about one’s value judgments. d. Moral standards have the trait ofuniversalizability CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS

9. Moral standard does not evaluate standards on the basis of the interests of a certain person or group,but one that goes beyondpersonal interests to a universal standpoint in which each person’s interests are impartially counted as equal. Impartiality is usuallydepicted as being free of bias or prejudice. Impartiality in morality requires that we give equal and/or adequate consideration to the interests of all concerned parties. e. Moral standardsare based on impartial considerations CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS

10. ☐ Prescriptively indicates the practical or action-guiding nature of moral standards. These moral standards are generally put forth as injunction or imperatives (such as, ‘Do not kill,’ ‘Do no unnecessary harm,’ and ‘Love your neighbor’). These principles are proposed for use, to advise, and to influence to action. Retroactively, this feature is used to evaluate behavior, to assign praise and blame, and to produce feelings of satisfaction or of guilt. If a person violates a moral standard by telling a lie even to fulfilla special purpose, it is not surprising if he/she starts feeling guilty or being ashamed of his behavior afterwards. On the contrary,no much guilt is felt if one goes against the current fashion trend (e.g. refusing to wear tattered jeans). f. Moral standards are associated with special emotions and vocabulary CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS

11. Non-moral standards refer to rules that are unrelated to moral or ethical considerations. Either these standards are not necessarily linked to morality or by nature lack ethical sense. Basic examples of non-moral standards include rules of etiquette, fashion standards, rules in games, and various house rules. Technically, religious rules, some traditions, and legal statutes (i.e. laws and ordinances) are non-moral principles, though they can be ethically relevantdepending on some factors and contexts. NON – MORAL STANDARDS

12. Moral dilemmas are situations in which the decision-maker must consider two or more moral values or duties but canonly honor one of them; thus, the individual will violate at least one important moral concern, regardless of the decision. This chapter draws a distinction between real and falsedilemmas. The former are situations in which the tension is between moral values or duties that are, more or less, on equal footing. In a real dilemma,the choice is between a wrong and another, roughlyequal wrong. The latter are situations in which the decision-maker has a moral duty to act in one way but is tempted or pressured to act in another way. In a false dilemma, the choice is actually between a right and a wrong. MORAL DILEMMAS

13. A moral dilemma can occur because of a prior personal mistake. This is called a self- inflicted dilemma. A classic example is the Bible story about King Herod. On Herod’s birthday, his stepdaughter Salome danced so well that he promised to give her whatever she wanted. Salome consulted her mother about what she should wish for, and she decided to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The king now had a choice between honoring the promise to his stepdaughter and honoring the life of John the Baptist. The king had inadvertently designed a moral trap for himself—a dilemma in which, whatever he decided, he would be acting immorally. MORAL DILEMMAS

14. Foundations of Moral Valuation by OscarG. Bulaong, Mark Joseph T. Calano, Albert M. Lagliva, Michael Ner E. Mariano, Jesus Deogracias Z. Principe REFERENCE/S

15. ETHICS THE ETHICAL DIMENSION OF HUMAN EXISTENCE

16. Overview ☐ In August 2007, newspapers reported what seemed to be yet another sad incident of fraternity violence. Cris Anthony Mendez, a 20 year old student of University of the Philippines (UP), was rushed to the hospital in the early morning hours, unconscious, with large bruises on his chest back and legs. He passed away that morning, and the subsequent autopsy report strongly suggests that his physical injuries were most probably the result of “hazing” (the term colloquially used to refer to initiation rites in which neophytes may be subjected to various forms of physical abuse). What exactly happened remains an open question, as none of those who were with him that night came forward to shed light on what had transpired. Needless to say, none of them came forward to assume responsibility for the death of Cris. These questions that concern good and bad, or right and wrong – and these are questions concerning value- are thekinds of questions that we deal with in ethics. This chapter will discuss value.

17. ☐ FRIEDRICHHEGEL, CHARLES DARWIN,AND KARL MARX believed that all living forms and social systems are mere result of progressive transformations over time, and man is shaped by eitherevolutionary processes and/or the culturethat surrounds him. They rejected the idea that man is born with some innate nature. Did you know that?

18. ETHICS ☐ Generally speaking, is about matters such as the good thing that we should pursue and the bad thing that we should avoid;the right ways in which we could or should act and the wrong ways of acting. It is about what is acceptable and unacceptable in human behaviour. It may involveobligations that we are expectedto fulfil, prohibitions that we are required to respect or ideals that we are encouraged to meet. Ethics as a subject for us to study is about determining the grounds for the values with particular and special significance to HUMAN LIFE.

19. ☐ derived from the Greek word “aesthesis” (sense or feeling) and refers to the judgements of personal approval or disapproval that we make about what we see, hear, smell or taste. We often use the word “taste” to refer to the personal aesthetic preferences that we have on these matters, such as “his taste in music”, or “taste in clothes”. AESTHETICS KINDS OF VALUATION

20. ☐ sense of approval or disapproval concerning to certain actions which we can be considered relatively more trivial in nature. Concerned with right or wrong actions, but those which might be considered not quite grave enough to belong to a discussion on ethics. ETIQUETTE KINDS OF VALUATION

21. ☐ derive from the Greek word “techne” of “technique” and “technical” which are often refer to a proper way (right way) of doing things but may not necessarily be an ethical one. TECHNICAL VALUATION KINDS OF VALUATION

22. ☐ Recognizing the characteristics of aesthetic and technical valuationallows us to have a rough guide as to what belongs to a discussion of ethics. They involve valuations that we make in a sphere of human actions, characterized by certain gravity and concern the humanwell-being or humanlife itself. Therefore, matters that concernlife and death such as war, capital punishment or abortion and matters that concern human well-being such as poverty, inequality or sexual identity.

23. ETHICS ☐ can be spoken of as the discipline of studying and understanding ideal human behaviour and ideals ways of thinking. It is acknowledged as an intellectual discipline belonging to philosophy. However,acceptable and unacceptable behaviors are also generally described as ethical and unethical, respectively. Example: Professional ethics for engineers, medical practicioners and many more. MORALS may refer to specific beliefs or attitudes that people have or to describe acts that people perform. Thus, it is sometimes said that an individual’s personal conduct is referred to as his morals,and if he falls short of behavingproperly, this can bedescribed as IMMORAL.However, we also have terms such as “moral judgement” or “moral reasoning”.

24. NORMATIVE ☐ study of ethics, as often done in philosophy or moral theology, engages in the question: What could or should be considered as the right way of acting? In other words, a normative discussion prescribes what we ought to maintain as our standard or bases for moral valuation. DESCRIPTIVE study of ethics reports how people, particularly groups make their moral valuations without making any judgement eitherfor or against these valuations. This kind of study is often the work of the social scientist: either historian, sociologist or anthropologist.

25. ISSUE, DECISION,JUDGMENT AND DILEMMA MORAL ISSUE Distinguish a situation that calls for moral valuation. It is often used to refer to those particular situations that are often the source of considerable and inconclusive debate. (Capital punishment or euthanasia)

26. ISSUE, DECISION,JUDGMENT AND DILEMMA MORAL DECISION When one is placed in a situation and confronted by the choice of what act to perform. Example: I choose not to take something I did not pay for.

27. ISSUE, DECISION,JUDGMENT AND DILEMMA MORAL JUDGMENT When a person is an observer who make an assessment on the actions or behaviour of someone. Example:A friend of mine choosesto steal from a store, and I make an assessment that it is wrong.

28. ISSUE, DECISION,JUDGMENT AND DILEMMA MORAL DILEMMA Going beyond the matter of choosing right over wrong, or good over bad, and considering instead the more complicated situationwherein one is torn between choosing one of two goods or choosing between the lesser two evils. When an individual can choose only one from a number of possible actions, and there compelling ethical reasons for the various choices. Example: A mother may be conflicted between wanting to feed her hungry child,but then recognizing that it would be wrong for her to steal.

29. ☐ A person’sfear of punishment or desire for reward can provide him reasons for acting in a certain way. The promise of rewards and the fear of punishments can certainly motivate us to act, but are not in themselves a determinant of the rightness or wrongness of a certain way of acting or of the good or the bad in particular pursuit. REASONING

30. PRINCIPLES Rationally established grounds by which one justifies and maintains her moral decisions and judgments. We can maintain principles but we can also ask what good reasons for doing so. Such reasons may differ. MORAL THEORY Systematic attempt to establish the validity of maintaining certain principles.

31. FRAMEWORK ☐ System of thought or of ideas. A theory of interconnected ideas, and that at the same time, a structure through which we can evaluate our reasons for valuing a certain decision or judgment. There are different frameworks that can make us reflect on the principles that we maintain and thus, the decisions and judgment we make. By studying these,we can reconsider, clarify, modify and ultimately strengthen our principles, thereby informing better both our moral judgments and moral decisions.

32. Foundations of Moral Valuation by OscarG. Bulaong, Mark Joseph T. Calano, Albert M. Lagliva, Michael Ner E. Mariano, Jesus Deogracias Z. Principe REFERENCE/S