PDF Ethics Module - Compress

Ethics
The Scope and Meaning of Ethics 1
Course Module
Module 2 The Scope and Meaning of Ethics
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. To understand the Denion of Ethics
2. Morality and other phases of Human Life
3. To learn about Human Acts
A deeper understanding of Ethics
Ethics is a branch of Philosophy that studies human acts and human conduct. Although
there are subjects that study human conduct such as Psychology and Sociology.
Sociology. Ethics has a
deeper meaning in its standpoin

standpointt by further delving into the aspect of human acts. They are
more
concerned with the morality of human acts.
Noted denion of Ethics
1. Ethics is the praccal science of the morality of human acons
2. Ethics is the scienc inquiry into the principles of morality
3. Ethics is the study of human conduct from the standpoint of morality
4. Ethics is the science of human acts with reference of right and wrong
Relaon of Ethics with Other Sciences
1. Ethics and Logic – Logic is the science of right thinking and while Ethics is the
science of right living. Thinking and Doing things go hand-in-hand, we cannot
move without thinking right the same way every acon is guided by reason.
2. Ethics and Psychology – The two subjects dealt with the study of man, human
nature and human behavior but that is all their

the ir similarity ends. Psychology only
tell us the causes of man’s acons that may be psychological or physiological but

ethics tell us how man should react. Ethics is interested in moral obligaon while
Psychology ends there.
3. Ethics and Sociology – as we all know,

know, Sociology deals with the study of society
as well as the social order that regulates the society as a whole. But then what is
the foundaon of their social order if there is no basis of right and wrong which
is Ethics. Any society is doomed to fail if devoid of correct basis of thinking.
4. Ethics and Economics – Napoleon once said that an army marches on its
stomach, in relaon to economics man has to fulll is economic needs. The need
for material wealth is inherent in man that there are instances that economic
topics needed ethical principles such as capital-labor relaons, prot, interests,
money et al. The need to sele these conicts must have ethical basis to incur
equitable results.
Morality and Other Phases of Human Life
1. Ethics and Educaon – Educaon whether formal or informal is a never-ending
process and is the foundaon of man’s moral, intellectual and physical
capacies. But then again educaon is illicit if it is not supported by ethics, they
say ethics is life the same way educaon is intertwined with life. Learning is
good but learning supported by ethics is beer inasmuch as ethics is living right.
2. Morality and Law – as menoned in the previous module, not everything moral
is legal and not everything legal is moral. Meaning there are good things that do
not need legislaon and immoral acts that the State may approve. But to further
dierenate them laws only used external acts while ethics cover man’s “acts”
that play in his mind that will not incriminate him in any statute. For example, a
plan for a robbery if discovered is not criminally liable in any court of law but
ethics said it is a fault for such “act” is intrinsically evil.

3. Ethics and Polics - Man in his constant search for happiness be it temporal or
eternal is never ending. They say polics and ethics are poles apart – in a certain
point that is correct it is the very reason why polics become dirty for they
deviate from ethics. Man’s

Man’s insaable greed for wealth and power thru polics
means absence of ethics. An ideal state should be an ethical state.
4. Ethics and Art – Ethics is about posive morality while art is beauty.
beauty. Any work of
art that is beauful, will

w ill give a posive outlook to the looker that will be greatly
appreciated. The purpose of art is for appreciaon that is contributory to man’

man’ss
ethics.
5. Religion and Ethics – Religion is ethics and ethics is religion, they are
interchangeable for the any religious belief tends to ethical standards in relaon
to his most fundamental tenet. What unites them all boiled down to three things
namely: a) belief in the Supernatural, b) man’

man’ss beginning and end and c) right
living.
Morality and Human Acts
Morality is the quality of goodness or badness in a human act. In this case, we base
judgement on any human act based on its ethicality

ethicality.. The quality of an act may
may be jused
according to its gravity.

gravity. An evil human act maybe considered “right” just as long as it can be
jused which lead us to its norm of morality

morality.. By that term, we mean that the
the basis for
determining its correctness are the standard of the judging party and the reason why an act
is morally wrong or right.
Human Acts just like the word itself means acons of men that are done willfully
and willingly.
willingly. Keep in mind that scenarios beyond human control are not human acts such
as rainfall, sunset, earthquake even the beang of the heart or blood circulaon are beyond
human act for these are acons man cannot control. In the case of assassinaons where the

culprit pulled the trigger,

trigger, the gun is not to blame but the doer of the acon that caused
taking the life of another man. Once quesoned he has the right to jusfy his acon as
either morally right or wrong.
References and Supplementary Materials
Books and Journals
Ethics
The Scope and Meaning of Ethics 3
Course Module
1. Agapay,
Agapay, Ramon B.; Ethics and the Filipinos; Mandaluyong
Mandaluyong Metro Manila, Naonal
Book Store
2. Montemayor, Felix M.; Ethics, the Philosophy of Life; Navotas Metro Manila; Naonal
Book Store Inc.
Wrien by:
Christopher S. Espiritu
AMACC Caloocan Campus
Module 3 Moral Standards and Human Freedom
At the end of this module, you are expected t0:
1. To understand moral standards in relaon to human life
2. To
To learn the issue of voluntariness in human acts
Moral Standards
Morality it must be noted, is present only in humanity

humanity.. Meaning man can only be moral if he
is fully aware of his acons. Brutes have no morality for they are not guided by reason hence
they
are not responsible for their acons and are not classied as human acts. Let us be guided based
on these principles:

1. Man is the only Moral Being – due to three things: a) man is capable of acon, b) man
has intellect and c) man has free will. Being capable of acon man can employ his bodily
acvies to perform acons. With man’s intellect he can discern the good or evilness of
his acons and at the same me equate the repercussions of his acons once asked to
jusfy them. Free will is present

present and inherent in men unless they
they are idiots and with
that they have the freedom of choice whether to perform or not the acon at hand.
2. Man is a the highest form of Animal – endowed with intellect, man can decide what’s
best for him although their desires are the same with brutes such as hunger
hunger,, thirst, pain
and sensual needs; man moves based on reason while their lower counterparts have
only insnct. Senent beings like animals rely on insnct which are natural biological
drives, while men can decide whether an act is moral or not.
3. Man is a raonal animal – Rao is the Lan term for reason that means man has the
power to discern things based on his previous knowledge of things. Unlike brutes, man
has the power of abstracon – this is his ability to correlate ideas previously based on
his mind as well as his understanding

understanding of the situaon at hand, thereby giving him a
logical or correct decision.
4. The intellect and the will – they are correlave with each other because the intellect is
the agent of knowing while the will is the agent of choice. From intellect – knowledge is
stored this will then guide the will to decide which is basically “good”
“good”.. They co-exist and
from their partnership “virtue” is born.
Voluntariness
Voluntariness of Human Acts
A voluntary act is under the control of the intellect and the will and must be answerable for
their acons. As menoned in the previous module, only human acts are valid in ethics and at
the
same me possess moral signicance. There are four types of voluntary acts and they are:
1. Perfect voluntariness – when a person acts with full knowledge and complete freedom –

we are fully aware of what we are doing
2. Imperfect voluntariness – when a person acts without full understandin

understanding
g and no
freedom – we are made to perform acts we did not like
3. Simple voluntariness – it is the disposion of a person doing the acvity regardless to
his liking or not – this may be posive or negave. The former is by making him to do
something while the other is to prevent or stop him from doing things.
4. Condional voluntariness - it is the situaon when the person was forced by
circumstances or under duress which he would not do under normal circumstances.
Example is being extorted money by a neighborhood toughie in exchange for his
“protecon”.
But what modiers may cloud the intellect and the will that may either reduce or increase
accountability:
Modiers of Human Acts:
1. Ignorance – this simply means absence of knowledge. A doer ’s responsibility for his
acons may be increased or decreased due to this. A person may have commied an act
for he is unaware of it. There are three types of ignorance and they are: Vincible
ignorance that can easily be corrected such as calling a person with a wrong name or
entering the wrong classroom. On the other hand Invincible ignorance – cannot be
reced an example is a waiter who gave the wrong food to the customer or a killer
that claimed the life of a wrong vicm. The third is Aected ignorance – is the doer
doer’s
’s
aempt to escape responsibility such as a suspect denying his complicity in a crime he
has done.
2. Passions – Psychic responses that may adhere or abhor them to either desirable or
undesirable tendencies. Posive

Posive emoons such as love, desire or hope are
manifestaons
manifestaons of the rst while hatred, horror and despair are example of negave

emoons. There are also two passions such as antecedent and consequent passions
wherein the former are passions that occur before the smulus such as accidentally
meeng a special someone; while the other came aer a smuli we ourselves caused
for example meeng a special someone that we are already aware of his arrival.
3. Fear – it is the disturbance of the mind when confronted by danger to himself or a loved
one. Acons whether done with fear or out of fear may aect one’
one’ss acon. Acts done
with fear are voluntary while acts done out of fear are two dierent things. If one moves
with fear this means he has to decide and yet is afraid he might err an example is an
amateur singer performing in front of a large crowd

c rowd or driving a vehicle with limited
know-how in driving. Acons out of fear are situaons that needed immediate
decisions such as jumping out of a plane about to ccrash

rash land or run away from a violent
situaon.
4. Violence – it is physical force given to a free person to coerce him to do or not to do
something. Physical threats such as torture, starvaon or mulaon are examples of
violence but was free will impaired? No, the free will is sll there for they can sll resist
making their moral integrity intact, in short, there is sll a choice.
5. Habits – readiness to perform habitual acts. Habits are done mechanically that thinking
is no longer necessary may either be good or bad. It is second-nature to the doer and
doing it is insnct.
Ethics
Morality 1
Course Module
Module 4 Morality

1. To know the Two Fundamental Quesons
2. To understand the Norms of Morality
3. To learn what are Defecve Moralies
The Two Fundamental Quesons
Two important
important quesons are raised one is “What is Morality” and “What is the meaning of
life?”.. The rst queson pertains to the rightness or wrongfulness of an act and what is the basis
life?”
of
the judge concerned. These are ethical quesons that up to this me, baed sages and peons
alike
and remain unanswered. The second is about the summum bonum (ulmate good) of human
existence, what is the very reason why man exists on this world?
In a nutshell, those two quesons are related – Ethics is about morality which is the basis of
good, evreyme we decide on dilemmas using morality men experienced happiness and that is
“good”.. The more we aain happiness by being good – the closer we are to the Ulmate Good.
“good”
To
sum it up, both quesons boil down to two words “goodness” and “purpose”
“purpose”,, a thing that is of
use
is good for it has served its purpose. For example, a polician is good if he has fullled his
promise
to the people aer serving his term of oce in doing so by being useful to his constuent, he felt
that he lived a worthy life. This will then be a step to reaching his ulmate goal – the ulmate
good. A good life will ulmately lead to ulmate happiness.
The Norms of Morality
Raonally speaking man acts in accordance to his nature, that human nature quanfy as
juscaon as to why
why an act be it good or bad is performed. IIn
n doing so it conicts with the
higher
intelligence endowed to men. Is man basically good? We can say yes but of what context of
goodness is man supposed to follow? The morality of man follows a proximate norm and an

ulmate norm so where does human nature come in? As menoned earlier man has baser
tendencies that is human nature equivalent to brutes that may come in the form of smuli. The
proximate
proximate norm there is to follow human nature which is the low end of a human being. On the
other hand, the ulmate norm is to follow divine nature which are decisions that are based on
morality.. For example the smulus of hunger based on proximate norm simply means to eat the
morality
food regardless as to whether it is for somebody else,

e lse, spoilt or poisonous. Human nature
dictates
that man has to saate his hunger no maer what and may be considered moral if we are to
consider human nature. If man decides to study the situaon by not inially grabbing the
“opportunity”,, then he acted in relaon to the ulmate norm.

“opportunity”
However,, we are not discarding human nature as a basis of human existence, man is a
However
social animal which is the nature of man’s need for associaon. In truth we can never reach
divine
status but we must keep in mind that there is no conict with the Natural law and the Eternal
law
(the Law of God). The Natural is paerned aer the Eternal Law, man must adhere to his nature
of
man which is using his intellect unlike human natur

nature
e that is only to follow his passions.
Defecve Norms of Morality
Human Nature is a simple foundaon of man but there

the re are philosophies and they are:
1. Hedonism – this is also known as the Philosophy of Pleasure that pleasure alone is the
primary purpose of man’s existence. It is true man desires for happiness but a happy
life need not be composed of pleasure alone. True happiness is seeking good but
wallowing in pleasure made man’

man’ss life baser than brutes.
2. Ulitarianism – is simply the ends of an acon must be good, if it is not then the acon
is unjused. From the word “ulity” it means that anything that is of use to the agent is
moral. There are two types of ulitarianism and they are individual ulitarianism and

social ulitarianism – the rst is known as egoism which is the denion given – the
agent is the one who will gain. Altruism is the other term for social ulitarianism but
the receiving factor is the society where the agent belongs.
3. Moral Raonalism – simply states that human reason is the only foundaon of morality
morality
as postulated by German Philosopher Immanuel Kant which he dubbed as “Categorical
Imperave”.. However as Kant further explained we have to do good because we ought

Imperave”
to be good in doing so he is implying blind obedience. In his philosophy “autonom

“autonomy
y of
reason”, inasmuch as reason creates the law, it is “reasonable” for men to obey it
without queson nor ambiguity. The general rule is that everyone thinks the same for
men are reasonable so conict is a remote possibility.
4. Moral Posivism – states that morality is adherence to State Laws as philosophizes by
the English sage Thomas Hobbes. The State is the foundaon of morality since laws are
geared for the common good apparently,

apparently, an act is moral if he obeys the law and evil if
he disobeys it. Comparing to Moral Raonalism where reason is the law

law,, Moral
Posivism only has the State Law as its source of morality.
5. Moral Evoluonism – In relaon to Sociologist Herbert Spencer, morality just like
evoluon is ever-changing unl it reached its perfect form. Friedrich Nietsche added
that man was born withj hardly any basis for right and wrong and their collecve lives
is a never-ending struggle for change unl they reach perfecon.
6. Moral Sensism – Contrary to Moral Evoluonism men are born with a special moral
sense (not reason) that is comparable to the ve senses. For example, man can easily
dierenate noise from music, salty from sweet as well as pleasant and unpleasant that
may also serve as means to moral judgment.
7. Communism - Although this is more of an economic theory its social implicaon cannot
be denied and is geared for a classless society. They believed in the philosophy of

material dialeccs that means two material things are the only ingredients necessary
for change. They deny the existence of God, the free will and immortality for they do not
maer being immaterial. Ergo, anything that will lead to a classless society is good and
moral and any thing otherwise is evil and immoral.
Books and Journals
Ethics
Morality 3
Course Module
1. Agapay,
Book Store Inc.
2. Babor, Eddie
Eddie R.; Ethics – The Philosophical Discipline
Discipline of Acon; Manile, Rex Book
Store
3. Montemayor, Felix; Ethics the Philippines; Navotas Metro Manila; Naonal Book
Store
Wrien by:
Ethics
Dilemma 1
Course Module
Module 5 Dilemma
1. To understand
understand the importance of dilemma to human reasoning

2. To
To help the learner gauge his level of thinking
3. To discern one’s level of maturity
What is dilemma
A social dilemma is an acon situaon in which an individual must decide on his own even
if it is against the socially-accepted norms. It is the situaon that measure one’s maturity
maturity.. Below
is
the scale used by Lawrence Kohlbeg in human reasoning.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s sequence of moral reasoning
Situaon: You are a loving husband/wife whose spouse was suering from terminal cancer.
At present, you are unemployed and cannot provide medicine for your suering partner.
partner. One
morning, your beloved was screaming in pain and you are forced to nd ways to ease the pain or
beer yet eradicate it. You

You went to a drug store that has just opened, and the guard was out at
that
moment and the solitary sales agent was busy preparing herself
herself.. The medicine was there but you
are penniless to buy it, that is just within your reach and the chance was ripe to steal it. Will you
take the opportunity for your partner or back track to avoid comming?
Level 1: Pre Convenonal Level – The concrete interests of an individual is merely rewards and
punishment. This is a childish mentality that are only encouraged or discouraged based on what
they can get from the situaon at hand.
Stage 1: “Obedience and Punishment Orientaon”

Orientaon”.. People sck to the rules to avoid punishment
Favor: If partner dies there will be trouble for you since you are the spouse and must make
a move instead of being idle.
Against: If you steal you might get caught if not your conscience will bother you, this means
that you have to make a move otherwise you will be punished by your conscience by not
doing so.
Stage 2: “Reward Orientaon” – Rules are followed only for its benets. Obedience occurred

because of the rewards. It means that the doer is only aer what can he gain from the acons he
perform or did not perform.
Favor: If you steal and got caught just return the just return the drug and forget everything.
Somehow you might end up in jail but the wife is sll alive just the same
Against: The sin commied is not that serious so a life term is impossible but it will sll be
a lose-lose situaon for this will temporarily save her life but may end up dead sooner or
later.
Level 2: Convenonal Morality – People approach problems as members of society and would
like
to be a role model.
Stage 3: “Good Boy Morality” - Individuals show an interest in maintainin

maintaining
g the respect of others
and is doing what is expected of them.
Favor: To be a good father is to do everything for his family that if you do not steal the drug
the people will label you as an “irresponsible father”
Against: If you steal the drug the people will tag you as a “criminal”
“criminal” and will bring dishonor
to your family.
Stage 4: “Authority and Social Order maintaining

maintaining Morality” – People conform to what is right in a
society.
Favor: If you have a sense of honor, you wouldn’t let your wife die by denying the only
means of saving her life. You will feel guilty and this will haunt you for the rest of your life.
Against: You
You are aware that stealing is evil but the eect of that shall be more painful once
you are sent to jail. You will feel guilty and will haunt you for the rest of your life. You are
no longer honorable.
Level 3: Post Convenonal Morality: People

People use moral principles which is seen as broader than
any parcular society.
Stage 5: “Morality of Rights and Laws” – People do what is right as a sense of obligaon to law

and
society, however they can be modied.
Favor: If you don’t steal you’ll lose the people’s respect for you avoided the act because of
fear and not reason
Against: If you steal you’ll lose your social standing for violang the law
law,, don’t get carried
away by emoons
Stage 6: “Morality of an Individual Principle and Conscience” – A person follows laws based on
ethical principles. Laws that run counter to principles are violated.
Favor: If you don’t steal and wife dies you won’t be condemned by society for you lived up
to your own expectaons but did not live to your own standard of conscience
Against: If you steal the drug you will not be blamed by others but you’ll condemn yourself
for not living within your own conscience and your virtue of honesty.
Books and Journals
1. Colendrina-Bucu, Luz et al; Introducon

I ntroducon to Psychology; Rex Bookstore;
Bookstore; Quezon City
Wrien by:
Ethics
Culture in Moral Behavior 1
Course Module
Module 6 Culture in Moral Behavior
1. To understand the role of culture in human behavior

2. To give examples of cultural diversity between oriental and occidental
sociees
Culture in Moral Behavior Explained
Dr
Dr.. Emma Butchel in her work, “Challenging the concept of Morality”, explained a
comparison of morality between Chinese and Western cultures. Both cultures have their
respecve sense of morality that even conicts the other

other.. Her study also focused on the
t he moral
and
social concepts these two sociees abide. One factor that polarized these civilizaons is their
behavior that helped mold their people to what they are now, as they say tradion outlasts a
lifeme so they can no longer alter moralies that they are already used to. Both civilizaons
once
immersed with their own, classify “odd” behavior reprehensible that they branded them as
either
major oense, minor oense or at least tolerable however there are behavior that may be
integrated to their civilizaon. One example was during the me of Maoist China, western
culture
was considered a taboo that fashion for them is a non-enty but with the transion of
Communist
China to a capitalism – the very reason why the Chinese society adhered to Marxist ideology
ideology,,
western culture made China into one of the richest country in the world. Cultural bias made
people fail to see the moral principle of their counterpart. Many sociees even in the past
adhere
to ethnocentrism, an idea that their culture alone is the only thing that maers and at the same
me dismissed others as either “uncouth” or “barbaric”.

“barbaric”. So why waste me with sociees below
their staon? In this case, western morality is “blind” to Asian values and as menoned cultural
bias clouded their judgment that they can’t seem to understand the morality of another person’s
culture that is the foundaon of their morality

morality..
The Hindus and some Asian countries used arrange marriages to ensure a good future for

their children that western countries nd overlapping with their principles of their freedom of
choice. Another example was raised and it was the educaonal system that divided the
occidental
from the oriental thought. Oriental schools believed in the “infallibility” of teachers that they are
the only source of knowledge and should not be quesoned whereas the occidentals rely on the
idea that students have every right to debate with their teachers that even the philosopher
Socrates subscribed to. Flexibility and broadmindedness are the two things that can help bridge
the gap between the two opposing cultures. By opening our minds and removing whatever bias
we habe we can have room to put ourselves in the shoes of others and will help usher global
unity.
Man by nature tends to do good so the culture of other people especially those we held with
contempt or mirth also have goodness in them. There is nothing wrong to understand another
person’s morality devoid of cultural bias.
What is Culture?
According to David Brinkenho and Lynn White culture is the whole idea that provides a
blueprint for living. It is a powerful force that lived in all peoples that tells us what is right from
wrong. Eang dogs for example is tolerated in the Philippines but is totally banned in the United
States and other Western countries. That is because not everything we do is acceptable to
others.
According to Alan Johnson culture is the sum of symbols, ideas, forms, expressions and material
products associated with a social system. Edward T

Taylor
aylor dened culture as the complex whole
which includes beliefs, arts, laws, morals, customs and habits acquired by people as members of
society.
Symbols are manifestaons

manifestaons of culture and are anything that represents more than itself an
example is a cross that to some it is just an object or gure formed by two short intersecng
lines
or pieces but has several meanings. There are four kinds of symbols namely 1) Symbolic

objecves – they may mean a ag to represent a naon a currency to mean a naon’s medium
of
exchange. 2) Symbolic characteriscs of object – purple for royalty, yellow for cowardice and red
for war.
war. 3) Gestures – acons
ac ons that can give cultural control. 4) Spoken and wrien words - the
most important set of symbols in every culture for it is the building block used to construct
ideas.
Books and Journals
1. Panopio, Isabel et al; Sociology Focus in the Philippines; Ken Inc.; Quezon City
Online Supplementary Reading Materials
1. “Considering the Inuence of Culture on Morality”;
hp://thegoodproject.org/considering-the-inuence-of-culture-on-mor
hp://thegoodproject.org/considering-the-inuence-of-culture-on-morality/
ality/ August
20, 2015
Wrien by:
Ethics
Filipino Culture and Morality 1
Course Module
Module 7 Filipino Culture and Morality
1. To understand the meaning of cultural relavism
2. To prove why cultural dierences are not applicable to Ethics
3. To make a comparison between Filipino psyche and Asian thinking
Cultural Relavism

Culture relavity is a concept that cultural

c ultural norms and values must be understood based on
the culture he is adhered to. As the saying goes, “dierent

“dierent strokes for dierent folks” which
simply
means that if I am to understand a situaon the explanaon must primary begin with my own
culture. According to William Graham Sumner,

Sumner, in his book entled “Folkways” wrien in 1906
culture can only be understood in its own value and content. Example is December 30 to the
Filipinos it is of value for it is Rizal Day but is worthless to tthe

he Americans and the Japanese. On
the
other hand, February 22 is Washington’

Washington’ss Birthday to the Americans but of no value to the
Filipinos
or the Japanese. Same is true every February 6 which is the Foundaon of the Japanese Empire
but
is just an ordinary day to Filipino and American calendars. The example reects the signicance
or
insignicance of these dates reecng a naonal holiday to some and an ordinary day to others.
In
the rst place who is Jose Rizal to the Japanese and Americans but he is adored in the
Philippines.
Conversely George Washington

Washington is just a face in a one-dollar bill as far as Filipinos and Japanese
are
concerned but a revered persona in America.
Ethics and Cultural

C ultural Relavism
Before we delve into that let us dene ethical relavism, it is the theory that holds that
morality is related to the tenets of his culture. Right or wrong a ccertain

ertain belief that prevailed in a
culture is shared by everyone. In a nutshell, everybody thinks the same way considering that
anyone who belongs to a certain society subscribed to every norm they dictated. This is
universality in a culture for as what everyone believed, culture is shared by everyone and denial
of
their pracces is a pariah among their ranks. However not everyone shared their beliefs because

blind obedience denies man his fundamental right of his freedom of choice. With his free will, he
can decide what is right or wrong but he is aware of what his culture dictates him what to obey
obey..
For example During the Second World War,

War, NAZI Germany believed that the exterminaon of
Jews
is the “nal soluon” that may be akin to ethnic cleansing. The dictates of their Fuehrer Adolf
Hitler has to be taken into account by every German and is expected that every German must
obey
it to the leer.
leer. But not all Germans believed in this among them was German industrialist and
war
proteer Oscar Schindler who saved twelve hundred Jews from the Auschwitz Concentraon
Camp to work in his metal factory. This proves that ethical relavism is untrue. To discuss further,
although Communist China Party Chairman believed in the apogee of communism of human
development and abhorred western culture his successors believed otherwise among them were
Deng Xiaoping who even went to the US and begin China’s

China’s rise to industrializaon –the worst
enemy of the communist/socialist ideology.
Filipino psyche and morality
Being a naon of mul-cultural race, Filipinos are also cosmopolitan that our hospitality
extends to almost every naon in the world. Filipinos are a happy people that are known for
their
hospitality,, subtleness, paent and fun-loving. Despite coming from a third world country,
hospitality
personal and family honor are given priority if given a choice. They value educaon highly that
poverty is not an excuse to get a scholasc degree. At an early age Filipinos consider shame as
the
worst among the negave trait they avoid they value dignity as an important value in life that
they
cannot live in a society that consider them as outcast. Spanish and American colonial rule that
lasted for more than four centuries are the major ingredients in the Filipino psyche.
Comparing Filipinos to other Asian naons they are generally more easy-going than their

Asian counterparts. In a study conducted by the Hong Kong-based Polical and Economi
Economicc Risk
Constuency (PERC) the Filipinos are "the easiest people in Asia to get along with." Being a
happy
people that is understandable. In the 2006 Happy Planet Index (HPI), the Philippines ranked 17th
out of 178 countries with the progressive United States at 150. This means to show that
materialism is not a primary source of Filipino happiness. In a study conducted by Howard, he
described Filipinos as nice, cheerful and open people, everyone is welcomed even social mists
being the most nonjudgmental and the least racist country in Asia. Filipino negave traits in an
arcle wrien by Alisa Krutovsky menoned that Filipinos have colonial mentality and are oen
tardy during appointments.
Books and Journals
1. Panopio, Isabel et al; Sociology focus in the Philippines; Ken Inc.; Quezon City
1. Filipino character and Personality;

hp://factsanddetails.com/southeastasia/Philip
hp://factsanddetails.com/southeastasia/Philippines/sub5_6c/en
pines/sub5_6c/entry-3867.html
try-3867.html;; June 2015
2. Ethical Relavism; hp://www

hp://www.scu.edu/ethics/
.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethi
ethics-resources/ethical-
cal-
decisionmaking/ethical-relavism/; August 1, 1992
Wrien by:
Ethics
Morality and Conscience 1
Course Module
Module 8 Morality and Conscience

1. To understand the development of values
2. To
To learn the importance of conscience
3. To answer the queson of the “greatest good”
Morality – a review
Morality according to Perry is man’

man’ss eort to harmonize conicng human interests. As
menoned in the past modules morality of a person is dierent from another person. One
example
is the case of public execuon. There are some sectors in the Philippine society that consider this
evil for taking life ran contrary to their belief that taking human life is against the laws of God. On
the other hand public execuon especially the most humane type that is lethal injecon is a
necessity to curb men from comming evil deeds, a necessary evil so to speak. Morality is the
goodness or evilness of the act that may be ju

jusable.
sable. People mistook that anything
anything that we nd
good is moral because man’s pursuit of happiness is the primary reason why we live in this
world.
This is not true, for man’s

man’s desire to be good is innate in him and may prevent his pursuit of such
act. A married man might entertain extra-marital aair

aairs,
s, especially to a lovely woman that also
implied interest in him and for him that is “good” for that is a means to his pursuit of happiness.
But then again he might neglect this passion once he recalled his marital vows which is the
greater
good.
Values
Values are anything that sases human needs. Aristotle once said that the ulmate good is
to nd things that will give

g ive us happiness and that is where happiness comes in, he further added
that value is a “ng funcon” –anything that is important or signicant to us. Anything that
enriched our life or at least made it meaningful such as a special someone, a friend, our laptop,
our
birthdays or anything that is special are values. Even our beliefs and principles are values that we

even shared to our ospring that will guide

g uide them to their adulthood. Values may also come as
acons of our own or of others that we classify good acts are values while evil acts are not
because
they result to unhappiness. Morally good values are genuine for their goodness are evident
whereas evil are called apparent values for they are evil things masquerading as good.
Kinds of Values
1. Biological values – they are important because they for the physical survival and
growth of man examples are food, shelter,

shelter, work, pleasure, medicine and the likes.
2. Psychological values – this contributes to his psychological and social life examples are
companionship, friendship, marriage etc.
3. Intellectual values – this developed man’s mental fulllment such as truth, science, art
and religion
4. Moral values – this is for the formaon of one’s character. Examples are generosity,
kindness, charity and honesty
Conscience
Is a feeling or inner voice that served as a guide to the correctness or error of one's
behavior.. Some authors viewed it as the “inner law” or the “sixth sense” that gives premonions
behavior
to
acts we are to perform or acts we already did. Where did this come from? Moral conscience is
innate idea that simply follow God’s unwrien dictum of “follow good and obey evil”. Man is
basically good for man is a creaon of God, being the source of goodness, He created man
endowed with free will but induced conscience to make sure His words are heard.
An upright conscience is a necessity for human dignity,

dignity, because it knows moral principles
and pracced them in each circumstance. Only prudent judgments can recognize the truth.
Anyone who follows his conscience is prudent for he is guided not only by human reason but by
the voice of God. God is the source of the truth and through conscience man can grasp a
semblance

of reason. Inasmuch as conscience is present in man he assumes responsibility. When an evil act
is performed, he realized his error by feeling remorse for his acon then later regret it, which is a
manifestaon
manifestaon of conscience. An act that is willfully done is appeared to be guided by conscience
thereby responsibility is undeniable.
The Greatest Good
Jeremy Bentham a Brish philosopher during the 19th Century answered that queson
when he said that the “greatest

“greatest good is for the greatest number”
number ”. He introduced Ulitarianism
that is simply states that the ends of an acon must be good, if it is not then the acon is
unjused. Which is simply anything of use is good while useless are evil. But like a double-
edged
sword it also has a good side, he implied the spirit of humanity where everyone lived in single
planet and their desire to be happy and goodness are innate in man. Everybody wants to be
happy,
so the best thing is to follow happiness and goodness that is common to everyone. Being
children
of God, we have idencal aspiraons, so whatever we nd good might also be good to others.
Books and Journals
1. Agapay,
Book Store Inc.
2. Babor, Eddie
Store
Store
hps://catholicity
1. Moral Conscience; hps://catholicity.com/catechism
.com/catechism/moral_conscience.h
/moral_conscience.html
tml;; 2018

Wrien by:
Ethics
Feelings and Moral Decisions 1
Course Module
Module 9 Feelings and Moral Decisions
1. To understand the contribuon and non-contribuon to moral decisions
2. To know the ethics of love
3. To dierenate virtues from vices
What are feelings and emoons?
Before we begin this discourse, let us dierenate feelings and emoons. Feelings are
dened as an emoonal state or reacon while emoons are disncve feeling disnguished
from
reasoning or knowledge. Simply put emoons or feelings do not play any role in a human act and
is not jusable with regard to moral decisions. As menoned in many books human acts are
human acons men perform knowingly,

knowingly, freely and voluntarily.
voluntarily. Ergo a human act must have
these
three qualicaons a) he must be fully be aware of what he is doing or what he will do, b) he
used
his freedom of choice to decide using his innate free will and 3) his decision is not coerced by
any
outside factor.
factor. Feelings and emoons are one and the same for it plays merely to the weakness
of
men which some sociologists dubbed as “human frailes”.

frailes”. It can never be used as an excuse for

our negave acons for if we allow our emoons to “decide” then we are not acng as human
beings. Brutes react only to mere

me re insncts for they lack reason, emoons are devoid of reason
and
rely to spur-of-the-moment decisions or the mood of the doer.

doer.
The ethics of Love
Many people are confused between love and emoons. We think that emoons are strong
because of love for it propels people to feel it. We have to refute this perverted claim, in the
scienc world emoons can be seen through the face of the doer (see emocons) from there
we
can discern happiness, sadness, anger and content but what moves them, it is not love but
drives.
By drive me mean the cravings of men that they simply can’t do without such as hunger, need
for
sex, companionship and the likes. From these needs man developed a desire to acquire them by
any means possible and emoons are born, if we succeed in doing so we felt happy or contented
if
not it lead to frustraon that may later result into anger or sadness. These craving of man
boosted
his compeve nature that he won’t stop unl he achieved it. In short, emoons are simply
aachments that resulted due to man’s desires. Love

Love on the other hand is an intense
i ntense feeling of
deep aecon that is also a drive but compared to emoon which is solely for
selfaggrandizement,
selfaggrandizement, love does not necessarily have to be reciprocated. Man can love another
person,
thing or event even if it does not render love in return. In relaon to love when it comes to moral
decision such love is acceptable just as long as it is guided by morality and reason.
Vice and Virtue
Socrates once said that, “knowledge is virtue and ignorance is vice”

vice”.. We got these things
from the habits we obtain from dealing with people in our everyday lives. A virtue is a trait or
quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundaon of principle and

good
moral being while vice is the opposite is what we know as vice. Dierent from feelings, this is not
a
spur-of-the-moment aair, this develops as man progressed intellectually and physically. Bad
habits develop into vice that as menoned earlier the opposite of virtue.
Moral Values
Values – are those pertaining to the funcons of the intellect and the will – that may
be our choices, decisions and acons that became habits. This later will develop spiritual growth
that is part of human perfecon. Moral values have the following chara
characteriscs:
cteriscs: a) they have
intrinsic work – they are good acts in themselves without any shadow of doubt, b) they are
universally accepted by all people and c) they are obligatory which means everyone is expected
to
abide by it considering that it is a universally accepted good.
Guidelines for choosing values:
1. Paramount or lasng values over temporal ones
2. Values favored by the majority instead by a few individuals
3. Essenal values must be preferred over the accidental
4. Moral values must be preferred over physical values
Books and Journals

1. Agapay,
Book Store Inc.
2. Babor, Eddie
Store
Store

1. Love isn’t an emoon; hps://theanat

hps://theanatomyoov
omyoove.com/what-is
e.com/what-is-love/love-isn’t
-love/love-isn’t-anemoon/
-anemoon/ ;
;
October 26, 2016
2. Virtue; hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue;
hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue;
Wrien by:
Ethics
Human Reasoning 1
Course Module
Module 10 Human Reasoning
1. To understand the importance human reasoning
2. To dierenate the types of human reasoning
3. To learn the steps for moral reasoning
Human Reasoning
Reason is the capacity for consciously making sense of things, establishing and verifying
facts, applying logic, and changing or jusfying pracces, instuons, and beliefs based on new
or
exisng informaon. In short, this is the ability of man to decide which is also the same way how
morality is. But let us make a discernment here, as Immanuel Kant explained, morality is the
usage
of our freedom of choice but is based on what we want, this is purely based on the necessies
men
needed to fulll such as the freedom to do whatever

w hatever we want. Human reasoning is our sense of
obligaon to do what is right even if we do not want to do it. For example we have y pe
pesos
sos in
our pocket and we went to a canteen to sasfy our need for food. In the counter,
counter, we see a plate

of
fried chicken and a bowl of hot noodles, you want them both so morality tells us to make a
choice.
But circumstance denied you these things for they cost beyond your allowance and cannot spare
addional cash from your transportaon allowance

allowance so you have to cchoose
hoose only one to t within
your means – that is where reason comes in.
Reason is a feature that is characterisc of men and without it they are not classied as
such. Reason is a tool for the man to cognizance as well as our guide to correlate to the absolute
truth (God). It must be noted though that it is reason just as long as man can act on them,
supernatural truth is beyond human reason. Smuli such as human sensaon, percepon, and
observaon that the ve senses can perceive are part of man being part of the animal kingdom
but
the power transf

t ransforming
orming sensuous smuli into experience is inherent in man’s
man’s intellect denied to
brutes. With it, he alone can arrange his experience that will later
l ater guide him in his decisions. In
any human endeavor,

endeavor, acon is secondary to thinking. Thinking is a deliberate act of ancipang
future events that might come by reecng past acons or occurences. Thinking and acng are
inseparable. Every
Every acon rests upon the foundaon of an idea related to causal relaons. Casual
relaons developed theories that guide human acon. Acon without basis is absurd but acng
without thinking is ludicrous. The reason for his acon may be erroneous and his understanding
of the situaon is muddled; but thinking and theorizing are sll present so his acon might be
“valid” or at least acceptable. Thinking is an individual process, society does not think for man
even if his customs, tradions or laws are dictated by the society an individual belongs. There is
joint acon, but no joint thinking,

thinking, meaning people can be moved into
into a collecve acon but
collecve thinking is impossible. People oen subscribe to common sense but the trouble with
common sense is that it is not common. People can never think the same hence there is no
common sense.

In the religious point of view,

view, God created human beings aside from his image and likeness as
raonal creaons capable of reason. Divine Revelaon that may center on the salvaon of the
soul or
foreboding natural catastrophes

catastrophes are in harmony with reason. Reason is God and comes from God
so
human reason is the only way of understand

understanding
ing Him.
Types of Human Reasoning
1. Deducve Reasoning– it is the form of reasoning in which a conclusion follows

follows
logically and coherently from the factual premises and proposion. Arguments are
based upon the concept of logical reasoning. In doing so the premises which the
conclusion hinges its validity that if they are true then the resulng statement are true
and valid. This is plain logic.
2. Inducve Reasoning– refers to reasoning that takes specic informaon and makes a
broader generalizaon that is considered probable, allowing for the fact that the
conclusion may not be accurate. This type of logic also uses experiences to come up
with conclusions based on general observaons coming from occurrence that might
give similar results. To dierenate,

dierenate, Deducve reasoning began with a premise while
Inducve reasoning begins with a conclusion. Examples Deducve Reasoning – The
Pope is the Representave of God, God is never wrong therefore The Pope is never
wrong. Inducve Reasoning – Mark shows a golden ring to his friend Paul, Mark said he
will marry Martha therefor Paul thinks Martha will receive the ring.
3. Abducve Reasoning – is a method of reasoning in which one chooses the hypothesis
that would, if true, best explain the relevant evidence. It is a type of reasoning that gets
its conclusion in an abducve argument of what is possibly true. This type of logic is
also considered as inference to the best explanaon. It is choosing the most likely or
best hypothesis or explanaon based upon the most relevant evidence. Example: You
You

wake up in the morning and you see that your roommate has le but you see a halfeaten food in
the kitchen then you abduce that
t hat he le early.
4. Reducve Reasoning – It is proving a statement true by reducing to the opposite of it
and showing the absurdity of the opposite result. A statement is true based on reducing
or showing the absurdity of the opposite result. It is also called Reduco ad absurdum
(Lan: “reducon to absurdity”). Example: People do not go to college because they
don’t need it.
5. Fallacious Reasoning– It is not real reasoning, it is the faulty premises for
crical thinking and logic. Example: God is love , love is blind ergo God is blind.
The seven steps to moral ethical decisions
1. State the problem – what is the dilemma one is facing
2. Check the facts – nd out if the problem can easily be solved by mere speculaons alone
or there is sll a need for a deeper means of resolving it.
3. Idenfy the relevant and irrelevant factors – there are things that are contributory in
answering the queson but we have to separate from those that might help or not.
4. Develop the list of opons – by opons we mean sources beyond what we are aware of
that may be a list of sources person or books that might help in answering the dilemma.
5. Prepare test quesons – that might give

g ive us possible soluons
6. Choose the best answer
7. If need be, review steps 1 – 6.
Ethics
Human Reasoning 3
Course Module
1. Human Reason; hps://mises.org/library/human-acon-0/html/pp/713;;

Reason; hps://mises.org/library/human-acon-0/html/pp/713

2. God, Man and the Universe; hp://scalar.usc.edu/works/god-man-and-theuniverse/what-

about-human-reason;;
about-human-reason
Wrien by:
Ethics
Courage and Moral Courage 1
Course Module
Module 11 Courage and Moral Courage
1. To understand what is courage
2. To enumerate the types of courage
3. To expound moral courage
The Virtue of Courage
Courage is dened as taking acon even

e ven one doubts or quesons about the consequences
of his acons. Courage is oen a stereotype about soldiers giving their lives for the country;
somemes is accepng defeat aer a hard-fought

hard-fought struggle. Courage is on a daily basis because
everything that maered to us require this trait. We feel deep courage and strength to protect
our
children either from sickness or bodily harm that we risk our lives just to secure them. Courage
comes even to the most cowardly for it is innate in man. Mary Anne Radmacher,
Radmacher, author of “Lean
forward into your life” menoned in that poew “Courage doesn’t always roar. Somemes
courage
is the silent voice at the end of the day that says ‘I will try again tomorrow’.”
Types of Courage

1. Physical Courage - This is the courage most people oen subscribes to - bravery at the
risk of bodily harm or death. In order to aain this must develop his physical strength,
resiliency, and awareness.
2. Social Courage - This type

t ype of courage is common to most of us because it involves the
risk of social embarrassment or exclusion, unpopularity or rejecon. It also involves
leadership. Adhering to socially-accepted norms is a mandate all members have to
follow to avoid being a social outcast.
3. Intellectual Courage - This talks about our willingness to engage in cerebral tness by
raising quesons on things we know and will know, as well as to avoid the risk of
making mistakes.
mistakes.
4. Moral Courage - This involves doing the right thing, parcularly when risks involve
shame, opposion, or the disapproval

disapproval of others. Details will be discussed in the next
topic.
5. Emoonal Courage - This type of courage opens us to feeling the full spectrum of
posive emoons, at the risk of encountering the negave ones. It is strongly
correlated with happiness.
6. Spiritual Courage – Courage that deals with quesons about faith, the purpose, and
meaning of life whether in a religious or nonreligious framework.
Moral Courage
Moral courage is the courage to take acon for moral reasons despite the risk of
adverse consequences and it requires deliberaon and careful thought. Moral courage entails a
person’ss strength of character and must be willing

person’ w illing to face risks in order to act according to his or
her values and beliefs. Moral courage is the strength to stand up to authority to protect his or
her
soldiers’ welfare or defend his or her decisions. This virtue develop leaders that are followed by
their inferiors without any iota of doubt. Integrity is gained by leaders who perform their jobs

even if they do not want it because they knew their leader has their trust and condence.
Inspires; hp://www.maryanneradmacher.net/
1. Mary Ann Radmacher Inspires;
2. The Real denion of courage;

courage; hps://www
hps://www.hungtonpos
.hungtonpost.com/rebeccaperkins/the-real-
t.com/rebeccaperkins/the-real-
denion-of-courage_b_6857068.html; December 6, 2017
Wrien by:
Ethics
Aristotle on Virtue 1
Course Module
Module 12 Aristotle on Virtue
1. To know Aristotle’s understanding of virtue
2. To learn about Telos philosophy of Aristotle
3. To understand happiness in Aristotle’s point of view
Virtue according to Aristotle
Aristotle believed that virtue (arête) is a trait

t rait of mind or character that helps us achieve a
good life guided by reason. Virtues may be intellectual and moral. The rst deals with qualies of
mind and character that promote crical thinking, and the pursuit of truth. Moral virtues talks
about behaving in the right manner that dierenat

dierenate
e need from avarice that lead to vice.
Aristotle
menoned that anything that is passion, a faculty or a state (trait) of character is part of the soul
(the mind) that regulates vice and virtue. Virtues are part of the soul, they must be in union with

the following:
1. Passions: By ‘passions’ we mean our bodily needs and smuli (examples are the need for
food, drink, sex, etc.), our emoons, and any feelings that accompany either pleasure or pain.
We
must keep in mind though that these cannot be virtues per se because. a. passions cannot
exactly
dene a goodness or character of a person. b. We can never choose our passions because it is
inherent in person, however virtues are related to the choices

c hoices we make. we cannot will what we
want for passions come to man it is only his decision in relaon to that passion that create
virtues.
c. Virtues center only on our responses; they are not desires that actually movate us.
2. Facules: are smuli that we get from our senses. They are not actually virtues but these
percepons can guide us in the creaon of virtues.
3. Virtues must be states of character

character.. Aristotle denes it as ‘the things in virtue of which
we stand well or badly with reference to the passions’.

passions’. Character is formed, by means of a
person’s
decisions in relaon to what they feel, how they think, how they react, the choices they make, as
well as their reacon based in a given situaon. For example someone is short-tempered
short-tempered oen
to
feel angry at the slightest provocaon;

provocaon; quick-wied
quick-wied people can think and decide in an instant
and
so on. Character traits last much longer and change less easily than many ‘states of mind’
mind’,, such
as
moods and desires. But as what everybody believes character changes as well.
Aristotle’s Telos Philosophy
Aristotle widely known as the ancient Greek father of western philosophy,

philosophy, believed that
there is purpose in life, and he called that purpose as telos. The word might be interchanges with
‘purpose,’ ‘intent,’ ‘end,’ or ‘goal,’. Aristotle for his part, termed it as the inherent purpose of
each

thing. He refers it as the ulmate reason for each thing being the way it is, regardless as to
whether it was man-made or created by nature.
Man-made objects
Take for example a coee mug. A simple denion is that it is metal, plasc or ceramichandled
object that can carry hot liquid; but the mug reveals other purpose. You
You can’t use your
coee mug to contain petrol or book cover.

cover. Describing the color,
color, texture or height of the object
might be useful; but doing so would miss the most important thing about it, it ’s very reason for
exisng – it’s telos. The coee mug was created by humans to drink of coee with, and every
human arfact is made for a specic purpose—chairs for sing, cars for driving, television shows
for entertaining.
Natural Objects
What about natural objects? Do they have inherent purposes? Can we make a denion of
them sans any reference to religious beliefs? Aristotle said that the telos of a plant or animal is
also ‘what it was made for’ that we can be observe. For example, the trees’ purpose is to grow
grow,,
develop branches, produce fruit, nuts, or owers, provide shade, and reproduce. The telos of a
tree
is something that can make use of its full potenal –the very purpose why it was created. Some
observers include the telos of a tree is it

it’s
’s eventually
eventually decaying and death, and perhaps that is
part
of it, but Aristotle could disagree by saying that the telos of a thing is that which it does when it
fullls its full potenal.
Humans
Humans according to Aristotle, has happiness as the telos for human beings. The Greeks
termed it as or eudemonia that also means something more like “fulllment.

“fulllment.”” By what
Fulllment
is he speaking of? Man of all beings has the potenal for excellence, or “virtues” in English
translaons of Aristotle. Aristotle dened “virtue” as referring to arsc, scienc, athlec, or

any
other kind of excellence. When man performed a chore such as painng a masterpiece, winning
an
athlec event or aspiring for scholasc honors happiness can be achieved once one aims for
perfecon.
Aristotle’ss denion of Happiness

Aristotle’
"Happiness depends on ourselves." More than anybody else, Aristotle enshrines happiness
as a central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. As a result, he devotes more me in
pursuing
happiness than any other topic to think about in the modern era. Living during the same period
as
Mencius, but on the other side of the world, he draws some similar conclusions. Aristotle was
convinced that in order to aain a completely happy life requires the fulllment of a broad range
of condions, including physical as well as mental well-being. Essenally

Essenally,, Aristotle argues that
virtue is achieved by maintaining the Mean, which is the balance of tthe

he mind to a state of
equilibrium.
Books and Journals
1. Montemayor, Felix; Ethics the Philippines; Navotas Metro Manila; Naonal Book Store
Ethics
Aristotle on Virtue 3
Course Module
1. Aristotle on Virtue;
hp://documents.routledgeinteracve.s3.amazonaw
hp://documents.routledgeinteracve.s3.amazonaws.com/9781138793934/A22014/
s.com/9781138793934/A22014/ethical_the
ethical_the
ories/Aristotle
%20on%20virtue.pdf;

2. Philosophy of Terms; hp://philosophyterms.com/telos/
3. The Pursuit of Happiness; hp://www.pursuit

hp://www.pursuit-of-happiness
-of-happiness.org/history-oappiness
.org/history-oappiness/aristotle/
/aristotle/
Wrien by:
Ethics
The Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas 1
Course Module
Module 13 The Philosophy of St. Thomas
Aquinas
1. To
To get a brief background of The Angelic Doctor
2. To learn The Natural Law
3. To understand St. Thomas Aquinas’ denion of Happiness
St. Thomas Aquinas – The Angelic Doctor
St. Thomas Aquinas is also known as Doctor Angelicus or “Angeli

“Angelicc Doctor” because of his
chasty that remained with him unl he died. Angels are pure and being a Doctor of the Church
he
was called as such. He was born on 1224 at Roccasecca, near Aquino, in Sicily where he got his
surname. He died on March 7,

7 , 1274 at Fossanova, Italy; and was canonized as saint on July 18,
1323. He was an Italian Dominican theologian and one of the leading Scholars of the Medieval
Period. He developed his own conclusions based on Aristotelian logic, notably in the study
of Metaphysics (the study of the existence of God) that personality,

personality, creaon, and Providence. As
a theologian he was responsible for the masterpieces namley

namley,, the “Summa Theologica” – a
compendium, of church teachings for the laity and the “Summa Contra Genles” (Summary

against the Genles) which is a guidebook for missionaries who might debate Moslems and Jews
in the East. As a poet, he wrote some of the most gravely beauful eucharisc hymns for church
services.
St. Thomas Aquinas on The Natural Law
What is the Natural Law: Do Good and Avoid Evil. Man is born intrinsically good and being
molded in the image and likeness of God this law is natural to every human being. St. Thomas
Aquinas based his doctrine on the aforemenoned

aforemenoned law being a prelate himself.
himself. Based on his
theory,, the Natural Law is a reecon of the Eternal Law (in God). In order to explain the
theory
existence
of the Eternal Law, he gave a denion of all laws: Law is an ordinance of reason promulgated by
the one in charge of the society. Laws are dictated by reason and it is the reason or intellect of
the
ruler that propels the creaon
c reaon of laws. The purpose of law is for a well-ordered funcon of
community under the sovereign’s care. (This polical theory of St. Thomas Aquinas believed that
rulers rule for the sake of the

t he governed. By well-being, we mean the good and beerment of his
subjects.) With his idea that God rules the world with his reason, Aquinas concludes that God
has
an idea on how to govern the world. This Idea, in God, for the governance of things is the eternal
law.
The Natural Law,

Law, which is an extension of the Eternal Law applies to human beings,
requires greater precision because of the fact that we have reason and free will. It is the nature
of
humans to act freely (by being free from outside intervenon and coercion) by synchronizing our
acts and ends. Human beings must exercise our natural reason to discover what is best for us in
order to achieve the end to which their nature inclines. Natural Law tells us that it is natural for
humans to achieve their ends through reason and free will. In other words, the Natural Law is
humans' parcipaon in the Eternal Law, through reason and will that helped them discern good

from evil thereby giving them a happy contented life.

life.
The Philosophy of Happiness and The Universal Man
In relaon to Human happiness, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas agreed that man is
constantly searching for happiness.

happiness. But St. Thomas believed that with the immortality of Human
Soul happiness can be achieved and it can be found in God alone. The Universal Man, according
to
Aristotle whom he also calls “The Whole Man” is a reasonable man. St. Thomas believed that
while
man exists on earth he must possess an eternal and innite perfecon. Despite the presence of
material things, man is not perfectly happy. While man lives on earth his happiness is mortal
nite
and perfect but upon the aainment of the Supreme Purpose man’s happiness is divine,
immortal
and perfect.
Books and Journals
1. St. Thomas Aquinas on the Natural Law;
hp://www.aquinasonline.com/Topics/natlaw.html
Wrien by:
Ethics
The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant 1
Course Module

Module 14 The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
1. To understand Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of Good Will
2. To learn about Kant’s Categorical Imperave
3. To know the Kingdom of Ends
Man and Duty
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher that believed in the dignity of human reason,
duty,, goodwill and the ends of human acons. But rst, let us begin with duty – it simply means
duty
that it is anything that has to be done or omied. Others believe that it is a moral obligaon one
has to do but within the framework of human freedom. There are four kinds of duty namely:
1. Natural Duty – These are moral duty of cizens to obey the laws of their state and God
in relaon to the Eternal Law. Examples are the duty to worship God or the duty to
value human life
2. Posive Duty – An obligaon to do an act, on the part of the person on whom it is
imposed. Examples are the duty to hear mass, pay taxes and tuion fees
3. Armave Duty – these are things that adhere to moral obligaon. Examples are the
inherent law of doing good and avoiding evil, helping the poor,
poor, aid the needy and the
likes.
4. Negave Duty – Moral obligaon to avoid or refrain from doing something. Examples
are prohibions of “no smoking”, “no liering” or “loitering” as well as legal decisions.
Kant’s philosophy
philosophy revolved around the dignity of Human Reason. Man has gi or reason
and free will and the master of his desny.

desny. Man is the only creature who can create his own
desny and is the end not the means of God’s creaon. Man having a free will should never
exploit
his fellow men that slavery,

slavery, bribery and any form of human exploitaon degrades men into
beasts

which is morally wrong. God created all things as means and Man is an end being an instrument
of
God’s Divine Plan. Man’s primary duty is to make sure that God’s Divine Plan of being like Him is
implemented but in accordance with his free will.
Kant’s Philosophy
Philosophy of Good Will
Contrary to the Aristotelian and Thomisc philosophies that menoned Moral Law came
from God and was made undisputed by Man through his conscience for conscience came from
Him. Kant believed that reason made all laws and makes everyone obey all laws at the same
me
this is called the “Autonomy of reason”. Reason is endowed in men that laws are created
because
there is reason for it and that is to reach a reasonable end. Man is the only being capable of
grasping the truth, according to Kant it can only be seen through sense experience (sensaon
felt
by the senses). We can only grasp the tangible and phenomenon never the noumenon
(unexplainable events).
events). Man cannot know the very essence of the thing itself for man cannot
know
everything. Man will never know what is right from wrong since there is no certainty in this
world.
So what is Good Will then, Kant means to act out of a sense of moral obligaon
obligaon or "duty".
The German Scholar believed that the Eternal Law “do good and avoid evil” is inherent in man,
meaning that there is goodness in every man that no maer how evil they are, the tendency to
do
good or wanng something good is innate in man. The will is his ability to pursue his good with
help of human reason but then again the goodness or badness of an act lies in the purpose why
had he done it. Not all good acts are good in itself such as a polician doling out goods to
typhoon
vicms or an adversary delivering a eulogy to a fallen opponent. Good Will is the reason why he
made such acon and the ends he wanted to achieve upon doing it.

Kant’s Categorical Imperave
This philosophy of Immanuel Kant is a derivaon of The Golden Rule menoned in the
Chinese Classics “Do not do unto to others what you do not want others to do unto you”.
you”. In his
case he “Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same me will
that
it become a universal law”. To sum it up that is a command or an imperave. There are two kinds
of imperaves hypothecal and categorical, let us dierenate.

dierenate. The former are commands that
are
dependent on the goals to be fullled. These are commands that apply only in parcular
circumstances, for parcular people who happen to have these desires, these goals. Examples
are
brushing your teeth to avoid bad breath, go to school to fulll your scholasc needs and the
likes.
Categorical Imperaves are commands that are universal and imparal. It encompasses every
reasonable being regardless of their origin, culture or social standing and at the same me they
have to perform these in respect for the dignity of everyone which devoid of their bias or
inclinaons. Universal Love is an example of Categorical Imperave, World Peace is another.

another.
The Kingdom of Ends
Immanuel Kant believed in the dignity of human reason but also of the free will. As
menoned in past modules man is endowed with free will and human reason to decide
dec ide but if
they
are coerced then their freedom of choice is hampered making them less of a human being.
Dignity
of man should not be compromised. The Kingdom of ends is the idea of a state equal to Sir
Thomas More’s Utopia. Kant denes it as, "a systemac union of dierent raonal beings
through
common laws". But is it aainable? He believed it is because as long as men think the same way
which he deemed as “categorical

“categorical imperave” it is aainable. The Kingdom of ends has three

ingredients: the members, the sovereign, and the private ends which the members have. The
members refer to reasonable free-willed persons, who obey universal laws. They are ends in
themselves and are willing to spread their ideals to others absent of personal biases. The
sovereign is perceived to be God for he is not subject to any law but has no “power” to break the
law itself he is a role-model that the members will subscribe to. The private ends of the
members
are the goals they wanted to achieve that will benet everyone that might refer to categorical
imperaves. In this kingdom, human degradaon,

deg radaon, slavery and exploitaon for the private ends
they wanted to aain are for everyone’

everyone’ss benet.
Books and Journals
1. Babor, Eddie
Store
Store
Ethics
The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant 3
Course Module
1. Ethical Tradions;
www.qcc.cuny
www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/MEDICAL_E
.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/MEDICAL_ETHICS_TEXT
THICS_TEXT/Chapter_2_Et
/Chapter_2_Et
hical_Tradions/Cat
hical_Tradions/Categorical_Imperav
egorical_Imperaves.htm;
es.htm; 2002
2. The Kingdom of Ends; hps://limnk.

hps://limnk.springer
springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-010
.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-010--
3099-1_26;
Wrien by:

Ethics
Rights 1
Course Module
Module 15 Rights
1. To
To give a denion of Rights as well as the types of rights
2. To dierenate rights from privilege
3. To discern moral rights from legal rights
What are Rights?
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entlement. Rights are part of
modern civilizaons, and are regarded as established pillars of society and culture. Conicts in
history such as war, for example,

example, began and end with rights. Democracy protected the rights of
individuals, property and privileges that is a thing men can never do without. Human
rights are moral principles that describe standards of human behavior protected by law. They are
considered as inalienable and fundamental, which means they can be given and taken away
once
abused and is a necessity for human existence. Human rights are inherent among human beings
because that is part of their existence regardless of their race, color or creed. It must be noted
that
human rights may be protected by law but if abused, as menoned will be taken away but with
due process. The “aggrieved” party may lose his fundamental rights backed
backed up by a court
ligaon
and at the same me mete punishment for his mistake.
Types of Human Rights:
1. Civil and Polical Rights - “civil-polical” rights center on polical liberes dealing with

polics. They are strongly individualisc

individualisc and negavely constructed to protect the
individual from the state. These rights got their origin from Thomas Paine’s
Paine’s “Rights of
Man” that is part of the democrac process. Civil rights include the security of peoples'
well-being, the protecon from discriminaon, and the exercise of freedoms of speech,
freedom, press and assembly. By Polical Rights

Rights we mean natural jusce such as the
right of the accused to fair trial, redress of grievances and legal remedies.
2. Socio-Economic and Cultural Rights – are human rights guarantee equal condions and
treatment of necessies provided by the State.

S tate. These include the human right
employment, the right to a high quality of life, including the basic needs of food,
clothing, and shelter and the right to social security, healthy envir
environment,
onment, and
educaon. These rights are part of the body of human rights that resulted aer World
War II.
3. Collecve-Developmental Rights – the right of peoples and groups to development in
relaon to states’ rights to public assembly

assembly.. This is for the protecon of associaons
and groups with the help of the state in its well-being.
Rights versus Privileges
A privilege is an entlement to immunity granted by the state or another authority to a
restricted group on a condional basis. On the other hand a right is an inherent, irrevocable
entlement held by all cizens or all human beings from the moment of birth. What is the
dierence, privilege refers to special powers or immunies held as a consequence of polical
power,, social status, or wealth. Any local cizen has tthe

power he right to elect a public ocial but having
a
driver’s license is a privilege for it cannot be demanded. Such government ID needed exams to
pass and laws to follow.

follow. Privileges elevate a person, that granted them status and power that not
everybody can claim. Both of them however can be taken away once abused.
Moral Right versus Legal Right

As explained in the past modules not everything moral as legal and vice versa but we will
give an in-depth analysis of that in this module. Moral rights are rights accorded under some
system of ethics. Moral rights adhere to the idea that men are to be respected because they are
raonal people. This includes the right to fair treatment and right to privacy.
privacy. That is, if Pedro has
the right to these things Juan also being a human being must also be given the same privileges.
Legal rights are people’s rights under some legal system, granted by the government or any
duly-constuted
duly-constuted authority.
authority. Everyone has the right to know the veracity of a news item that the
State may upheld the right to informaon but cannot force the people to believe in it.
1. How to tell the dierence between the right and a privilege?;
hps://voicesoiberty.com/2015/04/22/how-to-tell-
hps://voicesoiberty.com/2015/04/22/how-to-tell-the-dierence-between-arigh
the-dierence-between-aright-and-a-
t-and-a-
privilege/;; April 22, 2015
privilege/
2. What is dierence between moral rights and legal rights?;
hps://www.quora.com
hps://www.quora.com/What-is-the-di
/What-is-the-dierence-between-moral
erence-between-moral-rights-and-leg
-rights-and-legalrights
alrights; January
9, 2017
3. Three Generaons of Human Rights; hp://www.globalizaon101.

hp://www.globalizaon101.org/threegeneraons-of-
org/threegeneraons-of-
rights/;; 1991
rights/
4. What are Economic, Social and Cultural

C ultural Rights; hp://www.cesr.org/what-areeconomic-social-
and-cultural-rights;;
and-cultural-rights
Wrien by:
AMA Caloocan Campus
Ethics
The Philosophy of Ulitarianism 1
Course Module

Module 16 The Philosophy of Ulitarianism
1. To
To learn the core of this 18th Century
C entury Philosophy
2. To dierenate the beliefs of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
3. To correlate Ulitarian philosophy in business
Ulitarianism
This philosophy is also known as Consequenalism that says the rightness or wrongness of
an object depends on the eect of the consequence regardless of the method it ulized. There
are
two kinds of ulitarianism and they are Act ulitarian and Rule ulitarian, the rst believed
about
the goodness or badness of a parcular act. An example is the assassinaon of former Indian
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 that was an act of murder by the civilized people but to the
perpetuators it was an act benecial to the maligned Indian minority. Rule ulitarian means the
goodness or evilness of an act itself. Say aboron may be an evil act but Western civilizaon
civilizaon view
it as a means to combat populaon explosion. Morality is dened, simply as increasing good and
decreasing evil by eliminang tradions, taboos or archaic beliefs that obstruct human
development. These age-old beliefs put man in a “primive” way of life that denied their right to
free-will and are a bane to human behavior.

behavior. The proponents of this theory were Jeremy
Bentham
and John Stuart Mill wherein the rst thought about this idea and later shared to his pupil which
the laer propagated for humanity albeit with his own interpretaon. Despite being thinkers of
the 18th Century their ideas were ulized by the present generaon but were doubted for its
absurdies. That even today the ideas of these scholars were unsure as to they tend to Act
Ulitarian or Rule Ulitarian. Their wrings are ambiguous that they have no idea what
ulitarian
act they subscribe.

The Philosophies of Bentham and Mill
Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) proposed ulitarianism in this premises: 1) Human life is
greatly-aected
greatly-aected by pleasure and pain; 2) consequences of acons are caused by pleasure and
pain;
3) the idea of anything pleasurable is good and anything painful is evil is absolute; and 4)
Pleasure
and pain can be quaned. To sum it up, man’s happiness is quaned by either pleasure and
pain
and nothing else. They can be measured according to the following criteria such as: intensity
intensity,,
duraon, certainty and nearness.
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) for his part claried his professors’ stand by making his own
counterpoint: 1) the quality of happiness is more important than its quanty; 2) the quality of
happiness cannot be measured for these things are felt and no amount of calculaon can
quanfy
it; 3) Mill believed in the idea of the “General Happiness of the People” that happiness can be
felt
by everyone, in short common happiness.
Posive and Negave Ulitarianism
Ulitarianism is famous for its maxim “Greater happiness for the greater number” and
believed in the premise that while man’

man’ss purpose in this world is to be happy, we must only
think
more of happiness and neglect misery in our lives. Which brings us to Posive Ulitarianism
which adheres to the maxim menoned, while is negave counterpart centers on its complete
contradicon “least misery for the least number of people”

pe ople”.. It must be noted, though that both
are
absurd because suering is part of human existence that comes in great numbers that made a
considerable number of people suering as well. Negave ulitarianism is also impraccal if not
totally ludicrous because by experiencing misery we became emoonally stronger inasmuch as it

is triumph over adversity, life is not a bed of roses anyway. Posive Ulitarianism is also
preposterous for happiness

happiness may not be aained by everyone and anyone might not feel the
same
way.. For example, if we are happy inicng pain to another being a sadist will the receiving party
way
feel pleasure? Certainly not unless he is a masochist.
Business Ulitarianism
As menoned earlier, the rightness or wrongness of an acon is based on the consequence
regardless of the method employed. We can also connect that to the common adage “the end
juses the means” just as long as it benets the

the society where one belongs. Conv
Conversely
ersely
speaking,
any acon is valid as long as it is for the “greater

“greater good for the greater number”.
number”. Now let us
correlate Ulitarianism to Business, four things have to be kept in mind:

1. Business depends upon the consequence of an acon ergo consequenalism – as
menoned the validity of the acon is the consequence or the aainment of its ends.
This type of belief is considered bad because this is praccally perming the proteers
of exercising avarice by jacking up price of commodies and at the same me using
substandard
substandard goods and services just as long as they
t hey aain of raking cash at the expense
of good business.
2. Business depends on welfarism – by welfarism we mean an act is valid if the society
where one belongs subscribed to that similar understand

understanding.
ing. This is has posive eects
because it deals with the well-being of the society such as raising the salaries of the
workers that the State (unless they adhere to Command economy pracced by
Communists) approved.
3. Business is individualism – this centers on the happiness of the consumer while the rst
two ideals are for the businessmen and the workers respecvely
respecvely.. In this concept, the
businessmen will give quality goods and services at aordable prices devoid of prot

but merely public service.
4. Business is aggregaon – by aggregaon

ag gregaon this means the rightness or wrongness of an
acon is dependent in only on the average values of all the individual, egalitarian in the
real sense of the word. It simply means that happiness should be shared by all sectors of
business – the businessmen, workers, buyers and society.

society.
1. Act and Rule Ulitarianism; hps://www.iep.utm.edu/ul-a-r/;
2. Ulitarianism;
Ulitarianism; hp://caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cav
hp://caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cavalier/80130/part2/sect9.html
alier/80130/part2/sect9.html;; 2002
3. Posive and Negave Ulitarianism;
hps://procrasnatoryponderings.
hps://procrasnatoryponderings.wordpress.com/201
wordpress.com/2013/03/28/posive-andnegav
3/03/28/posive-andnegave-
e-
ulitarianism-two-absurd-ver
ulitarianism-two-absurd-versions-of-co
sions-of-consequenalism/
nsequenalism/;; March 28, 2013
Ethics
The Philosophy of Ulitarianism 3
Course Module
4. Applying Ulitarianism in Business;

B usiness;
hps://www.academicwritersbur
hps://www.academicwritersbureau.com/samples/219-app
eau.com/samples/219-applying-ulitarianism
lying-ulitarianism-inbusiness
-inbusiness;
December 1, 2016
Wrien by:
AMA Caloocan Campus
Ethics
Jusce and Fairness
Course Module

Module 17 Jusce and Fairness
1. To
To dene jusce and social jusce
2. To understand Law and the State
3. To discern how sociees dispense jusce
What is Social Jusce?
Plato in his wring “The

“ The Republic” dubbed social jusce as Pantheism because he
compared jusce or fairness as the universe in its enrety that is moved by an invisible source.
The universe has been here since me immemorial and no one can determine the age but why is
it
that it never collided and sll “in order”? He dened jusce as universal, absolute and eternal.
But
what is jusce, Merriam and Webster
Webster dened it as, the maintenance or administraon of what
is just especially by the imparal adjustment of conicng claims or the assignment of merited
rewards or punishments. So to correlate that with Plato’s “The Republic”,

Republic”, the components of
jusce is harmony and unity

unity.. But that can never be aained
aained if there is no Stat
State
e which is the very
purpose why the need for state, polics and law is a must in every society.
society.
Social Jusce only came in to being during the 19th Century in the Industrial Revoluon to
be exact by European counes. The populace who were fed up by their monarchs demand
jusce
and fairness based on the premises of equality among men and to resolve capitalist exploitaon.
This later expanded to issue such as rights of the poor, equal distribuon of wealth, race, gender
and the likes. Aristotle, Plato’s

Plato’s most apt subordinate
subordinate gave his own denion when he said,
"equals
should be treated equally and unequals unequally” that means that individuals must be treated
the
same but if necessity dictates there are excepons. For example, John and Joanne are both

workers in the same factory and in the same posion and are having the same compensaon.
However,, there are things may dier when it comes to age, sex, educaonal background or
However
religious belief.
State and Law
State is a community of persons more or less numerous permanently occupying a denite
territory having a government of their own to which a great body of inhabitants render habitual
obedience and enjoying freedom from external control. A State has the following elements
namely:
1) People: Mass of populaon living within the state; 2) Territory: Land, marime, aerial and
uvial area over which jurisdicon exists; 3) Government: The agency through which the will of
the state is carried out; 4) Sovereignty: Supreme power of the state to enforce its will on the
people without foreign intervenon and; 5) Recognion: the acceptance of a naon into the
Family of Naons.
A law is part and parcel of a state and is dened as any rule that if broken will mete
punishments to oenders. It is also dened as a body of rules made by the government

interpreted
by the courts and backed by the power of the State. It is a legal order which refers to a
specialized
phase of social control. Law is not only a means to a civilizaon but also a product of civilizaon
according to Roscoe Pound, the spokesman for the School of Social Jurisprudence. Law is
responsible for social engineering for it is a mechanism in reacng to changes in a society. laws
are suscepble to change and is not bound by tradions and legends and is created for the
interest
of all members of society.
Government and Jusce
1) Egalitarianism - Egalitarianism is a trend of thought in polical philosophy. It favors
equality to everyone where people are treated the same as equals. Jusce is given to

everyone regardless of race color or creed.
2) Communism - is simply based class dictatorship of the proletariat (the ruling party).
This type of governance was thought of by Karl Marx, where a society is dominated by
one class over the enre state. Socialism is the reciprocal of capitalism, where state
control of the economy is the naon’s priority.
3) Socialism - A polical ideology that advocates for an equal redistribuon of wealth and
power in society through a democrac ownership and distribuon of society’s means of
producon (or means of making money).
Books and Journals
1. Babor, Eddie
Store
1. Social Jusce; hps://www.pachamama.org/social-jus

Jusce; hps://www .pachamama.org/social-jusce/what-is-social-ju
ce/what-is-social-jusce
sce
2. Jusce and Fairness; hps://www

hps://www.scu.edu/ethics/e
.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethic
thics-resources/ethical-
al-
decisionmaking/jusce-and-fairness/;; August 1, 2014
decisionmaking/jusce-and-fairness/
3. Denion of Jusce; hps://www.merriam-webster.com/diconary/jusce
4. Egalitarianism;
Egalitarianism; hps://plato.stanf
hps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egalitarianism/; April 24, 2013
ord.edu/entries/egalitarianism/
5. Social Jusce: Code for Communism; hps://www.quora.com/What-is-a-

communistgovernment-1;; August 4, 2016
communistgovernment-1
6. What is Socialism Really? hps://www

hps://www.dailydot.
.dailydot.com/layer8/what
com/layer8/what-is-socialismdenion
-is-socialismdenion//
Wrien By:
AMA Caloocan Campus

Ethics
Pluralism versus Fundamentalism 1
Course Module
Module 18 Pluralism versus Fundamentalism
1. To dierenate the Pluralist and Fundamentalist Philosophies
2. To explain Globalizaon and Pluralism
3. To dene Filipino Millennials or Filinnials
4. To understand the role of religion in ethics
Pluralism versus Fundamentalis

F undamentalism
m
Let us dene Pluralism – it is the holding of two or more beliefs or concepts in a single
society.. This is the prevailing idea that is introduced in the modern world to make this a beer
society
place to live in. The Pluralis

Pluralistt ideology fell on the following premises: 1) Pluralism
Pluralism is engagement
with diversity.
diversity. This means that the walls that divide people due to religious beliefs shall be
removed, at present religious diversity is present but devoid of religious pluralism. That is in
certain countries religious gheoes allow religious minories to exist in their fold but is sll
alienated due to their biases by the adherents of the dominant religion. 2) Pluralism is
understanding
understanding that transcends lines of dierences. Many are mistaken that we have to learn the
enre religious doctrine of another only a poron is enough to at least build a bridge to connect
them. Absence of knowledge of another culture led to bias and alienaon. 3) Pluralism is
encounter of commitments, this is simply to empathize to people of another religion. We should
not isolate ourselves from what we know but break borders. 4) Pluralism is based on dialogue –
talking is the most basic way of communicang, silence will bring us nowhere.
Fundamentalism is dened as a strict belief in the literal interpretaon of the religious
tenet. Fundamentalists view of other religious beliefs are biased and contrary to their
fundamental

beliefs are considered “herec”.

“herec”. Their religious tenets adhere to the idea that morality is ebbing
e bbing
due to modernizaon.
Globalizaon and Pluralism
In our ever-changing
ever-changing world, pluralism are polical responses to dierent historical
challenges that they shape history that build bridges than Fundamentali
F undamentalism
sm that create walls.
Policies geared religious pluralism center on religious toleraon, rights for denominaons, or
individual religious freedom. They believed that even if they subscribe to religious beliefs they
belong to One Faith and are unied by the philosophy of being one. Globalizaon since we are
now
in the Digital Age, play a major role in achieving common understanding that Ecumenical
Services
accepted people of “alien” religions to be at one thanks to the internet. With the connuing
development in telecommunicaons that will prove
prove brighter in the years to come, will lead to
peaceful co-existence and even to ideological convergence. Then again, like a double-edged
sword,
pluralism may also lead to social dissoluon, since the awareness of fundamental dierences
between religious world-views and might lead to misunderstanding

misunderstanding and lead to religious wars.
One example is the Crusades that occurred in the Middle Ages between Muslims and Chrisans
in
spite of the fact that Islam revered Christ as one of their prophets and the Muslim beliefs foster
humility and brotherhood akin to Chrisan tradions.
The Filipino Millennials aka Filinnials
Time Magazine, described millennials as people born from 1980 to 2000. This generaon
comprise the largest age group in America

Ame rica and Asia. Their age group is called the “yuppie” age
(from the acronym YUP or Young Urban Professionals).

Professionals). In the Philippines, they are described as
the “sele” generaon and followers of social media no thanks to modern communicaon
gadgets

such as mobile phones, laptops and tablets that seems they can never do without. A Filinnial
(short for Filipino millennials) are usually spendthris due to their propensity to spend money
for
luxury goods which le their bank accounts “broke.”

“broke.” Another trait that unied most of them is
their narcissisc atude, making them known as the “Me, Me, Me Generaon.
Gene raon.”” They are so
conscious of what and how they look that seles are a common thing. It must be noted though
that
there are also good atudes which millennials possess among them are their polically and
social
astuteness. The social media opened their eyes that tradional media such as TV, movies, radio
and print are no longer the source of informaon. Compared to other generaons, millennials
have their say about issues and are more involved

involved with polics and are not squeamish about
revealing their opinions.
The Role of Religion in Ethics
Even in the current situaon, many are sll arguing about the role of religion in Ethics. Will
this age-old instuon be the primary agent for the right ethics for they propagate
propagate the Word of
God? Most religions have an ethical component because ethics is yardsck for right conduct and
good life. A necessary component of making this a guide to temporal happiness. Is this the most
reliable concepon of analyzing what is right from what is wrong? The central theme of ethics is
"the good life", the very reason we aspire for in this temporal world we live in that ancient
Greeks
regarded as eudaimonia or happiness. The ancient Greeks believed happiness was brought
about
by living one’s life in accordance with virtue – posive traits of character.

character. Virtue is the source of
good character,
character, that us integrated
integrated by good personal habits such as courage and temperance, but
also friendship and jusce and intellectual virtue.

Pluralism; hp://pluralism.org/what-is-p
1. What is Pluralism; hp://pluralism.org/what-is-pluralism/
luralism/;; 2006
2. What is Fundamentalism; hps://www.gotquesons.or

hps://www.gotquesons.org/fundamentalism.html
g/fundamentalism.html
3. Modes of Religious Pluralism under Condions of Globalizaon;
hp://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-
humansciences/resources/periodicals/diversies/pas
humansciences/resources/periodicals/diversies/past-issues/vo
t-issues/vol-1-no-1-1999/modes-
l-1-no-1-1999/modes-
ofreligious-pluralism-under-
ofreligious-pluralism-under-condions-of-gl
condions-of-globalisaon/#top
obalisaon/#topPage
Page;; 1999
hp://primer.com.ph/blog/2016/06/27/millennialsin-the-
4. Millennials in the Philippines; hp://primer.com.ph/blog/2016/06/27/millennialsin-the-
philippines-who-are-they-and-wha
philippines-who-are-they-and-what-do-they
t-do-they-do/
-do/
5. Can we be ethical without being religious; hp://www.ethicssage.com/2012/09/therole-of-

ethics-in-religion.html; Sept. 4, 2012
Wrien by:
AMA Caloocan Campus
Ethics
Pluralism versus Fundamentalism 3
Course Module

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The Scope and Meaning of Ethics 1

Module 2 The Scope and Meaning of Ethics

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. To understand the Denion of Ethics

2. Morality and other phases of Human Life

3. To learn about Human Acts

A deeper understanding of Ethics

deeper meaning in its standpoin

concerned with the morality of human acts.

Noted denion of Ethics

1. Ethics is the praccal science of the morality of human acons

2. Ethics is the scienc inquiry into the principles of morality

3. Ethics is the study of human conduct from the standpoint of morality

Relaon of Ethics with Other Sciences

science of right living. Thinking and Doing things go hand-in-hand, we cannot

nature and human behavior but that is all their

Psychology ends there.

3. Ethics and Sociology – as we all know,

is Ethics. Any society is doomed to fail if devoid of correct basis of thinking.

topics needed ethical principles such as capital-labor relaons, prot, interests,

Morality and Other Phases of Human Life

1. Ethics and Educaon – Educaon whether formal or informal is a never-ending

process and is the foundaon of man’s moral, intellectual and physical

ethics said it is a fault for such “act” is intrinsically evil.

deviate from ethics. Man’s

means absence of ethics. An ideal state should be an ethical state.

art that is beauful, will

appreciated. The purpose of art is for appreciaon that is contributory to man’

namely: a) belief in the Supernatural, b) man’

Morality and Human Acts

judgement on any human act based on its ethicality

according to its gravity.

jused which lead us to its norm of morality

is morally wrong or right.

culprit pulled the trigger,

either morally right or wrong.

References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals

The Scope and Meaning of Ethics 3

Book Store Inc.

AMACC Caloocan Campus

Module 3 Moral Standards and Human Freedom

At the end of this module, you are expected t0:

1. To understand moral standards in relaon to human life

Morality it must be noted, is present only in humanity

jusfy them. Free will is present

drives, while men can decide whether an act is moral or not.

his mind as well as his understanding

logical or correct decision.

from their partnership “virtue” is born.

we are fully aware of what we are doing

2. Imperfect voluntariness – when a person acts without full understandin

freedom – we are made to perform acts we did not like

3. Simple voluntariness – it is the disposion of a person doing the acvity regardless to

4. Condional voluntariness - it is the situaon when the person was forced by

circumstances or under duress which he would not do under normal circumstances.

Example is being extorted money by a neighborhood toughie in exchange for his

Modiers of Human Acts:

aempt to escape responsibility such as a suspect denying his complicity in a crime he

undesirable tendencies. Posive

amateur singer performing in front of a large crowd

decisions such as jumping out of a plane about to ccrash