I. Basic Concepts
Ethics define
- Human Act vs Act of Man
- Essential Elements of Human Act
- Determinants of Morality
- Modifiers of Human Act
- Norms of Morality
II. Rules
2. Module 01
I. Basic Concepts
II. Rules
Ethics define
- Human Act vs Act of Man
- Essential Elements of Human Act
- Determinants of Morality
- Modifiers of Human Act
- Norms of Morality
4. Ethics
• Derived from the Greek word “ethos”
ethos = manner of acting and behaving
• Focused on the general principles, rules and theories
on determining what is right on wrong
• It is both a theory and a practice
5. Ethics
Human conduct or human act is the material object of
Ethics
The morality of human act or human conduct is its
formal object
6. Ethics vs Morality
Ethics Morality
Focused on the general
principles, rules and
theories on determining
what is right on wrong.
The praxis, the
application of those
principles. (Fernandez,
2012)
7. Morality
• A system of beliefs about what is right behavior and wrong
behavior (Rubin, 2015)
• Deals with how a person relates with others and with the
world to promote what is good (Thiroux and Krasemann,
2009)
• The effort to guide one’s conduct by reason – to act based on
the best reasons for doing – while giving equal weight to the
interest of each individual affected by one’s decision (Rachels,
2015)
8. Two Divisions of Ethics
• General Ethics
Deals with the morality of the human act that mainly
focuses on the basic concepts.
• Applied or Special Ethics
The application of the moral principles, standards
and norms in various specific areas of human life and
activity.
9. “Ethics is both a theory and a practice”
Knowing what is right without changing the way
one’s behavior morally is a useless knowledge
(Fernandez, 2012)
10. Characteristics Moral
Principles Must Have
Characteristics Description
1. Prescriptivity refers to the action-guiding nature of morality. The principles should intend to guide and
direct people what to do or should not do. Like “obey your parents” or “thou shall not kill”
2. Impartiality means that moral rule should be neutral. It should apply to anyone regardless of status or
situation.
3. Overridingness should mean that moral principles should tower over all other norms or standards of
evaluation. They must have hegemonic authority. Therefore, should be given primary and
ultimate importance.
4. Autonomous from
Arbitrary Authority
moral standards should be independent, hence be able to stand on its own. Regardless of
what the majority says or decides, something is moral or immoral. An act should be based
on the ethical principles and not on what men say.
5. Publicity since moral standards guide people what to do, they should be made public. Reason
dictates that rules are made and promulgated to advice as well as praise or blame certain
action.
6. Practicability rules are made for men to follow. Hence, moral standards exist in which human beings are
capable of doing. Otherwise, if they are too heavy it will be impossible for individuals to
obey in which it may result for men to do another act that is illicit in order to obey the
norms set forth.
11. What kind of act a man is morally
accountable and responsible?
Two Acts:
1. Act of man – acts of which man has no
control.
2. Human act – a free act.
12. Act of Man
It is involuntarily, like emotions and the
functions of the organs inside our body.
Human Act
It is voluntarily or those actions which are
within the control man.
13. Three Essential Elements of Act of Man
and Human Act
1. Knowledge – awareness of the doer of
what he/she is doing.
2. Freedom – state of being unrestricted from
the internal impulse and external pressure.
3. Will – the doer’s consent.
For a man to be fully morally accountable of his/he
act, it must be done knowingly, freely and willfully.
14. Voluntariness
• It is very much akin to consent.
• Act of the will
Four Kinds of Voluntariness
1. Perfect voluntariness All the elements of human act are present.
2. Imperfect voluntariness Knowledge is absent.
3. Simple voluntariness Simply doing or not doing the act.
4. Conditional voluntariness The doer is forced to do an act in which in normal
condition it should be done.
15. Morality
Morality of an act can either be moral, immoral or
amoral.
• Moral – good act
• Immoral – bad act
• Amoral – indifferent or neither good nor bad act
16. How do we know the morality of an act?
Determinants of Morality
1. The Object or Act itself The deed done.
2. Motive or Intent Purpose or reason of doing the act.
3. Circumstances Involves Situations that surrounds the commission of the act.
a. WHO – refers to the person involved in the act committed.
The doer and the receiver or recipient of the act.
b. WHY – the reason or motive of doing the act.
c. BY WHAT MEANS – though the intention is good but
attaining the end is unlawful or illicit, then the act is still
immoral.
d. WHERE – setting of the action.
e. WHEN – time of the commission of the act.
f. HOW – level of extremity of doing the act.
17. Modifiers of Human Act
MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT
1. Ignorance The absence of knowledge. Everyone should ought to possess and be responsible
to have knowledge.
Two kinds of ignorance:
a. Vincible ignorance – where the lack of knowledge can easily be rectified.
b. Invincible ignorance – the lack of knowledge is difficult to rectified.
2. Concupiscence or
passion
Refers to emotions whether negative or positive desire. They are neither moral or
immoral. But, man ha to control or regulate his emotions and must be submitted
to the control of reason. Passion can either be antecedent or consequent. The
former tend to weaken the will power of the person and so interfere with the
freedom of the will. Man tends to become irrational. These are so called “crimes
of passion”. Though, they are voluntary but diminish the accountability of man.
3. Fear Is the disturbance of the mind when a person is confronted by danger or harm to
oneself or loved ones. It is also a form of emotion. However, it is necessary to
discuss this separately since it is important to make a distinction between an act
done with fear and an act done out of or because fear.
18. Modifiers of Human Act
MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT
4. Violence Happens when physical force is exerted to a person by another for the purpose of
compelling or forcing the person to act against his will.
5. Habits Are frequently repeated acts. It may be bad or good. In most cases, habits are
becoming involuntarily since they assume the role of a second nature. It is not
easy to overcome or alter habits. It takes a strong-willed person to correct a bad
habit.
19. Norm
• Used to measure whether an act done is good or bad,
right or wrong, moral or immoral.
• A rule or standard in gauging the goodness or badness of
an act.
Two types of norm:
1. Eternal divine law
2. Human Reason
20. Eternal Divine Law
• Objective and is the ultimate and absolute norm of
morality.
• Governed by Divine Reason
• It governs nature and action of things (Montemayor,
1994)
• It is made known to man through his reason and
conscience known as the natural law (lex naturalis)
Because of his rational nature, man is able to law what is right and wrong.
Moral law is ordinance of reason promulgated by those who have the
authority and care of the community for promotion of the common good. This
necessitates obedience on the part of those who are expected to follow it.
21. Eternal Divine Law
Human laws are those laws enacted by men. This
includes rules not only in the government but also in
private agencies as well as in the churches.
The difference between moral law and human law is
that the former covers both the external and internal
action of man. Whereas, human law only covers
external actions of man.
Not all immoral acts are necessarily illegal vis-à-vis.
22. Human Reason
• Related to person’s conscience which is proximate
norm of morality telling a person internally what to
do and should not do.
• It guides and directs a person to his/her destination.
• It is subjective since it is found in the subject it self.
• It has to require proper information and education on
our part to attain a level of true and correct
conscience.
23. Conscience
Conscience can either be correct or true, or erroneous or false.
Having a correct conscience must be always obeyed, whatever it
commands or forbids.
An erroneous conscience can be:
a. Invincibly erroneous conscience – a kind of judgement where
mistake cannot be avoided regardless of the effort or attempt
exerted to correct such.
b. Vincibly erroneous conscience – person is morally accountable
since the error could have been avoided with ordinary diligence
on his/her part.
c. Perplexed conscience – this kind of judgment happen when a
person has two alternative options but fears that sin is present
in both choices that either way he/she feels doomed, the
person must postpone any action in making a choice.
d. Pharisaical conscience – the person magnifies small offenses as
grave and serious sins as little.
24. Conscience
As to the firmness in its judgment of the morality of the act,
conscience is either:
a. Certain conscience – the judgment is sure that the action
is morally good or bad.
b. Doubtful conscience – the person hesitates in making a
particular judgment since he/she is not certain or unsure
whether something is good or bad, moral or immoral.
c. Scrupulous conscience – this type of judgment is
described as very cautious or extremely fearful that the
person involved do not want to make any action in a
given situation. As a result, the individual tends to judge
something as right or wrong when in fact there is none.
d. Lax conscience – it is very different from the scrupulous
conscience since the person takes sinful act very lightly
and considers it as good and okey. It always take things
for granted when it comes to grave moral importance.
25. Norm
Norms are formal or material as derived from natural
law.
a. Formal norms refers to “what we ought to be” like
we should be sensitive, giving and obedient.
b. Material norms refers to “what ought to be done”
like “do not lie, do good, and do not be selfish.
It is worthy to note that whenever there is a conflict
between the civil authority and the divine law (moral
natural law), the person has “to obey God rather than
men” as based from the Word of God.
27. SUMMATIVE TEST
A. Matching Type.
Answer A B
Prescriptivity a. Material Object
Special Ethics b. Ethics as a branch of Philosophy
Human law c. Be made known to everyone
Mores d. Application of Ethics
Postulates of Ethics e. Independent from arbitrariness
Practicability f. Hegemonic authority of moral rule
Moral Philosophy g. Formal Object
Morality h. Basic course in the study of Ethics
The ‘praxis’ of Ethics i. Direct people what to do and to avoid
Material Object j. Manner of Acting
Autonomy k. Latin of custom
Human Act l. Not necessary moral
Ethos m. Not too burdensome for humans
Overridingness n. Equality in application of Morality
General Ethics o. Includes thoughts and feelings of man
28. SUMMATIVE TEST
B. Classification. Classify the following as to whether they are a human act or act of man.
Write only the acronym HA for human act and AM for act of man.
Answer A B
Publicity p. Human Act
Impartiality q. Presupposition of Ethical Inquiry
Moral Law r. Moral rectitude of human act
Formal Object s. Application of fundamental norms
Morality of Human Conduct t. Morality
Answer
The boy is day dreaming.
His heartbeat goes on rapidly.
She becomes conscious of her breathing that she finds it so difficult to breath.
A. Matching Type.
29. Answer
The servant pays his debt to his master.
A female teacher is making herself available for a remedial class.
I can’t help but think of you, night and day.
After an hour of running, he sweated out profusely.
She dreamed of you last night.
A manager accepts the job applicant on the basis of their qualifications.
The can driver sneezes off involuntarily.
