What is Ethics?

If I ask you, What do you mean

by Ethics?
Your possible answers?..........
"Ethics has to do with what my
feelings tell me is right or wrong.
"Ethics has to do with my religious
beliefs.
"Being ethical is doing what the law
requires.
"Ethics consists of the standards of

What is Ethics?
Is ethics
feelings?

the

same

thing

as

Many people tend to equate ethics with

their feelings.
But being ethical is clearly not a matter
of following one's feelings.
A person following his or her feelings
may keep away from doing what is right.
In fact, feelings frequently deviate from
what is ethical.

What is Ethics?
Should
alone?

ethics

be

identified

with

religion

Most religions, of course, advocate high ethical

standards.
Yet if ethics were confined to religion, then
ethics would apply only to religious people.
However, ethics applies as much to the behavior
of an atheist as to that of a devout religious
person.
Religion can set high ethical standards and can
provide intense motivations for ethical behavior.
Ethics, however, cannot be confined to religion
nor is it the same thing as religion.

What is Ethics?
Is ethics the same thing as law?
Being ethical is not the same as
obeying the law.
The law often incorporates ethical
standards to which most citizens
subscribe.
But laws, like feelings, can deviate
from what is ethical.
Anti-social laws are obvious examples
of laws that deviate from what is
ethical, examples?

What is Ethics?
Is being ethical the same thing as doing
what is acceptable to society? (social
norms)
Being ethical is not the same as doing
"whatever society accepts."
In any society, most people accept standards
that are, in fact, ethical.
But standards of behavior in society can
deviate from what is ethical.
Corruption, female foeticide.have though
received
social
acceptability
yet
are
unethical

What then is Ethics?

What, then, is ethics?
Ethics is two things:

well-founded
standards of right and wrong

First, ethics refers to

that prescribe what humans ought to

do, usually in terms of rights,
obligations towards society like
fairness, trustworthiness or possessing
specific virtues like generosity

 Ethics, for example, refers to those standards

that impose the reasonable obligations to
refrain from stealing, murder, assault, rape,
slander, and fraud.
Ethical standards also include those that
emphasize virtues of honesty, compassion, and
loyalty.
And, ethical standards include standards
relating to rights, such as the right to life, the
right to freedom from injury, and the right to
privacy..

Such standards are adequate standards of

ethics because they are supported by
consistent and well-founded reasons .

study and
development of one's ethical
standards.

Secondly, ethics refers to the

As known now, feelings, laws, and social

norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is
necessary to constantly examine one's
standards to ensure that they are reasonable
and well-founded.
Ethics therefore also means the continuous
effort of studying our own moral beliefs and
moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we,
and the society and institutions we are apart
of, live up to standards that are reasonable
and well-founded.

What is then Ethics?

Simply stated, ethics refers to
the standards that prescribe
how human beings ought to act
in the many situations in which
they find themselves as friends,
parents, children, citizens,
businesspeople, teachers,
professionals, and so on.

Identifying Ethical Standards is

still very Hard
There are two fundamental problems in
identifying the ethical standards we are
to follow:
1. On what do we base our ethical
standards?
2. How do those standards get applied
to
specific situations we are in?
If our ethics are not based on feelings,
religion, law, accepted social practice
etc. what are then they based on?
Philosophers and Ethicists have
suggested at least five different sources
wherefrom ethical standards emanate.

Sources of Ethical
Standards
The Utilitarian Approach
The Rights Approach
The Fairness or Justice
Approach
The Common Good Approach
The Virtue Approach
The Ethic of Care Approach

The Utilitarian Approach

Most good for most people

Utilitarianism emphasizes that

an
ethical action is the one that provides the
most good and/or does the least harm.
The ethical business action, therefore, is
the one that produces the greatest good
and does the least harm for all the
stakeholders-customers,
employees,
shareholders, the community, and the
environment.
Sometimes
also
known
as
Consequentialism, the utilitarian approach
weighs the consequences of an action and
accordingly labels it as ethical or
otherwise

The Rights Approach

Other philosophers suggest that the ethical
action is the one that best protects and
respects the moral rights of those affected.
This approach emphasizes that humans
have a dignity based on their human
nature.
On the basis of such dignity, they have a
right to be treated as ends and not merely
as means to other ends.
The list of moral rights- including the rights
to make one's own choices about what kind
of life to lead, to be told the truth, not to
be injured, to a degree of privacy and so
on.

The Justice/Fairness
Approach
The Fairness or Justice Approach emphasizes
that all equals should be treated equally.
Ethical actions treat all human beings
equally-or if unequally, then fairly based on
some standard that is defensible and wellfounded.
We pay people more based on their harder
work or the greater contribution they make
to an organizationAlways fair?

The Common Good

Approach

The common good approach suggests that ethical

actions are those that benefit all members of the
community.
This approach to ethics assumes that the
community members are bound by the pursuit of
common values and goals.
This approach also calls attention to the common
conditions that are important to the welfare of
everyone.
This may be a system of laws, effective police and
fire departments, health care, a public educational
system, or even public recreational areas.

The Virtue Approach

A very ancient approach to ethics is that ethical
actions ought to be consistent with certain ideal
virtues that provide for the full development of
the humanity.
These virtues are dispositions and habits that
enable us to act according to the highest
potential of our character.
Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity,
tolerance, love, fidelity, integrity, fairness, selfcontrol, and prudence are all examples of virtues.
Virtue ethics is trait-based rather than actionbased, "What kind of person I need to become to
behave ethically?" or "Is this action consistent
with my personality?"

The Ethics of Care

Approach
Care ethics [The ethics of care]
advocated by feminists, on the
basis of Carol Gilligans work, A
Different Voice, maintain that
women and girls approach
moral issues with a strong
concern for empathy and caring
in interpersonal relationships.

Ethics of care
An ethic that requires caring for
the well-being of those with whom
we
have
valuable
close
relationships, particularly those
dependent on us.
An obligation to exercise special
care towards those with whom we
have important relationships, in
relative circumstances, especially
relationships of dependency

Ethics of care
Compassion, love, friendship,
kindness, sympathy, empathy,
concernare the sentiments
and virtues that manifest the
ethics of care.
Drawn from a feminist moral
principle, care ethics has gained
popularity in addressing ethical
issues and dilemmas.

Ethics of care
Includes a sentiment of care at a
basic family level and extends to the
universal ethic of care by a human
towards a human.
Care ethics appears most appropriate
to
intimate
relations,
but
its
advocates seek to extend it to
communities, institutions and nations
From care of a mother towards her kid
to care of a man towards a man.

Ethics of care
Care
ethics
stresses
the
interdependence of persons and the
importance of particular relationships,
especially
within
the
family
and
communities (communitarian care).
Care ethics encourages selflessness,
which entails concern for others; their
feelings and needs, but does not neglect
care for oneself.
Care ethics requires the moral agent to
balance care of the self with care for
others.

Ethics of care
Caring has both cognitive
affective dimensions:

and

Cognition
is
necessary
to
understand others needs, feelings and
circumstances.

But caring also involves a range of

feelings associated with empathy,
sympathy, compassion, concern and
love.

Ethics of care
Care ethics focuses on virtues
associated with care as a moral
sentiment and response in the
context of particular relationships.
The emphasis is on such traits as
empathy,
sympathy,
compassion,
loyalty, discernment and love in
intimate relationships, rather than
the principles of the ethics of rights,
utilitarianism, deontology etc.

Criticism to care ethics

Conflict of care ethics with
ethics of rights and justice
Over emphasis of ethics of care
degenerates to nepotism
Partiality overlap
Sacrifice of self
May lead to unfavorable division
on dynasty, clan, community,
native, religion, ethnic basis
Likely to promote hatred,
violence

VIRTUE ETHICS
For many of us, the fundamental question
of ethics is:
"What should I do?" or "How should I
act?"
Ethics is supposed to provide us with
moral principles or universal rules that
tell us what to do.
Many people, for example, passionately
read the moral principle of utilitarianism:
"Everyone is obligated to do whatever
will achieve the greatest good for the
greatest number."
Others are just as devoted to the basic
principle of Fairness and Justice

VIRTUE ETHICS
Moral principles like these focus
primarily on people's actions and
doings.
We apply them by asking what
these principles require of us in
particular
circumstances,
e.g.,
when considering whether to lie or
to commit suicide.
We also apply them when we ask
what people require of us as
professionals,
e.g.,
lawyers,

VIRTUE ETHICS
But are moral principles all that ethics consists
of?
Critics have rightly claimed that this emphasis
on moral principles is a thoughtless and blind
worship of rules, as if the moral life was a
matter of scrupulously checking our every
action against a checklist of do's and don'ts.
This obsession with moral principles and rules
has been recently challenged by experts who
argue that the emphasis on principles ignores
a fundamental component of ethics--virtue.

VIRTUE ETHICS
For example, a utilitarianist or a consequentialist
may argue that lying is wrong because of the
negative consequences produced by lyingthough
he may allow that certain foreseeable
consequences might make lying acceptable.
A deontologist (one who follows rules as a matter
of duty) might argue that lying isalwayswrong,
regardless of any potential "good" that might come
from lying.
A virtue ethicist, however, would focus less on
lying in any particular instance and instead
consider what the decision to tell a lie or not tell a
lie reflects about one's character and moral
behavior.

VIRTUE ETHICS
These ethicists point our that by
focusing on what people should do or
how people should act, the "moral
principles approach" neglects the more
important issue--what people should be.
In
other
words,
the
fundamental
question of ethics is not "What should I
do?" but "What kind of person

should I be?"

VIRTUE ETHICS
"Virtues" are character traits
that enable us to be and to act in
ways that develop our potential
as good human beings.
Honesty, courage, compassion,
generosity,
fidelity,
integrity,
fairness,
self-control,
and
prudence are all examples of
virtues.

VIRTUE ETHICS
How does
virtues?

person

develop

Virtues are developed through learning and

through practice.
A person can improve his or her character by
practicing self-discipline and a good character
can be corrupted by repeated self-indulgence.
Just as the ability to run a marathon develops
through much training and practice, so too
does our capacity to be fair, to be courageous,
or to be compassionate develop through
practice..?

VIRTUE ETHICS
Virtues
once
imbibed
and
acquired
become characteristics of a person.
For example, a person who has developed
the virtue of generosity is often referred
to as a generous person because he or she
tends to be generous in all circumstances.
Moreover, a person who has developed
virtues will be naturally disposed to act in
ways that are consistent with the relevant
moral principles.
The virtuous person is the ethical person.
..?

VIRTUE ETHICS
The moral life, then, is not simply a
matter of following moral rules and of
learning to apply them to specific
situations.

The moral life is also a matter of

trying to determine the kind of
person I should be and of attending
to
the
development
of
moral
character within our communities
and ourselves.