1 General Ethics Notes 2021

Ethics
Dr. Godfrey G. Mendoza, RPT

Maestro
Morality
 Morality is the differentiation of intentions,
decisions, and actions between those that are
"good" and those that are "bad".
 The philosophy (viewpoint) of morality is
ethics. A moral code is a system (structure)
of morality and a moral is any one practice or
teaching within a moral code.
Ethics
 Ethics is the practical science of the morality
of human actions.
 Ethics is the scientific inquiry into the
principles of morality.
 Ethics is the science of human acts with
reference to right and wrong.

 Ethics is the study of human conduct from the
standpoint of morality.
 Ethics is the practical science that guides us in
our actions that we may live rightly and well.

The Importance of Ethics
The importance of the study of ethics follows
immediately from the importance of ethics itself.
1. Ethics means right living and good moral character; and it
is in good moral character that man finds his worth and
perfection.
2. Education is the harmonious development of the whole
man – of all man’s faculties: moral, intellectual, and
physical powers in man.
“Knowledge is good, bodily health and strength are good,
but first and above all – good character.”
3. According to Socrates, “the unexamined life is not worth
living for man.” Now ethics, as we already said before, is the

very investigation of the meaning of life. That is why Plato
calls and considers ethics the supreme science, the science
par excellence, as it is this science that deals with the
Summum Bonum, the supreme purpose of human living.
Relationship of Ethics with
other Sciences
Ethics and Logic
Ethics and Psychology
Ethics and Sociology
Ethics and Economics
Ethics and Biology
Ethics and Logic
 Logic is the science of “right thinking”. Ethics
is the science of “right living”. But right living
presupposes right thinking. Doing follows
thinking.
 To think right often means to do right, as
knowledge of right leads to the doing of

right. Both ethics and logic aim at rectitude:
the former aims at right doing; the latter, at
right thinking.
 “In order to live right, you have think right.”
Ex: Stealing
Ethics and Psychology
 Both deal with the study of man, human
nature, and human behavior. There is,
however, a basic difference. Psychology is not
interested in the morality of human behavior,
unlike ethics.
 Psychology studies how man behaves; ethics
studies how man ought to behave. The word

“ought” is emphasized to show the difference:
Ethics is concerned with moral obligation
while psychology is not.
Ethics is related to Sociology
 Ethics deals with the moral order which
includes the social.
 Society depends on ethics for its underlying
principles: Sociology deals with human

relations in a society, but human relations are
based on proper order and proper order
comes only with the proper observance of
moral laws and principles which regulate the
actions of men in a community.
Ethics and Economics
 Man is also an economic being because he has to
support himself by earning a living. He has to live
by bread (though he does not live by bread alone).
Economics and morality are two aspects of one and
the same human nature.
 Economics deals with such topics as wages, labor,
production and distribution of wealth. But what will
determine the relations between employer and
employee, for instance?
 This and all other relations in business must be
based on justice and charity which, after all are
moral principles.
Ethics and Biology
Bioethics is a reflective effort to clarify the ethical implications of
biomedical progress. Biologists participate with many other scientists
and physicians to the production of new biomedical knowledge, which
translates more or less rapidly into novel technological possibilities.
Among many other things, these entail new ways of "manipulating
genes", of deciphering genetic information, thus generating predictive
information about human beings and opening new medical options;
they give rise to techniques that make possible the production of
materials and organisms not present as such in nature; they open up
new ways of intervening in human reproduction. These new
opportunities for action create new human responsibilities and
bioethical reflection is called upon to sort these out. In other words,
whether we think of the prospects for gene therapy, or perhaps more
importantly of the new genetic diagnostics and what is increasingly
called predictive medicine; or more importantly still, the fantastic
impulse that molecular genetics has given to virtually every branch of
medical science; in all these developments, biology has been central as
the originator of the subject-matter of bioethical reflection.
Ex: Bioethical issues in medicine
Relationship of Ethics with
other Phases of Human Life
Ethics and Education
Morality and Law
Ethics and Art
Ethics and Politics
Ethics and Religion
Introduction
 Lifeis a “many-splendored thing”. It is a unity
of many aspects: the social, the economic,
the moral, the physical, the religious, etc.
 Morality is the basic element of human life
and cannot be separated from the other

phases of human activity.
Ethics and Education
 Education develops the whole man; his moral,
intellectual and physical capacities.
 Since man, however, is primarily a rational moral
being (endowed with reason and will, which ranks

him above brute creation), the primary objective
of education should be the development of these
powers in man, which consists his true perfection.
 This recognized in our constitution when it
mentions “moral character” as the first and

primary aim of all education. “All schools should
develop good moral character, personal
discipline, civic consciousness, etc.”
Morality and Law
 Morality and Law are intimately related. Right
and wrong, good and bad in human actions
presuppose a law or rule of conduct.
 There is, however, a striking difference
between what is moral and what is legal. The

legal only covers the external acts of man;
the moral governs even the internal acts of
man, such as the volitional and the
intentional activities of the will and mind, i.e.
man’s thoughts and desires.
Ethics and Art
 Ethics stands for moral goodness; art, for
beauty. But as transcendental (inspiring) the
beautiful and the good are good. “What is
good is beautiful.”
 Evil always implies ugliness or defects and
the good is always beautiful since it is the

very object of desire and therefore, like
beauty, pleases when perceived.
Ethics and Politics
 Man owes allegiance to the State. Politics aims at good
government for the temporal welfare of the citizens. But
between the temporal and the spiritual and eternal
welfare there is no conflict. The two are inseparable in
man’s present state of existence, where the material and
the spiritual, the body and the spirit, form one person.
 Politics has often become very dirty and the reason is
precisely because it is divorced from ethics.
 Disorder and confusion inevitably follow in a state from
such violations of ethical principles, as: electoral frauds,
bribery, graft and corruptions, blackmail, intrigue, etc.
Religion and Ethics
 True ethics can never be separated from God.
Reason: Ethics implies morality and morality
presupposes a distinction between right and
wrong in human actions. But what is the
ultimate ground of distinction between right
and wrong?
 If there is a morality, there must be a moral law,
and if there is a law, there must be a lawgiver

and ultimately a first lawgiver. But who is the
first lawgiver, who is the source of all moral
laws and obligations?
End of Slides…next topic
Moral and Dilemma

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Ethics

Dr. Godfrey G. Mendoza, RPT

reference to right and wrong.

our actions that we may live rightly and well.

living for man.” Now ethics, as we already said before, is the

knowledge of right leads to the doing of

studies how man ought to behave. The word

principles: Sociology deals with human

and cannot be separated from the other

being (endowed with reason and will, which ranks

mentions “moral character” as the first and

between what is moral and what is legal. The

the good is always beautiful since it is the

and if there is a law, there must be a lawgiver

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