NATURE AND SCOPE OF ETHICS

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Understand the Nature and Scope of Ethics
2. Learn and internalize the ethical
definitions and its implications
to our moral actions and daily
moral responsibility.
 INTRODUCTION
• A famous Socrates saying “the unexamined life is not
worth living” would imply a thorough examination of
our purpose in life and how to live it worthily. By doing
so, we may as well see our worth as a person and • And so, studying ethics and knowing its nature
transform it in doing things right. The very first thing and scope, we would be able to learn things
that people around us would look into is our that would aid us to awaken our conscious self
relationship with other beings (human, animal and and worthiness in the society where we are at.
other beings both living and non-living). By becoming aware of our own moral
responsibility, we would as well be able to
function not only for our own existence but also
• Then, ethics starts with the question what is the right
thing to do? With this question man becomes giving other beings to continue to exist.
conscious of him/her self. Man always perceived of
the outcome of his/her action whether this action
would inflict harm or would make others benefits from
this. Becoming aware of our action and the
• Lastly, ethics would make us freer rather than
consequences of it is the main object of the study of slave of our own search for pleasure and
ethics and human existence as well. happiness
 Etymology and Meaning of Ethics

• The term Ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos

which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition,
while the term “moral” is its Latin equivalent. From this • It is the study of the morality of human acts
Greek and Latin etymology, we can say that Ethics and the moral agents, what makes an act
deals with Morality. obligatory and what makes a person
• It is a branch of Philosophy which deals with Moral accountable.
Standards. It investigates about the rightness or
wrongness of Human behavior or the goodness or • Ethics is an active process rather than a
badness of personality traits or character and it deals static condition, so some ethicist use the
with ideas, with topic such as moral standards or norms expression doing ethics. When people are
of morality, conscience moral values and virtues.
doing ethics, they need to support their
• It is based on well-founded standards of right and beliefs and assertions with sound reasoning.
wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually
in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, • Moral is the adjective describing a human act
fairness, or specific virtues. (Manuel Velasquez, Claire as either ethically right or wrong or qualifying
Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael a person’s personality and character as
J. Meyer) either good or bad
 Nature of Ethics

• 1. Scientific Nature: Ethics is a normative science which determines norms, moral

values in a person and an individual’s character. It is a systematic explanation of what is
right and what is wrong.
• 2. Not Art: Ethics is not an art as art deals with the acquisition of skill to produce objects,
while morality deals with motive, intention, purpose and choice which are considered right
or wrong in the light of goodness.
• 3. Variable Nature: Ethics is not static. It is not always the same. Human beings change
and the morality and ethical perspective in them also changes.
• 4. Exclusively for Human Beings: Ethics can only be applied to human beings as we
are the ones who have the capacity for moral judgement. We cannot expect ethical
behavior from animals, as they are not as intelligent as human beings are so ethics is
exclusively for human beings.
 Objectives of Ethics

Ethical objectives are based on the following factors:

1. Objectivity – decision based on facts not from the mere feelings.
2. Impartiality - (also called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness) is a principle of justice holding that
decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or
preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons.
3. Accuracy - Accuracy is to be ensuring that the information is correct and without any mistake.
Information accuracy is important because `the life of people depend in it like the medical
information at the hospitals, so the information must be accurate. The quality of information
measured by accuracy, timeliness, completeness, relevance and if it is easy to understood by
the users, so the accuracy important for quality of information. And the accuracy represents all
organization actions. To get accurate information we need the right value.
4. Public Accountability - Accountability is the readiness or preparedness to give an explanation or
justification to stakeholders for one’s judgments, intentions and actions.
5. Fairness - The fairness approach assumes that people should be treated equally regardless of
their station in life, that is, they should not be subject to discrimination.
6. Truthfulness - the quality of being honest and not containing or telling any lies

The objectives of ethics are to study and assess human behavior. It is also to establish
principles and moral standards of behavior. Ethics is not compulsory in a person’s life and it is not
forced upon anyone but being ethical is one step forward towards being a good person.
There are 3 different scopes of ethics. They are:

Meta-Ethics
Normative Ethics
Applied Ethics
 Meta-Ethics
Meta-ethics comprises the area of situational ethics and deals
with logical questions like ‘What do we mean by ‘freedom’ and
‘determinism’ etc. It delves into the nature of ethical properties,
attitudes and judgements. For example, a media critic’s
description of a TV series as ‘good drama’ does not necessarily
denote that the program is morally sound. It is the function of
Meta-ethics to define such vague concepts in ethical terms.
Some of the theories of Meta-Ethics are Naturalism, Non-
Naturalism, Emotivism and Prescriptivism.
 Normative Ethics
Normative ethics deals with standards or norms by which we can judge human actions to be right
or wrong. It deals with the criteria of what is morally right or wrong. For example, if someone murders
a person, everyone will agree that it is wrong. The question is: Why is it wrong to murder someone?
There are a lot of different answers we could give, but if we want to specify a principle that stated why
it's wrong, the answer might be: Murder is wrong because when we kill someone, we violate their right
to live. Another perspective might be – To inflict unnecessary suffering on the person being murdered
or their family is wrong, that’s why to kill a person is wrong.
There are three elements emphasized by normative ethics:
1. The person who performs the act (the agent)
2. The act
3. The consequences of the act
 Applied Ethics

Applied ethics is the problem-solving branch of moral philosophy. It uses the insights derived from
Meta-ethics and the general principles and rules of normative ethics in addressing specific ethical
issues and cases in a professional, disciplinary or practical field. Applied ethics is the vital link between
theory and practice, the real test of ethical decision-making. Applied ethics often requires not only
theoretical analysis but also practical and feasible solutions.
Some of the key areas of applied ethics are:
1. Decision Ethics
2. Professional Ethics
3. Clinical Ethics
4. Business Ethics
5. Organizational Ethics
6. Social Ethics
Applied ethics takes into consideration issues such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment,
drug decriminalization, gay marriage, etc.
• In this sense, ethics talk about how to awaken our conscience. We are
becoming more aware of our duties and responsibilities towards other
beings where we are at. Nowadays, almost anywhere we go through the
advance of the technology, we see CCTV that serves as our static eyes to
see of what we are doing. We called it as an advance invention to see
through what had happened when we are not around. But ever since there
is this more advance and more accurate “built in CCTV” in us, that is our
conscience. Even if the world did not see or know what we did but our
conscience always tells us that we did something to others. We may
tampered or edit the CCTV but not our conscience.
 Summary…

Ethics is the aid to man´s action to make it more acceptable and guide him/her to
become more dignified being in the society. It will also help man to discern about what is
right and wrong actions and do what is the right thing to do. It is rather active process for it
deals with our actions. It also has objectives that assesses human behaviour.
The same with other discipline, ethics has its scopes so that its study will not overlap
the other discipline and maintain its standard. Those scope of ethics lead us to a deeper
understanding of what is beyond, what is being established and essence of our actions.
This would also help us to understand the wholistic view of our moral responsibility to
the society and maintain the stability and balance.
It is also examine our action systematically and well founded on reason so as not to
commit errors and maintain its stability in all aspects.
T h a n k Y o u!