Module 1 Les 1aedited

ETHICS
Learning Outcomes
• During the learning engagement, you should be able to

• expound the meanings/concepts of ethics and morality,
• interpret issues and situations that have moral and ethical
bearings explaining them in the light of ethical theories, and
• deepen your understanding by creating a reflective essay
on ethics and morality.
MODULE 1: Introduction to Key Concepts
Topic 1: Ethics: Its Meaning, Nature , and Scope
• Morality is 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).
• Dr. James Rachels——asserted that at the very least morality is the

effort to guide one’s conduct by reason—to act based on the best
reasons for doing—while giving equal weight to the interests of each
individual affected by one’s decision (Rachels, 2015).
• However, one queries, “Is there a difference
between ethics and morality?” Well, these two
words are oftentimes used interchangeably
either in ordinary conversations or in academic
discussions and symposia. But are these two
terms exactly the same, or, is there a shade of
difference between them (Fernandez, 2018)?
Activity 1: Diagnostic Exercises (10 min)
Individual
Direction: Answer the following questions
briefly:
1.What is ethics?
2.What is morality?
3.What are the similarities and differences
between ethics and morality?
Activity 2: Cooperative Group
Learning
Instructions:
1. After doing Activity 1, brainstorm the meaning of
ethics and morality with their differences and
similarities. Present the output in a form of a concept
map/word web.
2. Look for an article or news item in the net that
deals with a particular contemporary ethical issue.
Discuss why the issue is an ethical one. What is
the group’s consensus on the issue.
Activity 3 : Quotation Analysis
Direction: Work in a group to elucidate with
examples on the line provided below.
As ethics outlines theories of right and
wrong and good or bad actions, morality
translates these theories into real actions. Thus,
morality is nothing else but a doing (or the
practice) of ethics (Babor 1999:9).
Processing
• Etymologically, the word ethics is derived from the Greek
word ethos which can be roughly translated in English as
“custom” or “a particular way and manner of acting and
behaving.”
• Thus, custom would also mean here as a form of behavior or
character.
• The Latin equivalent for custom is “mos” or “mores”.
• It is from this root word that the term “moral” or “morality”
is derived (Agapay 2008:1).
• The two terms, ethics and morality, in this
sense, therefore, have literally the same
meaning.
• That is why ethics is usually taken as
synonymous with morality.
• Also because of this, ethics is also called
morality, or more precisely, the other name of
ethics is morality.
• Thus, in many instances, we often hear people
say: “What he or she did is moral or ethical;”
“His or her conduct shows a lack of
ethics/morals;” “The problem of that person is
that he or she doesn’t have a sense of morality
and ethics;” “Our primary concern as a people
should be how to become moral or ethical in
our behavior.”
Ethics and Morality Distinguished
• Generally, both ethics and morality deal with the goodness or
badness, rightness or wrongness of the human act or human conduct.
• “But in ethics, we specifically study morality.
• Morality gives ethics a particular perspective of what to study about—

that is, the rectitude of whether an act is good or bad, right or wrong.
• Morality provides a quality that determines and distinguishes right

conduct from wrong conduct” (Sambajon 2007:7).
Ethics: A Philosophy of Action
• While ethics arms the person with a

theoretical knowledge of the morality of
human acts, so he/she may know what to
do as well as how to do it, there is a whole
world of difference between knowing and
doing, knowledge and action.
• Knowledge, however, as anybody can
readily attest in everyday experience, is
not always performed. It does not
automatically happen that, as a person
knows, then he/she does. It does not
necessarily follow that knowledge leads or
results in practical action.
• This would only mean that ethics, or make
that—“the learning” of ethics—does not
actually guarantee morality on the part of
the person’s concrete and practical
conduct and behavior. A person does not
necessarily do what he/she knows. It has
been said that the farthest distance for a
person to cross is the distance between
the head and the heart.
• While ethics (the theory) provides certain
principles and guidelines as to what is good
and bad, right and wrong in human conduct, it
is morality which actualizes the theory. Ethics,
as one particular author beautifully puts it, is
the “word”, while morality is the “flesh.”
Morality, therefore, is here aptly understood as
the application (praxis) of ethics (theory)
(Babor 1999:8).
• Hence, we can say that both of them—
ethics and morality—truly need and
complement each other. “As ethics
outlines theories of right and wrong and
good or bad actions, morality translates
these theories into real actions. Thus,
morality is nothing else but a doing (or
the practice) of ethics” (Babor 1999, 9).
Synthesis
• In this lesson, we discuss the similarities and
differences of ethics and morality. We also clarified
some of the terms that will be used in the study of
ethics. We have explored a number of problematic
ways of thinking of ethics; some give a too simplistic
answer to the question of our grounds or
foundations for moral valuation, while others seem
to dismiss the possibility of ethics altogether.

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ETHICS

• During the learning engagement, you should be able to

• Morality is a system of beliefs about what is right behavior and wrong

• Dr. James Rachels——asserted that at the very least morality is the

• “But in ethics, we specifically study morality.

• Morality gives ethics a particular perspective of what to study about—

• Morality provides a quality that determines and distinguishes right

• While ethics arms the person with a

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