CHAPTER 1

(THE MORAL AGENT)

Introduction
In former times, nothing seemed more plausible and more certain than morality. It was
a tower of strength where men sought refuge in the midst of all the doubts and conflicts of life.
This was especially the case during the age of Enlightenment. Men were beginning to believe
less absolutely in the religion handed down to them, but they all clung all the more to morality.
Metaphysical speculation and theoretical endeavors to reveal the innocent essence of things
encountered growing opposition, yet morality was welcomed as something superior to all
complications, and valuable to all. It was held to be the pivot of Archimedes, which gives
stability to the whole of life.
In our days, morality has ceased to be a matter of such unquestionable certainty and has
been drawn into the wave of disintegration which is passing over our minds. Formerly, the
scientific definition and accurate conception of morality were matters of contention; but it is
now the fundamental idea of morality that is questioned.
LESSON 1
Orientation of the Course
Introduction
It seems that people don't like rules as they represent a kind of restrictions, but in fact
life can't be organized without rules. People always need rules and laws to be able to live and
deal together. Can you imagine even a game without rules; of course, it will be a kind of mess.
When they are playing a game, they must follow its rules, or it will be unfair. Also, everything
in our life should be restricted with rules or it becomes a mess and unfair. If there are no rules
and everyone is free to do whatever they want, most people will probably behave selfishly. We
need rules to help us get a long together and show respect to each other.
All the rules and laws have the same purpose. They organized the relations between
individuals and the society to make it clear what is right and wrong and what happens if
someone breaks the rules. They are designed to ensure fairness, safety and respect for other
people's right.
Rules and Its Importance
Rules refer to a set of guidelines which have been put in place in different countries and
communities and have been accepted by all. Rules are useful tools in guiding and monitoring
the interactions of humans in the society. A rule is a prescribed guide for conduct or action.
Rules help guide actions toward desired results.
 When used appropriately, rules provide a sense of predictability and consistency for
people, thereby promoting physical, moral, social, and emotional safety. At the heart of ethics
is a concern about something or someone other than ourselves and our own desires and self-
interest.
Ethics is concerned with other people's interests, with the interests of society, with
God's interests, with "ultimate goods", and so on.
So when a person 'thinks ethically' they are giving at least some thought to something
beyond themselves.
Rules are specific sets of norms of behavior, regulations, and laws established on
purpose to regulate the life in the community. These norms secure the order and allow
avoiding total chaos. The sets of rules available nowadays have undergone a long formation
process. There were many variations and transformations applied. Due to that, nowadays we
have a well-established social, governmental and educational mechanisms that work as a clock
accurately, simultaneously and in an organized way. The availability of rules is a crucial
criterion allowing to call nowadays society civilized and well developed.

Why Do We Have Rules?

Rules help people in many aspects of life. They enable people to organize all the
processes correctly, starting from house chores and ending with more complicated issues as
the functioning of as whole country. Rules are specific modes of behavior that secure a
regulated flow of all processes.
A well-developed system of rules help humanity to avoid chaos and many problems that
may be caused by the lack of regulations. Laws dictate what is proper and what is wrong. In
many spheres of life, we have guidelines to follow, Norms enable people to interact, to work
together and contribute to the global development. Moral rules assist people in the
establishment of shared values and norms in accordance to which an honorable member of
society can be identified.

Importance of Rules
Rules are important because they tend to protect the weaker class in the society as they
might be in a disadvantageous position if rules are broken. When rules are used in the right
way
They provide a stable environment and human co-existence in a society which leads to
peace and development. The process of setting rules aims to craft rules in line with some
desired results. For example, rules in schools and other institutions promote trust, fairness
and discipline in a bid to establish desirable relationship among students and people.
 Besides, rules are vital in one's life because peace and order are maintained, an
important ingredient for society's development. As a way of maintaining these rules, many
societies have adopted and changed them into law. These assure that no rules will be broken.
If one violates the rule, a corresponding punishment is imposed.
Most of us are basically honest, and knowing the rules means that we usually try to
follow them. One reason we do is to avoid punishment, but the strongest argument for
following the rules is to make the world peaceful and fair.

The Subject: Ethics

Ethics, or moral philosophy, may be defined in a provisional way, as the scientific study
of moral judgments. Ethics is the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right
and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles.
The subject of Ethics consists of the fundamental issues of practical decision making,
and its major concerns include the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human
actions can be judged right or wrong.
At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make
decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society
and is also described as moral philosophy.
The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character
or disposition. Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and
cultures. They infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct.
Ethics is not only about the morality of particular courses of action, but it's also about
the goodness of individuals and what it means to live a good life. Virtue Ethics is particularly
concerned with the moral character of human beings.

Branches of Ethics
One way to try and define morality is through ethics, the philosophical study of morality.
In the field of ethics, morality is often defined in one of two ways.
First is normative, in which actions are judged by their merits, allowing societies to
develop codes of conduct for behavior. The Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have
them do unto you, is a classic example of normative ethics, since you are determining morality
through your actions. Other examples could include helping someone who is lost, or finding a
wallet and turning it into the lost and found. If your actions to another person align with how
you want to be treated, they are moral.
 The other side of this is descriptive ethics. If normative ethics try and define how people
should act, descriptive ethics ask what do people think is moral? This branch of ethics does
not actually claim that things are right or wrong I studies how individuals or societies define
their morals. What makes something but simply right or wrong in a specific culture?
While normative ethics actually defines what is right and wrong, descriptive ethics
defines morals in terms of their cultural or personal significance. Morals are seen as part of a
greater system that is not objective or unbiased but is created by a culture, like language. So,
while in normative ethics we may say that it is moral to turn in a lost wallet, in descriptive
ethics, we simply define that a certain society sees this as moral. We don't actually judge it as
right or wrong.
These two branches of ethics are just a few of the ways we try and define morality. While
there are many more, most of them can be broken into the same divisions as these two. Some
theories define what is right and wrong as objective truth, others see morals as entirely
subjective, only definable through their respective societies.

Why Study Ethics?

Nevertheless, the serious student of Ethics will find this work both profitable and
interesting to the highest degree.
His understanding of moral problems will be widened, as he becomes acquainted with
the thoughts of other men upon problems of good and evil, justice and injustice, virtue and
vice, the rights and duties of the individual and of society.
His critical faculties will be trained. He will know the reasons for his moral convictions,
and also the reasons for the moral convictions of others. His reverence for duty will be
deepened. On the whole, he will become more tolerant, but his moral judgments in becoming
more discriminating will not become laxer. He will not confuse charity with condonation of
vice and wrong. Far from finding that "to comprehend all is to forgive all" is a universal
principle, he will learn that while sometimes to comprehend is to forgive, at other times it is
to condemn with severity, though never with ignorance or injustice.
The study of Ethics will enable a person to understand better what his conscience is,
how he acquired it, how far he is likely to be able to trust to its deliverances with safety, and
how he can improve it and make it more intelligent. He will gain a clearer insight into his
claims upon society, and the duties that he owes to society. He will learn to discriminate
between the respects in which all individuals are mutually interdependent and those in which
each is responsible for his own life, and ought to insist upon freedom of initiative.
Finally, while a book on Ethics can by no means prescribe for anyone what should be his
vocation in life, or his avocations, it can at least proffer some considerations, from the
standpoints of self-realization, self-sacrifice, and service, that ought to help anyone in making
such decisions.