Module 1 Introduction to the Concept and Meaning

of Ethics
Course topic Key concepts in Ethics
Time allotment: 3
Course objectives: Expected outputs:
Analyze the meaning, concept, and
principle of Ethics Reflection Paper

Discuss the branches of Ethics Interview Analysis

Reflect on the relevance of studying ethics Quiz

in the field of specialization

Before you start the lesson, follow the link below. Watch the video clip and be ready to
share your thoughts during our virtual scheduled classes.

Video link:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=399432147703388&extid=jmWAJENFwwrPvECh

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Activity 1 Questions:

What is your thought about the video clip?

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Relate the video in attaining happiness

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Reminder: Post your answers in the LMS discussion room.

The Concept of a Good Life

We, as human beings, aiming towards a good life - one that is life-worth living or a life
that is happy or satisfying. What makes you happy? What makes a human being happy?

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These are questions that naturally occur in the course of our lives, just as they naturally
occurred in the lives of people who lived before us.

Figure 2 sources: aces.edu

Figure 1 sources:fili[pinotimes.net

Figure 4 sources: studyinternational.com Figure 3 sources: getrealfilipino.com

Philosophers have been searching for answers to these questions since ancient times:
can people be happy? If so, do they want to? If we, as human beings, have both desire
to be happy and have that the ability to be happy, does this mean that we should therefore
pursue happiness for ourselves and others? If we can, and we ought to be happy, how
can we achieve it?

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 Democritus of Abdera, a Greek philosopher asserted that:
“Happiness does not dwell in flocks of cattle or gold. Happiness,
like unhappiness, is a property of the soul. And it is right that men
should value the soul rather than the body; for the perfection of
the soul corrects the inferiority of the body, but physical strength
without intelligence does nothing to improve the mind. Men find
happiness neither utilizing the body nor through possessions, but
Figure 5 Democritus 460BC uprightness and wisdom.”
sources: wikipedia

“People are fools who yearn for what is absent, but neglect what they have even when it
is more valuable than what has gone. The hopes of right-thinking men are attainable, but
those of the unintelligent are impossible.” (Democritus, n.d.)

A good life according to a Greek philosopher Aristotle is a

moral concept. Aristotle seeks to define the guidelines for
human beings to achieve happiness as a community. He
declared that all human life consists of activity. He further
claimed that human beings engage in these activities to
arrive at some end and this end to be good because then
we would not partake in the endeavor. Aristotle's concepts
of happiness involve a question of how should we live?
Figure 6 Aristotle sources: wikepidia.com This question pertains to the character or traits of
individuals. He also asserted that living a virtuous life is the
ultimate goal of human existence, therefore good life is a life of excellence.

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 A good life for Plato means “secured enjoyment of what is
good and beautiful”. The best life according to Plato is one
whereby a person is either pursuing the pleasure of
exercising intellectual virtuous. Plato also postulated the Four
Cardinal Pillars in which these are considered useful tools for
grounding human beings in excellence and could even be key
to greater happiness. (Craig, n.d.)
1. Prudence- discern well (good) in circumstance and the
means to attain it.
2. Temperance- moderate attraction of pleasure and balance
Figure 7 Plato sources: wikepdia.com in the use of created goods
3. Justice- constant and firm will to give what is due to God
and then the neighbor
4. Fortitude- firm in difficulties and constant in pursuit of good

Socrates claimed that a good life pertains to obtaining

happiness, in which he argued that happiness is obtainable
through human effort (The Pursuit of Happiness, n.d.). The
key to happiness according to Socrates is to turn attention
away from the body and towards the soul. This can be done
by employing harmonizing our desires we can learn to pacify
our mind and achieve the divine-like state of peacefulness. A
Figure 8 Socrates 469-399 bce good life, therefore, is living with justice and virtuous life.
sources: wikepedia.com
(Ambury, n.d.)

Along the process of attaining good life, human beings tend to make decisions that may
result in personal happiness but can be harmful to others. Thus, in making these
decisions, we are further confronted with another issue of what makes a decision right or

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wrong? What is your basis for classifying a good from a bad action? In other words, what
makes action moral?

Defining Ethics

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that is used to study ideal human behavior and ideal
ways of living. (Rich, n.d.)

Branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending

concepts of right and wrong conduct (Annabelle, 2017)

Concerned with questions of how people ought to act, and the search of the definition of
right conduct and the good life (The Basics of Philosophy, n.d.)

Ethics as a Philosophy seeks to answer the questions “What is the best way for people
to live in?” “What actions are right or wrong in particular circumstances?”
In real life application, Ethics focuses on resolving questions of human morality, by
defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice, and
crime. (Annabelle, 2017)

What are the branches of Ethics? (The Basics of Philosophy, n.d.)

Since Philosophers attempt to determine how one ought to act in the course of their lives,
or other words with prescribing action, ethics is said to be concerned with the normative
realm rather than descriptive. This is the central idea of the study of “normative ethics”.

Normative Ethics
It is the branch of ethics concerned with establishing how things should or ought to be,
how to value them, which things are good or bad, and which actions are right or wrong. It
attempts to develop a set of rules governing human conduct, or a set of norms for action.

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Three Main Categories

Consequentialism Deontology Virtue Ethics

 Teleological  is an approach to  focuses on

Ethics) argues that ethics that focuses the inherent
the morality of an onthe rightness or character of a
action wrongness of person rather than
is contingent on the actions on the nature or
action's outcome or themselves as consequences of
result. opposed to the specific actions
rightness or performed
 morally right action wrongness of
is one that produces the consequences  The system
a good outcome of those actions. identifies virtues (th
or consequence. ose habits and beh
 It argues that aviors that will allow
decisions should be a person to
made considering achieve "eudaimon
Prescribing how one should act, the factors of one's ia", or well being or
duties and other's a good life)
rights
When engaging in the discussion of ethics, it is always advisable to recognize whether
one is concerned with a descriptive view or with a normative perspective.

Descriptive Ethics

is a value-free approach to ethics that examines ethics from the perspective

of observations of actual choices made by moral agents in practice. It is the study of
people's beliefs about morality and implies the existence of, rather than
explicitly prescribing theories of value or conduct. A descriptive study of ethics reports
how people, particularly groups, make their moral valuations without making any
judgment either for or against these valuations. This kind of study is often the work of the
social scientist: either a historian or sociologist who studies different moral standards over
time or across cultures. (Bulaong Jr. 2018)

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If normative ethics concern itself with prescribing how one should act, while descriptive
ethics is concerned with how people make their moral valuations, questions dealing with
the nature of ethical statements, are said to belong with the realm of another branch of
ethics known as “meta-ethics”.

Metha-Ethics

concerned primarily with the meaning of ethical judgments, and seeks to understand the
nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments and how they may
be supported or defended.

An important question within meta-ethics is whether morality is objective. What

philosophers are trying to determine when addressing the objectivity of morality is
whether moral judgments have a truth value.

Two Main Categories

Moral Realism (or Moral Moral Anti-Realism

Objectivism)

 holds that there  holds that there

are objective moral are no objective
values, so that moral values, and
evaluative comes in one
statements are of three forms,
essentially factual depending on
claims, which are whether ethical
either true or false, statements are
and that their truth believed to be
or falsity subjective claims
are independent of (Ethical
our beliefs, feelings Subjectivism)
or other attitudes
towards the things
being evaluated

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Applied Ethics
is a discipline of philosophy that attempts to apply ethical theory to real-life situations
such as in business, biomedical, or environmental ethics. Strict, principle-based ethical
approaches often result in solutions to specific problems that are not universally
acceptable or impossible to implement.

Activity 2 Group Activity

Interview your 5 of your classmates via Facebook or Google Meet. As the following
questions;

1. What is a good life for you? Happiness? (Personal and Societal level)
2. What makes you happy?

Analyze the result of the interview. Make conclusions and post your activity in LMS.

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Activity 3 Online Quiz

Prepare for a Short Quiz via LMS

For your online reading please follow the link below

What Is the Good Life? How Positive Psychology Can

Create Meaning
Birgit Ohlin

https://positivepsychology.com/good-life/

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Resources

Works Cited
Ambury, J. M. (n.d.). Internet Encyclopedia. Retrieved from iep.utm.edu: https://iep.utm.edu/socrates/
Annabelle, L. (2017, March 6). Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-ethical-world/ethics-defined-
33a1a6cc3064
Bulaong, Jr.et.al Ethics: Foundations of Moral Valuation. Rex Bookstore (2018)
Craig, H. (n.d.). Positive Psychology. Retrieved from positivepsychology.com:
https://positivepsychology.com/philosophy-of-happiness/
Democritus. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.humanistictexts.org/democritus.htm#_Toc509721146
Rich, K. L. (n.d.). jones and barret learning. Retrieved from
https://samples.jbpub.com/9781449649005/22183_CH01_Pass3.pdf
The Basics of Philosophy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_ethics.html
The Pursuit of Happiness. (n.d.). Retrieved from pursuit-of-happiness.org: https://www.pursuit-of-
happiness.org/history-of-happiness/socrates/

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