BASIC CONCEPTS

IN ETHICS
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the End of the lecture you should be able to:
Define basic terms related to morality and ethics.
 Appreciate the importance of ethics to individuals, organizations, and
society.
 List and explain some of the governing factors of Personal and Professional
ethics.
To explain Ethical dilemmas
Enlist Dimension of Ethics
Value the importance of ethical behavior.
 BASIC TERMINOLOGIES
MORAL
Moral is defined as :
“concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour” or
“a lesson that can be derived from a story or experience”.

Morality
Morality is derived from the Latin word moralitas, meaning manner, customs,
or proper behavior.
 CONT…..
Morality can be defined as

‘Principles governing right and wrong and good and bad behavior.’
‘The degree to which something is right or wrong, good, or bad, and so on.’
‘A system of moral principles followed by a particular group of people.’
 MORALITY AND ETHICS
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies the ethical codes required for
moral behavior, and is considered identical to morality.
 ETHICS
Ethics is defined as ‘the moral principles that control or influence a person’s
behavior or a system of moral principles or rules of behavior’.

A branch of philosophy, or specifically moral philosophy, that studies the

evolution of concepts such as right and wrong behavior.
 CLASSIFICATION OF ETHICS
Meta Ethics - deals with the origin of ethical principles that govern
the specification of right and wrong behavior. A major issue of debate in this
category is whether ethical principles are eternal truths that evolve from a
spiritual world or whether they are simply created by humans.

Descriptive Ethics It refers to the study of moral beliefs of

people. It is a field of empirical research into what people or societies
consider right or wrong. Or
In its simplest form, refers to a moral code of conduct formulated by a group
of people.
 CLASSIFICATION OF ETHICS
Normative Ethics It denotes a code of conduct, but it specifies
the conditions under which it is valid and considered acceptable by all
rational people.

Applied Ethics primarily denotes the study of ethically

controversial issues, such as death penalty and cloning. Applied ethics, thus,
can be classified further into a large number of categories such as bioethics,
computer ethics, and medical ethics.
In biology, cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically
identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such
as bacteria, insects or plants etc.
 VALUES
VALUES are defined as ‘beliefs about what is right and wrong and what is
important in life’.

In this sense, values are closely related to morality and ethics.

Individuals hold certain values for their personal behavior. Societal values are
those that are accepted by a majority of individuals, whereas universal
values are adhered to by the whole world.
 STAKE HOLDERS IN MORAL ISSUES

Following are the important stakeholders in moral issues;

Individuals
Organization
Society
 STAKE HOLDERS IN MORAL ISSUES

Individuals make up organizations and the society.

There exist numerous moral codes, legal directions, and religious edicts. The
fact that the existence of all these does not ensure ethical behavior of citizens
shows that individual perceptions and convictions matter considerably.

Individuals thus form the major stakeholders in ensuring a just and morally
correct society.
 CONT….
Organizations They denote entities that employ groups of people
such as a company, an office, or an institution.

Many organizations lay emphasis on certain codes of ethical conduct while

others do not.

Often, organizations do not have any control over an individual’s conduct

outside its premises.

Organizations should lay out its ethical codes and inform or train employees
to adhere to good conduct, not only within the organization and works
related to the organization, but also outside.
 CONT….
Society Individuals and organizations form part of the society.
Appropriate behavior in societal conduct evolves over time.

It denotes a dynamic system of code of conduct that changes with time.

The current moral conduct codes have a big influence on our behavior.

As societies are formed by large groups of people, each individual may not
subscribe to all that the code of conduct prescribes.
 GOVERNING EDICTS
‘Ethics is a way of living one’s life in pursuit of excellence. Ethics is not just a
private matter. It has its private and public sides—but it cannot be just
personal.’
[Dr Damien Grace]
 GOVERNING EDICTS
Religious Edicts

Religion plays an important role in our lives.

Religion has an influence in the way we behave.

All religions formulate some form of code of conduct for its followers.

Individuals are expected to follow the code of conduct.

 CONT….
Social Edicts
Evolve over a period of time by consent of majority.

They are also dynamic and change with time.

Conflicts arise if some do not accept the majority view.

 CONT….
Constitutional Edicts
Constitution provides some rights and responsibilities to individuals.

The laws created under its umbrella also provide guidelines for correct
behavior.

Conflicts with social/religious edicts.

Constitution needs to be considered supreme and people educated about

the laws to follow them.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
There are three types of ethics or morality;

 Common Morality

 Personal Morality

 Professional Morality
 TYPES OF ETHICS
Common Morality:
Set of moral beliefs shared by everyone
 Includes such aspects as;
 It is wrong to murder, lie, steal, cheat, break
promises, harm others physically etc
 Three main characteristics of common morality
1. Many of the features of common morality are negative
e.g killing, lying and stealing
2. The features though generally are negative, they may
also have positive or aspirational component e.g
prevent killing, prevent stealing.
3. Distinction between an evaluation of a person’s actions
and an evaluation of his intention e.g conveying false
information to other person.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
Personal Morality:

The set of moral beliefs that a person holds.

Generally closely parallels the concepts of common morality.
Sometimes, personal moral beliefs may differ from common morality
especially where the common morality seems to be unclear or in a state of
change.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
Personal Morality:
Refrain from causing harm to others by your actions. Sometimes, the ethical
codes refer to least harm actions.
Our attempt must be to ensure that we do not harm the interests of others by
our behavior.
Be benevolent or do good to others and the society on the whole.
Show concern for the well-being of others.
Respect individual freedom and accept that others have autonomy in their
thinking and behavior, hence, refrain from imposing your will on others.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
Personal Morality:
Ensure that justice is meted to all.
Respect the law willingly and voluntarily.
Adopt and practice values such as honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, and
truthfulness.
Do not be an opportunist and take unfair advantage of a situation.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
Professional Morality:
Professional ethics is the set of standards adopted by professionals insofar as
they view themselves acting as professionals.
Every profession has its professional ethics e.g medical, law, engineering etc.
Engineering ethics is that set of ethical standards that applies to the
profession of engineering.
There are several important characteristics of professional ethics.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
1. Professional ethics is usually stated in a formal code.
Professional societies usually have codes of ethics, referred to as ‘‘code of
professional responsibility,’’ ‘‘code of professional conduct,’’
Many engineering societies have a code of ethics, such as the American
Society of Civil Engineers or the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
In addition to the professional societies, there are other sources of codes.
State boards that regulate the professions have their own codes of ethics,
which generally are similar to the codes of the societies.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
2. The professional codes of ethics of a given
profession focus on the issues that are important in
that profession.
In engineering, the code of the Association for Computing Machinery sets out
regulations for privacy, intellectual property, and copyrights.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
3. When one is in a professional relationship, professional ethics is supposed
to take precedence over personal morality—at least ordinarily.
When a client or employer reveals details of a business relationship to an
engineer, he can expect the engineer to keep these details in confidence,
even though he knows nothing about the personal morality of the engineer. In
this case, these expectations are based on knowledge of the professional
ethics of engineering, not on knowledge of the professional’s personal
morality.
 TYPES OF ETHICS
4. Professional ethics sometimes differs from personal morality in its degree
of restriction of personal conduct.
Suppose civil engineer Mary refuses to participate in the design of a project
that she believes will be contrary to the principles of sustainable
development, which are set out in the code of the American Society of Civil
Engineers. She may not personally believe these guidelines are correct, but
she might (correctly) believe she is obligated to follow them in her
professional work because they are stated in her code of ethics. Here, Mary’s
professional ethics is more restrictive than her personal ethics.
 ROLE MORALITY
Role morality is the name given to moral obligations based on special roles
and relationships.
One example of role morality is the set of special obligations of parents to
their children. Parents have an obligation not only not to harm their children
but also to care for them and promote their flourishing.
Another example of role morality is the obligation of political leaders to
promote the well-being of citizens.
Professional ethics is another example of role morality.
 PREVENTIVE ETHICS
Professionals have both an obligation not to harm their clients, patients, and
employers, and an obligation to contribute to their well-being.
The negative aspect of professional ethics is oriented toward the prevention
of professional malpractice and harm to the public.
Let us call this dimension of professional ethics preventive ethics because of its
focus on preventing professional misconduct and harm to the public.
 ASPIRATIONAL ETHICS
Professionals also have an obligation to use their knowledge and expertise to
promote the public good.
Let us call this more positive dimension of professional ethics aspirational
ethics because it encourages aspirations or ideals in professionals to promote
the welfare of the public.
 ETHICAL DILEMMAS
Ethical dilemma is a situation where a decision is very difficult to take or a
decision taken becomes controversial.
Some dilemmas are:

Death penalty
Euthanasia
Cloning
 DIMENSIONS OF ETHICS
Engineering ethics deals with ethical aspects of the engineering profession.
Bioethics deals with issues such as cloning, DNA mapping, and so on.
Medical ethics is concerned with issues such as euthanasia (mercy killing) that
relate to the medical profession.
Environmental ethics deals with the management of the ecosystem that is vital
to human existence.
Media ethics including newspapers, television, and multimedia information
technology, refers to issues of privacy, sting operations, and so on.
 SETTING GOALS IN LIFE
AREAS

Acquiring knowledge and skills

Career options that must be looked into
Mental health
Marriage and family
Social life
 SETTING GOALS IN LIFE
List the goals as positive statements.
Be precise and accurate in your writing.
Write down the goals on paper for later reconsideration and modification.
Keep a time frame in mind while setting goals.
Prioritize your goals.
The goals must be specific in the sense that they are measurable for achievement.
 SETTING GOALS IN LIFE
Set realistic goals to avoid disappointments.
Plan for small operational goals.
Goals must be performance-based and not outcome-based as you have more
control on performance.
Ensure that the goals are relevant to your profession and your life.
 SUMMARY
Basic terminology related to morality and ethics
Stakeholders
Governing Edicts
Personal and Professional Ethics
Setting Goals in Life

THANKS