Tuazon, Cherry Joy Introduction to Ethics

BSEd-2 Ethics

1.What is Ethics?

Ethics is the process of questioning, discovering and defending our values,

principles and purpose. It’s about finding out who we are and staying true to that in the
face of temptations, challenges and uncertainty. Etymologically, Ethics is derived from
the Greek word ethos means “ A characteristic way of acting.” Ethos includes politics,
laws, religion, and the norms of society or a group of people. In our study, ethos would
refer to the characteristics belonging to man as a thinking and rational animal, gifted
with intellect and freewill.

2. What’s the difference between Moral standards and Non-Moral standards?

A moral standard guide us distinguishing between which behavior is good or bad,

right or wrong including how we and others value what is morally good or bad. There
are no gray areas in moral standards, for if there are then the standard would be biased
and would lead to conflict and confusion. Moral standards involve the rules people have
about the kinds of actions they believe are morally right and wrong, as well as the
values they place on the kinds of objects they believe are morally good and morally bad.

Non-moral standards, on the other hand, are sets of criteria by which something
is judges as good or bad, right or wrong, in a non-moral way. Non moral standards are
created or established by a person or a group to serve as a measure by which to gauge
how good something or someone is based on some criteria. In the academic setting, for
instance, a criteria is set by the institution I evaluating and assessing students worthy of
scholarships or passing grades. These criteria, therefore, determine which students
perform well during a grading period, which ones needs improvement and which ones
have to retained because of poor performance.
3. What is Moral Dilemma?

Ethical dilemmas, also known as a moral dilemmas, are situations in which there
is a choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in
an ethically acceptable fashion. In such cases, societal and personal ethical guidelines
can provide no satisfactory outcome for the chooser. Situations that prod us to make a
difficult choice` , to look deeper into ourselves before we decide or consider what
possible outcome our choice and actions are called dilemma. In the context of moral
philosophy in which we are to make a choice between two options.

4. What are the 3 conditions that characterized moral dilemma?

A. It occurs in situations when a person is required to make a decision about

which of two or more actions is best. Example:

You, as leader of a class group project, will have to choose between lying and
telling the truth to your teacher about what happened to your group project.

B. The person can only choose to act on one but not both or all of our actions.
Example:

Option 1: If you choose to lie, your teacher may give you considerations and the group
mates who caused the problem will be happy because they will be absolved from their
irresponsibility.

Option 2: If you tell the truth, your group gets a failing grades for the subject. You may
still have the chance to pass the subject but your group mates because of their poor
performance in the subject won’t and they will hate you for what you did.

C. In an ethical dilemma, no matter what course of action is taken, some ethical

principle is compromised. In other words, there is no perfect solution.
5. What are the 3 levels of Dilemmas?

a. Systemic/Structural Level (Macro)- It involves the social, political, legal and

economic systems that are place at a given time.

b. Organizational Level- Involves moral dilemmas in relation to particular

groups or organization.

c. Individual/Personal Level-Includes dilemmas concerning individual

decisions, behavior or character influenced by peer pressure.

6. What is the difference between Freedom and Responsibility?

Freedom is a necessary component of human existence at all levels of morality.

It is, however more than just doing what we want without hindrance. Freedom is
important to existence because it allows us to develop our morality. Freedom does
mean the right to do as one pleases—to think, believe, speak, worship (or not worship),
move about, gather, and generally act as you choose—but only until your choices start
to infringe on another person’s freedom.

Responsibility however is the ability to recognize, interpret and act upon multiple
principles and values according to the standards within a given field and/or context.
Students explore various complexities, dynamics and issues surrounding behavior and
ethical practices in order to understand best ways to make decisions and resolve issues
at personal, group and societal levels.

7. What is the difference between reason and impartiality?

Reason is a statement that explains why something is the way it is, why
someone does, thinks or says something or why someone behaves in a certain way.
Reason may also be a fact, condition or situation that makes it proper or appropriate to
do something or feel something, whereas Impartiality is defined as equal treatment for
all people and all group, Morality requires the impartial consideration for everyone’s
interests. The interest of each individual, therefore is equally important and no one
should get special treatment.
8. Search story that have moral characteristics of moral dilemmas?

1. The Trolley Problem

Situation 1: There is a trolley coming down the tracks and ahead, there are five people
tied to the tracks and are unable to move. The trolley will continue coming and will kill
the five people. There is nothing you can do to rescue the five people EXCEPT that
there is a lever. If you pull the lever, the train will be directed to another track, which has
ONE person tied to it. You have two choices:
(a) Do nothing and the five people will die
(b) Or pull the lever and save the five people, but that one person will die.

Did you make your choice? Well then consider this similar situation:

Situation 2: There is a trolley coming down the tracks and ahead, there are five people
tied to the tracks and are unable to move. The trolley will continue coming and will kill
the five people. However, in this situation, you are standing on a bridge above the train
tracks and you can see the train coming. There is a man standing next to you, who is so
enormous and heavy that if he places himself in front of the oncoming train, it will hit
and kill him but the train will stop. So you have two choices
(a) Do nothing and the five people will die.
(b) Push the big guy down the bridge. He will be killed but will stop the trolley and save
the five people.

The ironic part about this problem is that while most people would choose the option (b)
for the first situation, they will choose option (a) for the second situation, when
technically, in both situations, you are sacrificing one man to save the lives of five
people.
References:

Ethics by: Leslie Gazigan, Manuel B. Manuel, Leonardo Dalhag, Sherill Villaluz,
and Vicente Castillo

Published: PANDAY – LAHI house Inc.

https://ethics.org.au/why-were-here/what-is-ethics/

https://ourhappyschool.com/node/824

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/ethical-dilemma-examples.html

https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/more/treder20090917

https://thoughtcatalog.com/lenna-son/2014/06/3-famous-moral-dilemmas-that-will-really-
make-you-think/