CHAPTER 1

THE ETHICAL
DIMENSION OF HUMAN
EXISTENCE
Chapter Objectives

1. Identify the ethical aspect of human life and

the scope of ethical thinking
2. Define and explain the terms that are relevant
to ethical thinking; and
3. Evaluate the difficulties that are involved in
maintaining certain commonly-held notions of
ethics
What is ETHICS?

 Ethics is a branch of philosophy that

guides people about the basic human
conduct.
 Ethics are made to help people to decide
what is right or wrong and how to act.
 In August 2007, newspapers reported what seemed
to be seemed to be yet another sad incident of fraternity
violence, Chris Anthony Mendez, a twenty-year old
student of University of the Philippines, Was rushed to
the hospital in the early morning hours, unconscious,
with large bruises on his chest, back and legs. He passed
away that morning, and the subsequent autopsy report
strongly suggest that his physical injuries were most
probably the result of “Hazing”.
What is LAW?

It refers to systematic body of

rules that governs the whole
society and the actions of its
individual members
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAW AND ETHICS?

LAW is created with an intent to maintain

social order and peace in the society and
provide protection to all the citizens.

The LAW directly states what is right and

what is wrong.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAW AND ETHICS?

ETHICS is rule of conduct of an

individual
And the person decide what is
wrong and what is right.
 LEGAL AND ETHICAL

ILLEGAL BUT ETHICAL

ILLEGAL AND UNETHICAL

VALUE
Ethics, generally speaking, is about the matters
such as the good thing that we should pursue and the
bad thing we should avoid; the right ways in which we
could or should act the wrong ways of acting. It us
about what is acceptable and unacceptable in human
behavior. It may involve obligations that we are
expected to fulfill. Prohibitions that we are required to
respect, or ideals that we are encouraged to meet.
Ethics as a subject for us to study is about
determining the grounds of the values with particular
and special significance to human life.
Clarifications and Terminology

Recognizing the notions of good

and bad, and right and wrong, are
the primary concern of ethics. In
order to start, it would be useful to
clarify the following points.
 KINDS OF VALUATION
Our first point of clarification that there
are instances when we make value
judgments that are not considered to be
part of ethics. For instance, I could said
that this new movie I had just seen was a
“good” one because I enjoyed it, or a song
I had just heard on radio was “bad” one
because it had a unpleasant tone. These
are not concern of ethics.
These valuation that fall under the domain of
aesthetics. The word “aesthetics” is derived by
the greek word aisthesis (“sense” or “feeling”)
and refers to the judgments of personal
approval or disapproval that we make about
what we see, smell, hear, or taste. In fact, we
often use the word “taste” to refer to the
personal aesthetic preferences that we have on
these matters, such as “his taste in music” or her
taste in clothes.”
Similarly, we have a sense of approval or disapproval
concerning certain actions which can be considered
relatively more trivial in nature. Thus, for instance, I may
think that it is “right” to knock politely on someone’s door,
while it is “wrong” to barge into one’s office. Perhaps I
may approve of a child who knows how to ask for
something properly by saying “please” and otherwise,
disapprove of a woman that I see picking her nose in
public. These and other examples belong to the category
of etiquette, which is concerned with right and wrong
actions, but those which might be considered not quite
grave enough to belong in discussion in ethics.
 We can also consider how a
notion of right and wrong actions
can easily appear in a context
that is not a matter of ethics. This
could also be when learning how
to bake for instance.
 It derive from the greek word “techne”
means “technique” and “technical” which
are often used to refer to a proper way (or
right way) of doing things, but a technical
valuations(right and wrong technique of
doing things) may not necessarily be an
ethical one.
 Recognizing the characteristics of
aesthetic and technical valuation allows us
to have rough guide as to what belongs to
a discussion of ethics. They involve
valuations that we make in a sphere of
human actions, characterized by certain
gravity and concern the human well-being
or human life itself.
Ethics and Morals
The second point of clarification is on the
use of words “ethics” and “morals”. This
discussion of ethics and morals would
include cognates such as ethical,
unethical, immoral, amoral, morality and
so on. As we proceed, we should be
careful particularly on the use of the word
“not” when applied to the words “moral” or
“ethical” as this can be ambiguous.
 The word “Morals” may be
used to refer to specific beliefs
or attitudes that people have
or to describe acts that people
perform.