Ethics

Finals

Moral Agent

is “a being who is capable of acting with reference to right and wrong”

Kantian Version

It is also essential that the agents should have the capacity to rise above their feelings and passion and act for the sake of the moral law.

Culture

 It Is an aggregate of the learned beliefs, attitudes, values, norms and customs of a society or group of people, shared by them and transmitted from generation to generation within that society.

Culture

 It can be viewed as “blessing” and a “baggage”

Two fundamental categories to define things produced by a society:

 Material Culture

 Non-Material Culture

Types of Culture

High Culture

 Cultural Diversity

 Subculture

 Popular Culture

 Multiculturalism

 Global Culture

Importance of Culture

 Culture affects perceptions

 Culture influence behavior

 Culture shapes personalities

 Our culture shapes our values and belief systems

Moral Behavior

It is what one believes to be the right things to do even in the absence of religion.

Other suggested conditions of
moral agency are that agents
should have:

 an enduring self with free will and an inner life  understanding of the relevant facts as well as moral understanding

 moral sentiments

Characteristic of Moral Agent

 Human being is the moral agent endowed with all possibilities and capabilities to act upon actions with moral considerations.

Characteristic of Moral Agent

 Has the ability to discern rights from wrong and to be held accountable for his or her own actions.

Characteristic of Moral Agent

 Have a moral responsibility not to cause unjustified harm.

Culture

It can be viewed as “blessing” and a “baggage”

cultural relativism

the principle of regarding the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself

cultural relativism

 uniqueness of every culture from each other

(Vasquez)

to expand, cultural relativism holds that what one culture believes is immoral, another culture may believe is moral

Ethical Relativism

 theory that holds that morality is relative to the norms of one’s culture.

 denies the existence of one universal moral law

Moral Relativism

 a view that moral judgments are true or false only relative to some particular standpoint and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others

 idea that there is no universal or absolute set of moral principles

Moral Relativism

A version of morality that advocates “to each her own,” and those who follow it say, “Who am I to judge?”

Descriptive moral relativism

it Is also knowns as cultural relativism

Meta-ethical moral relativism

states that there are no objective grounds for preferring the moral values of one culture over another

Normative moral relativism

the idea that all societies should accept each other’s differing moral values, given that there are no universal moral principles.

Moral relativism

Would say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

Moral relativism

 It rests on the belief that values are subjective and the denial of truth in ethical questions.

Jeff Landauer and Joseph Rowlands
(2001)

believed that moral relativism is an ethical judgment which claims that no ethical system is better than another.

Values

 comes from the Latin word ‘valere’ which means ‘to be of worth’

 it is also refers to as an economic conception

Values

“means primarily, to price, to esteem, to appraise, to estimate. It means the act of cherishing something holding it clear and also, the act of passing judgment upon the nature and amount of its value as compared with something else.”

Human Values

Virtues that guide us to take into account human element when one interacts with one other human being.

It gives the effect of bonding, comforting and measuring.

Moral Values

 it help us distinguish between what’s right and wrong, good or bad for you as well as society.

 principles that govern our lives and beliefs that make us realize the importance of life, the goals that we want to attain or accomplish in life

Types of Moral Values

 Acceptance
 Compassion
 Courage
 Equality
 Fairness
 Generosity
 Honesty

 Integrity
 Kindness
 Perseverance
 Politeness
 Respect
 Responsibility
 Self-Control

Individual’s morals

may derive from society and government, religion, or self.

society and government

When moral values derive from them, they, of necessity, may change as the laws and morals of the society change.

Virtues

are good moral habits which make the person even better to perform those good actions well and consequently function well as human beings.

“good”

Formation of virtue then is the acquisition of the true knowledge in the mind which is the

Cardinal Virtues

 Prudence
 Justice
 Temperance

Theological Virtues

 Faith
 Hope
 Charity

Moral Character

It is formed by one’s action; what kind of person is constituted by one’s character.

LEVEL 1: PRE- CONVENTIONAL

Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation

Stage 2: Self-interest/Instrumental Orientation

LEVEL 2: CONVENTIONAL

Stage 3: Interpersonal Accord and Conformity/ Good boy, Nice Girl Orientation

Stage 4: Authority and Maintaining Social Order/Law and Order Orientation

LEVEL 3: POST CONVENTIONAL

Stage 5: Social-Contract Orientation

Stage 6: Universal-Ethical-Principal Orientation

Heinz should not steal the drugs since he would be breaking the law.

Pre-Conventional

Heinz should steal the drug, and not go to prison as this is unfair.

Post- Conventional

Heinz should steal the drug and accept
any prison sentence.

Conventional