PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN IT

CS 411

Submitted by: Date:_____________

Jayvee I. Tagalog BSIT-3

Submitted to: Ratings:___________

Engr. Russel Robert G. Matusa, RME (MET-MSES)
Table of Contents

Chapter 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 1

Chapter 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 6

Chapter 3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 11

Chapter 4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 16

Chapter 5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 21

Chapter 6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 26

Chapter 7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 31

Chapter 8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 36
 CHAPTER 1
ETHICS

INTRODUCTION

If ethical theories are to be useful in practice, they need to affect the way human beings
behave. Some philosophers think that ethics does do this. They argue that if a person realizes that
it would be morally good to do something then it would be irrational for that person not to do it.

But human beings often behave irrationally they follow their 'gut instinct' even when their
head suggests a different course of action. However, ethics does provide good tools for thinking
about moral issues. Most moral issues get us pretty worked up - think of abortion and euthanasia
for starters. Because these are such emotional issues we often let our hearts do the arguing while
our brains just go with the flow.

But there's another way of tackling these issues, and that's where philosophers can come
in - they offer us ethical rules and principles that enable us to take a cooler view of moral
problems. So ethics provides us with a moral map, a framework that we can use to find our way
through difficult issues. Using the framework of ethics, two people who are arguing a moral
issue can often find that what they disagree about is just one particular part of the issue, and that
they broadly agree on everything else.

That can take a lot of heat out of the argument, and sometimes even hint at a way for
them to resolve their problem. But sometimes ethics doesn't provide people with the sort of help
that they really want. Ethics doesn't always show the right answer to moral problems.
Indeed more and more people think that for many ethical issues there isn't a single right answer -
just a set of principles that can be applied to particular cases to give those involved some clear
choices.
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 METHODS

Like Aristotle, Sidgwick believed that systematic reflection on ethics should begin with
the way ordinary people think about moral behavior—what he calls “commonsense morality.”
His main goal in the Methods is to offer a systematic and precise “examination, at once
expository and critical, of the different methods of obtaining reasoned convictions as to what
ought to be done which are found—either explicit or implicit—in the moral consciousness of
mankind generally”.

His focus is primarily on detailed exposition of commonsense morality; he does not

attempt to defend any particular theory of ethics, including utilitarianism, which he explicitly
endorses in other works and speaks positively of in many passages in the Methods.

However, Sidgwick’s goal is not simply exposition; he is also wants to clarify,

systematize, and improve ordinary morality by noting points where it is vague, undeveloped, or
inharmonious, and then suggesting ways that these problems can be fixed.

Sidgwick claims that there are three general methods of making value choices that are
commonly used in ordinary morality: intuitionism, egoism, and utilitarianism. Intuitionism is the
view that that we can see straight off that some acts are right or wrong, and can grasp self-
evident and unconditionally binding moral rules.

Egoism, or “Egoistic Hedonism,” claims that each individual should seek his or her own
greatest happiness. Utilitarianism, or “Universalistic Hedonism,” is the view that each person
should promote the greatest amount of happiness on the whole.

Most of Sidgwick’s 500-page book is devoted to a careful and systematic examination of

these three methods. In the process, he identifies numerous problems with each method and often
suggests clarifications and refinements in order to cast them the best possible light.

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 His hope is that these three methods (duly clarified and systematized) will be mutually
consistent, so that practical reason will be coherent and speak to us in one clear, unified voice.
This hope, he argues, can only partially be satisfied.

He claims that two methods—intuitionism and utilitarianism—can be fully harmonized.

Though most of the moral principles intuitionists often claim are “self-evident” are not actually
so, there are a handful of genuinely clear and indubitable moral axioms.

These, Sidgwick claims, turn out to be fully compatible with utilitarianism, and in fact
are necessary to provide a rational basis for utilitarian theory.

Moreover, Sidgwick argues, intuitionism in its most defensible form is saturated with
latent utilitarian presuppositions. Thus, contrary to what most ethicists have believed, there is no
fundamental clash between intuitionism and utilitarianism.

The problem lies with squaring utilitarianism with egoism. Sidgwick believes that the
basic principles of egoism (“Pursue your own greatest happiness”) and utilitarianism (“Promote
the general happiness”) are both self-evident.

Like many previous moralists, he argues that self-interest and morality coincide in the
great majority of cases. But can it be demonstrated that they always coincide? Sidgwick argues
that it cannot.

There are times, for example, when the general good might require the sacrifice of self-
interest (e.g., giving up one’s life to save a fellow soldier). The only way duty and self-interest
necessarily overlap is if God exists, and He makes sure through appropriate punishments and
rewards that it is always in a person’s long-term self-interest to do what is ethical.

But appeals to religion, Sidgwick argues, are inappropriate in philosophical ethics, which
should aspire to be “scientific” in its exclusion of theological or supernaturalistic assumptions.
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 REACTION & DISCUSSION

Ethics are not born in a vacuum. Ethics are more like a jigsaw puzzle that is thrown
together over time, that when complete makes up who you are and what you believe. From our
earliest days of life, we start to learn from those around us. These learned behaviors add to the
traits that we are already born with and help to shape us into the person we will become. As part
of this learning process, we develop what will become our norms.

Norms are our everyday way of looking at how the world around us works and helps us
to understand our place in the world. Norms also govern how we react to different situations and
problems that arise around us. These are our ethics; the things we learn as we grow that govern
the rest of our lives. Ethics are important for a number of reasons. First, ethics are important
because they give us a baseline for understanding the concepts of right and wrong. Ethics help us
to have a ready understanding of how to react to a certain situation long before that situation
happens.

There are situational ethics whereby we react as the situation dictates but our reaction is
due to our built-in value system that tells us what to do, not the situation itself.

The major problem with having situational ethics is that they change with the situation.
Having a standard of ethics that governs us each day of our lives means we always know how we
are to live no matter what. There is no second-guessing and no changing your ethics according to
what you feel your ethics are at the moment.

Second, ethics are important because they act as our mediator when dealing or coming
into contact with other people. If we have the wrong sense of ethics we will react to people in a
negative manner. But if our ethics are built on the truth, as found in the Word of God, we will
see people for who they are as children of God and we will learn to love them just as God loves
them.

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 CONCLUSION

In this class we’ve tried to touch on a variety of ethics problems media practitioners
might face. We began by talking about whether we can rightfully learn ethics at all in a class.
Should ethical relativism be our guide? Most of us seemed to think it should not. Ethical
relativism does not offer the possibility of critical scrutiny. “Everybody has the right to his
opinion.” But we have the responsibility to critically consider those opinions. We decided,
perhaps, instead that “Everybody’s opinion has the right to be heard.” The danger with believing
that ethics is relative to a society’s standards, and that society’s differ from each other—is that
you end up condoning such society’s as Nazi Germany or Pol Pot’s Cambodia.
Just because it’s a moral view of a society doesn’t mean it’s “equally correct.”

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 CHAPTER 2
EXISTENTIALIST ETHICS
INTRODUCTION

Existentialism

Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish thinker who lived and worked in the last 19th century, and a
philosopher, religious writer, satirist, psychologist, journalist, literary critic, and generally
considered the “Father of Existentialism”. He used the terms existential and existentialism in
relation to his philosophising, his heartfelt view was that life, existence, in all its aspects was
subjective and ambiguous.
But it was Jean Paul Sartre, a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, political activist,
biographer, and literary critic, who popularized the “Existentialism”. He was one of the key
figures in the philosophy of “Existentialism” and “Phenomenology”, and one of the leading
figures in 20th century French Philosophy and Marxism.

What is Existentialism?

In the late 19th and 20th century, European philosophers use the term “Existentialism” of
their certain work who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that
philosophical thinking begins with the human subject not merely the thinking subject, but the
acting, feeling, living human individual.

Existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life
through free will, choice, and personal responsibilities. The notion is that human exist first and
then each individual spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature. The belief is that people
are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on
their experiences, beliefs, and outlook.
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 METHODS

The methods that the Existentialists employ in their interpretations have a presupposition
in common:
 The immediacy of the relationship between the interpreter and the interpreted
 Between the problem the interrogator and the interrogated
 Between the problem of being and Being itself.

This common grand notwithstanding, each Existentialist thinker has defended and
worked out his own method for the interpretation of existence. Heidegger, an Existentialist with
ontological (natural of Being) concerns, availed himself of the philosophy of Edmund Husserl,
founder of Phenomenology, which, as logos of the phainomenon, employs speech that manifests
or discloses what it is that one is speaking about and that is true in the etymological use of the
Greek word “aletheia” (the sense of uncovering or manifesting what was hidden).

The phenomenon is, from Heidegger’s point of view, not mere appearance, but the
manifestation or disclosure of Being in itself. Phenomenology is thus capable of disclosing the
structure of Being and hence is an ontology of which the point of departure is the being of the
one who posses the question about Being, namely man.
According to Existentialist, one must rely upon oneself and a relationship to those around
him or her. One must possess a self-realization that one must relate to others, as he or she "lives
out [his or her] life span in an adamant universe". One is "thrown into the universe in which
there is no fixed course of action, nor final structure of meaning".
Finally, according to humanistic Existentialism, as represented by Abbaganano, the
leading Italian Existentialist, and by Merleau Ponty, a French Phenomenologist, the method of
philosophy consists of the analysis and the determination by employing all available techniques
including those of science of the structures that constitute existence, of the relations that connect
man with other beings and that figure, therefore, not only in the constitution of man but in the
constitution of the other being as well.

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 REACTION & DISCUSSION

Each basically agrees that human life is in no way complete and fully satisfying because
of suffering and losses that occur when considering the lack of perfection, power, and control
one has over their life. Even though they do agree that life is not optimally satisfying, it
nonetheless has meaning. Existentialism is the search and journey for true self and true person
meaning of life.

Ontic Structure of Human Existence

The fundamental characteristic of Existentialist Ontology is the primary that study of the
nature of existence gives to the concept of possibility. This priority dominated the philosophy of
Kierkegaard and also was amply utilized by Husserl, who had explicitly affirmed the ontological
priority of the possibility over reality.

Possibility, however, is not understood by the Existentialists in the purely logical sense as
absence of contradiction nor in the sense of traditional metaphysics as potentiality destined to
become actuality but, rather, in the sense of ontic or objective possibility, which is the very
structure of human existence; it is thus the specific modality of man’s being.

Another way of expressing this thesis is the affirmation of Heidegger and Sartre that
“existence precedes essence”, which signifies that man does not have a nature that determines his
modes of being and acting but that, rather, these modes are simply possibilities from which he
may choose and on the basics of which he can projects himself.

In this sense, Heidegger has said that:

“Dasein is always its own possibilty”

And Sartre has written:

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 “It is true that the possible is so to speak
An option on being, and if it is true that the
Possible can come into the world only through
A being which is its own possibility, this implies
For human reality the necessity of being its
Being in the form of an option on it’s being.”

As possibility, human existence is the anticipation, the expectation, the projection of the
future. The future is its fundamental temporal dimension, to which the present and the past are
subordinate and secondary; existence is always stretched out toward the future.

As possibility, existence is also transcendence, being beyond, because all of its

constitutive possibilities organize it beyond, because all of its constitutive possibilities organize
it beyond itself toward the other beings of the world and toward the world in its totality. To
transcend thus means to more toward other men, with which man is related in every situation in
which he finds himself.

Yet for some Existentialists, the being of these other entities has a modality that differs
from the being of man’s existence: their existence is not possible being but real or factual being.
To existence, Heidegger contrast the presence of the things in the world a presence that assumes
as man takes notice of these things for his needs the aspect of utilizability.

But utilizability is not a simple quality of things; it is their very being. This is a world that
is a reality of fact, at the origin of which there is a Being that is pure transcendence and that,
therefore, never reveal itself.

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 CONCLUSION

Existential thought can be applied to Freudian, Jungian, Gestalt, Behavioral, Cognitive,

and other methods through the main concept of phenomenology. By understanding that a client
is more than a patient, a therapist can view a client as a person with the capacity to change.

Because existentialism is a way of thought that keeps the clients best interest at heart, it
is a philosophy that would benefit a therapist in and out of counseling. In the end, to believe that
we are all capable of change and that we are a sum of all our choices is a lifestyle that could
benefit all of us and society as a whole.

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 CHAPTER 3
FOUNDATIONS OF THE MORAL LIFE
INTRODUCTION
Man
In an age of relativism which seems to deny the definitive nature of anything, it is truly a
noble endeavor to defend the definite. This being so, we have sought over the past couple of
weeks to define some of the central questions confronting our myopic and miasmic times.
Having asked “what is civilization?” and “what is Christendom?” we now move to one of the
most fundamental questions any of us can ask: Who is man?

For the materialist, man is simply homo sapiens, a label for humanity that was only
invented in the early nineteenth century and has since become synonymous with what might be
termed Darwinian man. As a label, it exposes the materialist’s lack of knowledge of Latin, as
well as his lack of knowledge of man. Literally, homo sapiens means “wise man,” an absurd
label for humanity as a whole.

All human and historical experience shows that mankind, as a collective, is not wise, nor
can any individual man be considered wise in his nature, i.e. from birth. Wisdom is something
that we are meant to acquire as we live our lives. We can do so through our own experience or
through the experience of others.

The most effective way of becoming wise is to graft ourselves onto the collective
experience of humanity exhibited in the history of civilization and its published works. It is,
therefore, ironic that those who believe most firmly in the concept of homo sapiens are those
most likely to treat with dismissive contempt the experience of humanity to be discovered in the
study of the humanities. The ironic paradox is that those who consider themselves “wise men”
are those who refuse to listen to the Wise Men that history has produced!

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 METHODS

A Historical Profile of Happiness

To achieve happiness is man’s lifelong pursuit. Here we attempt a profile study of what
ethical thinkers have written about it and, in the process, we come across certain theories of
happiness, such as:

 Hedonism – Ethical hedonism is the idea that all people have the right to do everything in
their power to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them. It is also the idea
that every person's pleasure should far surpass their amount of pain. Its important kinds
are:

 Egoistic Hedonism – the ethical theory that the valid aim of right
conduct is one's own happiness

 Altruistic Hedonism – We ought to sacrifice personal happiness in order to bring

any increase of happiness to others.

 The Cynic Ideal – For the Cynics, the purpose of life was to live in virtue, in agreement
with nature. As reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous training and
by living in a way which was natural for themselves, rejecting all conventional desires for
wealth, power, sex and fame. Instead, they were to lead a simple life free from all
possessions.

 Stoicism – is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in

the early 3rd century BC. The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors
in judgment, of the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom,
and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is in accord
with nature.
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  Theistic – the belief in one God as the creator and ruler of the universe, without rejection
of revelation (distinguish from deism).

 Idealism – any system or theory that maintains that the real is of the nature of thought or
that the object of external perception consists of idea.

 Self-realization – is an expression used in psychology, spirituality, and eastern religions.

It is defined as the "fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one's character or
personality.

 The Libido - colloquially known as sex drive, is a person's overall sexual drive or desire
for sexual activity. Sex drive is influenced by biological, psychological and social factors.
Biologically, the sex hormones and associated neurotransmitters that act upon the nucleus
accumbens (primarily testosterone and dopamine, respectively) regulate libido in
humans.

 Authentic Existence – is a technical term used in psychology as well as existentialist

philosophy and aesthetics (in regards to various arts and musical genres).

The answers of the philosophers mentioned to the question of what makes a man happy are from
Approaches to Ethics;

 Aristotle:
In the Nicomachean Ethics, a book in which Aristotle’s critical mind
dwells on the problems of conduct, three prominent types of life are
disclosed: (1) the life of enjoyment, in which the good or happiness is
identified with pleasure; (2) the political life, in which happiness is
identified with honor; and (3) the contemplative life, in which happiness
results from contemplation, the activity of man nearest to the activity of
God, which is contemplative.
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 REACTION & DISCUSSION

Ethical concern and moral evaluation are everywhere crucial aspects of social life. Only
recently, however, have anthropologists begun to focus explicit attention on them. Work at
Cambridge on such topics as self-making and diverse notions of flourishing, achievement and
success, social deployments of concepts of justice, the motivational and structuring force of
values, social practices of accountability, and the role of creativity and emotion in fostering
people’s understandings of ethical accomplishment have helped in recent years to contribute to a
profound rethinking of anthropological theories of practice and accounts of the nature of social
organization.

At the same time that many anthropologists have come to recognize the importance of
morality in social life, others have taken note of the fact that rapid social and cultural change is a
condition of life in many societies in the contemporary world. Along with social transformations
driven wholly by the internal concerns of those involved in them, the last several decades have
seen an explosion of public and private projects undertaken by outsiders aiming to foster change
through efforts at various kinds of development, humanitarian aid, and the enactment of legal
controls on ethno-cultural practices deemed unethical.

Central to our work in Cambridge is the recognition that both kinds of change are
frequently shaped by ethical goals and that they also raise difficult moral questions for those
involved in them. Drawing on the novel theoretical tools provided by the emerging
anthropology of ethics and morality, we are thus developing ways to study the role of ethical
thought, experience, and practice in shaping processes of social transformation.

Running through all of these critical research questions is a concern with the cross-
cultural exploration of human moral capacities and selfhood, their expression in social life, and
the fundamental role they play in situations of social change.

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 CONCLUSION

People need some sort of a moral guide through life. Many may think that they can get
by without one but chances are that they are egoists and do have a principle which is guiding
them. If it makes me feel good, if it makes me happy, if I like it and can live with it then it is all
right for me to do it.

That may seem like an attractive principle by which we can make decisions until one
starts to think about it. As a guide for all people that principle would lead and does lead to many
conflicts. What is needed in a moral code is something that will enable humans to live with one
another in an order rather than in chaos of self-interested action.

If a person is tempted to think that several of the theories could be employed in a single
life the result would be a person who would choose which theory to employ to support the
decision of what that person was to do in a manner that would provide that person with the
outcome that the person most preferred.

This approach is a consequentialist approach, which is centered on the outcome for the
decision maker. In other words the actual principle being used would be Egoism! Thus someone
who claims to be using one principle on one occasion with one situation and then another
principle on another occasion would be using that which pleases that person and provides for the
outcome desired by the person claiming multiple ethical principles. The key factor is that such a
person wants the outcome desired.

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 CHAPTER 4
FUNDAMENTS OF MORAL EXPERIENCE
INTRODUCTION

The three fundaments of moral experience are:

 Knowledge
 Freedom of the Will
 Voluntaries or Love

In traditional philosophy, there is an elaborate analysis of what makes an act human.

Human acts may be good, bad, or indifferent. (1) An act is good when it is performed by man in
conformity to the dictates of right reason and laws of morality. (2) It is bad when it is done by
man against the dictates of right reason and laws of morality. (3) It is indifferent when it is
neither good or bad.

Knowledge

The nature of knowledge has been one of the perennial problems of philosophy. Knowing is
awareness of something; it is an act which joins the mind with an object, a mental, not a physical
nor material relationship. The act of knowing is always consciousness of something which is
inescapably linked to the subject, who is the knower. Every act of knowing is a synthesis of
object and subject.

Modern philosophy emphasizes this relationship. William Luijpen (pronounced loy-pen)

hyphenates, for added emphasis, his terms for subject (noesis) and object (noena); “being outside
itself-with-reality,” and “reality-of-the table-to which-conciousness-is-present.” He wrote an
excellent study on this, his style a perfect illustration of phenomenology as descriptive method at
the same time.
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 METHODS

It is easy to understand why knowledge is the pre-requisite of a human act and that it is in
its realm that freedom is born and realized. A comprehensive and clear knowledge of one’s
intention predisposes the will to act freely and without restraint.

By freedom of the will, Thomas Aquinas meant the power which men have of
determining their actions according to the judgment of their reason. We act freely when we make
mental comparisons of the different possible courses of action in order to pinpoint which of them
is preferable, and be able to choose by ourselves our course of action in accordance with what
our rational judgment has finally decided to take from the various alternatives.

Freedom and Determinism

 The Problem
 Is man determined or free? In what sense is man’s freedom a “situated” freedom?
Three sources of man’s determinism:
 Biological influences e.g., heredity, drugs, tension of modern life.
 Social pressure, e.g., social factors, mass media, human relationships,
modernization, anomymity.
 The unconscious, e.g., one’s past, childhood, shocking events, neurotic
complexes, neuroticizing factors, gaps between freedom and
responsibility.

 Elements of Solution
 Fundamental choice and freedom of choice.
 Fundamental option and state of grace.
 Sin unto death, mortal and venial sin.
 Freedom is not a given fact but a task to be realized.

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Freedom and Law

 The Problem
 How can man be free if he is subject to law? Is morality autonomous, heteronomous,
or theonomous? Is morality static or evolutionary? Is morality legalistic or
situational?

 Elements of Solution
 Value and Limits of Law
 Instinctive Level – law as coercion from without.
Moral Level – law as self-fulfillment.
Religious Level – law as response to God’s.
 Natural Law and Positive Law
On the moral level, natural law is the inner law of human progressive self-
realization: “Become what you are,” i.e., fully human.
Positive law (civil law) is the determination or specification of natural law
according to the level of development that mankind has attained.
 The Christian law of life and the Laws of the Church
On the religious level, the Christian law of life is the law of love and
Church laws are a concrete expression of the life of the Christian within
the community of God’s people.

 The Christian conscience before the law

 For the immature Christian conscience, law is opposed to freedom.
 For the mature Christian conscience, law is the guarantee of freedom. Moral
and religious maturity is not mere subjective sincerity or emotional honesty
but authentic spiritual honesty. Individual adulthood can be physical, moral,
religious and is conditioned by the collective adulthood of a people or nation.

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 REACTION & DISCUSSION

Ethics with its twofold aim, of intellectual mastery and practical control, runs danger of
being doubly incompetent. To follow differences to the vanishing point and to construe
theoretically such as concepts as the good, personality, freedom, virtue, etc., is one problem; to
turn to practical issues and implications and to make ethics persuasive and effective in the actual
shaping of conduct and character, is quite another.
The relation between these two problems was conceived rather naively by moralists of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Hobbes offered his ethics as a practical antidote to the
impending dangers of civil war and social anarchy; Henry More defines the aim of ethics as
follows: “By means of the reading and thinking over of its precepts the human mind is to be set
afire with the love of virtue, that it may breathlessly pursue virtue, and at last gain virtue and
with it a true, substantial happiness.”

We think of the relation in quite a different manner. We hold it unfair to judge the worth
of an ethical system in terms of an increase in the output of moral excellence. That problem is
laid aside for the educator and the social reformer. And yet we demand something that is not
reducible to strictly intellectual terms of consistency or ingenuity; that something is maturity of
insight, vitality of conceptions, closeness to life in the living.

A threefold test must be passed: the assumptions must be sound, the principles must be
worked consistently and harmoniously, and there must be that peculiar intentness and riches of
treatment by means of which a problem yields all its implications.

This test will be most severe whenever a subject has its roots alike in theoretical and
practical interests. Not only that, but the danger of a lapse is doubled. In ethics there is double
danger of either subjectivism or a metaphysical occultism that is pretentious and overreaching.
Subjectivism with its irreverent denial of one absolute truth and one absolute value seems to
destroy at one blow our intellectual solace and our practical comfort. Metaphysical occultism
with its shadow play and its lack of vital practical touch seems quite as profitless.
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 CONCLUSION

For a mature conscience, law as the norm of authenticity for an evolving humanity, is not
restrictive but directive of human liberty. Law does not destroy but enhances the growth of
human freedom. The formation of an adult conscience is the task of moral education. The
direction which conscience formation should take is from social to personal morality.

Morality is neither autonomous (from within man alone), nor heteronomous (as an external law
imposed on man from without), but theonomous (from man in relation to other man and to God).

Morality is evolutionary in the sense that human nature is not static, fixed and closed but
dynamic and open to growth and development. Morality again is not a given fact but a task or
vocation to be achieved.

Morality is not a matter of conformity to an external code of conduct but a matter of

progressively realizing man’s self in relation to others and to God. Ultimately it is a personal
response to the call of a Personal Absolute.

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 CHAPTER 5
NORMS OF MORALITY

INTRODUCTION

The Norms of Morality are:

 The Natural Law
 Conscience

The Natural Law

What is the Natural Law? Is it absolute or relative, unchanging or changing? As the

ultimate norm of every human act, it is has been the object of several investigations, but at no
time has the controversy about it been more spirited than in the past decade, between so-called
traditionalists and contemporary moralist.

Traditional ethics books usually start with the definition of law, (“ordinance of reason
directed for the common good and promulgated by him who has charge of the community”), then
proceed with the presentation of Eternal Law (God’s Law from all eternity) and its two facets;

 The Physical Law (that which governs the universe, the birth, growth, and death
of plants and animals and the body of man);
 The Moral Law (which Father Alfredo Panizo defines as “a disposition of the
human mind to discover the moral meaning of our actions in relation to the final
end.”)
Conscience
Conscience is derived from three Latin words cum alia scientia. This means the
application of knowledge to a specific individual.
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 METHODS

It is customary to speak of the Natural (Moral) law as the ultimate norm of morality and as
having primary, secondary, and tertiary principles:
 The Primary Principles are such that there can be no question of their validity. They are
usually expressed as:
 “Do good and avoid evil”
 “Live a life in accord with reason.”
 “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.”

 The Secondary Principles mostly affect the relationship of an individual with God and
his fellowmen. They are best expressed in the Ten Commandments.

 The Tertiary Principles are the applications of the first and second principles as
interpreted and embodied in the different laws of nations, and international, civil, and
religious societies. These vary from nation to nation; from people to people as proven in
the different and conflicting opinions on marriage, divorce, birth control, family
planning, and sacerdotal celibacy. It is here where the difficult problem of relativism
confronts moralists.
The Temporal Law: It may be oversimplifying things if we consider immediately here the laws
defining our stand with God, the Church, and the State, but we think this the most practical
approach. We think the usual presentation of the classification of laws and their characteristics is
confusing for new students or ethics:
 Divine Law is that which governs man-God relationship. Man, created out of pure
love, cannot but worship God with his whole soul and body, adoring Him,
acknowledging Him as the cause of his being, his words and gestures, a manifesto
of love returned.
 Ecclesiastical Law is that promulgated by the church to which a man belongs. It
interprets to him the relevance of the divine law and lays down certain rules he
should follow as a church member.
22
  Civil Law is that promulgated by the state for man as citizen. It defines his duties
to other citizens, to duly constituted authorities, to the land that gave him birth,
and to the other countries of the world.

Historical Investigation

 Aristotle
Every individual substance has an intrinsic “nature” or principle of operation which is
dynamic, teleological, and specific. Not every man by nature achieves infallibly his goal
of happiness. From Aristotle, we learn two things:
 Positive – moral norms may not be as absolute as the physical laws of nature;
 Negative – whereas Aristotle and St. Thomas after him stressed the species
(sameness), the modern emphasis today is on individuality (difference).

 St. Thomas Aquinas

Cites four definitions of natural law: (1) Ulpian – that which is common to man
and all the animals; (2) Gratian – that which is contained in the law and in the gospel; (3)
Isidore of Seville – that which is common to all nature; (4) Cicero – that which is not the
result of works but is innate in us.

 Modern Catholic Thinkers

As a reaction to the textbook presentation of natural law as a fixed moral code spelled out
in great detail and rigidity, there has been a shift from a static to a more dynamic and
evolutionary interpretation of the natural law.

23
 REACTION & DISCUSSION

A standard to which human acts are compared to determine their goodness. A proximate
norm is immediately applicable to the acts; the ultimate norm guarantees the validity of the
proximate norm. Human nature is the proximate norm of morality because it is common to
everyone, and the rules derived from it will be applicable to all human beings.

Moreover, human nature, while essentially unchangeable, is flexible enough to admit of

varying applications according to circumstances. It is also constantly present and manifest to all
humankind. The ultimate norm of morality is the divine nature, this assumes that God is the
Creator of the universe and the pattern of all things, that he is Being by essence and the source of
all things, so that whatever either exists or can exists is a reflection and participation of infinite
being.

This resemblance between God and creatures including human beings should be not only
in nature (who God is) but also in action (how God acts). Consequently, the ultimate norm of
human morality is the nature and activity of God. A person is as good as his or her character
approximates the perfections of God; and his or her conduct is as good as it imitates the activity
of God.

By object is meant what the free will chooses to do in thought, word, or deed or chooses
not to do. Be end is meant the purpose for which the act is willed, which may be the act itself (as
one of loving God) or some other purpose for which a person acts (as reading to learn). In either,
case, the end is the motive or the reason why an action is performed. By circumstances are meant
all the elements that surround a human action and affect its morality without belonging to its
essence.
Some circumstances so affect the morality of an action as to change its species, as
stealing a consecrated object becomes sacrilege and lying under oath is perjury. Other
circumstances change the degree of goodness or badness of an act. In bad acts they called
aggravating circumstances, as the amount of money a person steals.
24
 CONCLUSION

Conscience – our exalted participation in the eternal law of God because its function is to
reveal our likeness to God. It is therefore, the Voice of God within us. It is compulsory because it
operates within the realm of truth and sound reason, only when it impels us to act according to
our rational insights that it is truly the voice of God, but if it deviates from the correct norm, it
ceases to be rational and no longer now the voices of God.

As long as it operates according to sound rational insight, it is infallible, it should then be

followed. Conscience, insofar as it is the “Voice of God”, it assumes the authority of God. God is
the ultimate norm to which conscience must conform to.

To be morally good, a human act must agree with the norm of morality on all three
counts: in its nature, it’s motive, and its circumstances. Departure from any of these makes the
action morally wrong.

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 CHAPTER 6
MORAL VALUES
INTRODUCTION

Moral values are the standards of good and evil, which govern an individual’s behavior
and choices. Individual’s morals may derive from society and government, religion, or self.
When moral values derive from society and government they, of necessity, may change as the
laws and morals of the society change. An example of the impact of changing laws on moral
values may be seen in the case of marriage vs. “living together.”

In past generations, it was rare to see couples who lived together without the benefit of a
legal matrimonial ceremony. In recent years, couples that set up household without marriage are
nearly as plentiful as traditional married couples. But, not only are such couples more plentiful,
they are also more accepted by other individuals in our society. In earlier society, the laws and
morals simply came from the Roman system of law, which was largely based on the Ten
Commandments. As society moved into the modern era, that earlier system of laws became more
and more eroded.
Moral values also derive from within one’s own self. This is clearly demonstrated in the
behavior of older infants and young toddlers. If a child has been forbidden to touch or take a
certain objective early on, they know enough to slowly look over their shoulder to see if they are
being observed before touching said object. There is no need for this behavior to be taught, it is
instinctive. Once, however, any form of discipline is applied to modify the child’s behavior, the
child now gains the capacity within himself to distinguish his right behavior from his wrong
behavior. Now, the child can make correct choices based on his own knowledge. The choices
that are made by an individual from childhood to adulthood are between forbidden and
acceptable, kind or cruel, generous or selfish. A person may, under any given set of
circumstances, decide to do what is forbidden. If this individual possesses moral values, going
against them usually produces guilt.
26
 METHODS

It is usually a very good idea to consider the relevant concepts before moving on to the
moral aspects of the issue. After all, if someone does not understand the concepts involved, they
can hardly reach a reasonable moral judgment on the ethical issue. In this context a concept is a
key idea or term that is relevant to the moral issue. Obviously, the concepts will tend to vary
from issue to issue.

As with the facts, in some cases the concepts will be straightforward and provide little
grounds for dispute because there is general agreement regarding the definitions.
Example:
 One relevant concept in the DVD case is that of copying.

This concept is not controversial since there is general agreement on the definition of
copying in this context. If there is no significant dispute over the key concepts, then it is
reasonable to move on to other matters. However, there are also cases in which the concepts are
very controversial. The controversy can arise from a variety of causes.

One main cause of controversy is that some concepts seem to be inherently difficult and
complex.
Example:
 A key concept in the moral dispute over abortion is that of personhood.

As years of philosophic investigation have shown, adequately defining person is a rather

daunting task. Another common cause of conceptual controversy is that the concept is strongly
linked to the moral issue at hand. As an example, consider the DVD case. One relevant concept
that is strongly tied to the moral issue is that of stealing. Given the general assumption that
stealing is wrong, the way stealing is defined would have a significant impact on the morality of
copying DVDs. If copying DVDs is actually stealing, then it would seem to be reasonable easy
to make the case that copying them in wrong.
27
 REACTION & DISCUSSION

As moral standards in society have come under attack, there has been a predictable two-
pronged reaction.

Firstly, those who believes that morality has no fixed basis of validity rejoice as barriers
and social taboos are broken down.

Second, those who believe that society without clear moral underpinnings will
disintegrate are alarmed by discernable trends in this direction. One group sees “progress” while
the other sees society in a downhill slide.

There is also an accompanying dual reaction. The progressives tend to support the
dominant role of our schools in influencing morality, while those more inclined to hold on to
traditional values see the family as the vehicle of choice for the transmission of moral standards.
The trend over the past half century has definitely favored the progressives.

The school system has not only changed with the times in regard to the teaching of
morality, but has openly advocated a more moral relativistic approach to students. Most of us are
familiar with issues such as feminism, homosexuality and behavioral diversity becoming part of
curriculums.

Regardless of one’s personal stand on these issues, it must be admitted they do represent
a departure from previously held societal values. And the transmission of these new values by a
source outside of the home also represents a departure from the previous norm. Now, however a
new situation is drawing attention.
Voice, a union for education professionals in the United Kingdom, is decrying the
absence of parental training in the children they are called upon to teach. They say that children
are no longer learning moral values at home, and that the lack of discipline is making the
classroom an unruly place where teaching anything is becoming more difficult.
28
 General Secretary Philip Parkin told delegates at a recent conference, “I’m making no
judgment on this, but the focus on the primary of the individual, rather than community; the
changing pattern of family structures; the emphasis on parents going out to work and the
consequent perception of the reduced value and worth of the full-time parent have all changed
the way we behave.”

Are we now in a time when those children who have been reared in the moral relativity of
the educational system are now producing offspring who are taking moral relativity to new
levels? Are we seeing cause and effect?

It cannot be denied that moral values are not being taught in many homes as they used to
be, but is this not the result of previous conditioning? Maybe it is time to rethink who has the
primary responsibility to teach moral values.

A major problem with morality is that if no one claims responsibility for deciding and
acting out the ethical principles of right and wrong, morality becomes a word without meaning.
Morality is a system of principles or rules of conduct to which humans conform. Presently our
wider culture exemplifies the debasement of rules of conduct with little common agreement as to
what rules or principles we should be following.

The Church of England’s response to his present uproar provides us a window through
which to view the depth of the problem. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams,
has not called for accountability according to moral principles on behalf of the politicians.
Rather, he has taken the soft option of saying, in effect, “let us all move forward, they have
learned their lesson so let’s have no recriminations.” There was no call for the defining of
principles or rules of conduct that our political leaders should be exemplifying. A body that our
wider culture should be looking to for leadership in moral conduct has abdicated its
responsibility and sent a message that morality is not important to the issue.

29
 CONCLUSION

Values are an important part to all the people we get to make our life better. And in time
when you’re putting into practice each of the values, you will have good results and rewards, so
the parents have to go teach their children early, because everything is done and you learn as a
family, but that by courtship begins. So before you choose your partner, know what your values
are for a relationship and promote the values.

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 CHAPTER 7
CONTEMPORARY MORAL PROBLEMS

INTRODUCTION

Contemporary Moral Problems is a course, as the name suggests, on moral problems that
people in the world are dealing with today. You are dealing with moral problems or issues in
your life even today. The category of things that can be labeled a moral problems is quite large,
and this course certainly cannot deal with them all. In fact, this course can’t even deal with a
small fraction of the contemporary moral problems that are in the world or in your lives today.

However, it can provide some much needed tools to helping you solve moral problems in
your life, and further, help you help others think through their moral problems too. As we
proceed through the course you may feel as though some of the issues aren’t directly related to
your life. Nevertheless, you will improve your moral reasoning skills as you try to understand
these problems and possible solutions to them.

This course was designed to take issues that you might think are interesting, but without
picking some of the popular contemporary moral problems that you might be tired of hearing
about. However, as I’ve already mentioned, what you learn dealing with the problems we discuss
here can equally be applied to problems you’ve already heard a lot about.

In this module we are going to try to accomplish two goals. The first is just to get our feet
wet in dealing with a set of three contemporary moral problems. These problems are not
designed to show you truth or give you simple answers, but to introduce you to moral reasoning.
Our second goal is to understand and develop moral reasoning skills. Most of us are familiar
with thinking about moral issues, but few of us have actually had a class that helps you do so in
the right way.
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 METHODS

The Right to live – and to Die

We Filipinos feel very deeply for the sanctity of human life. We give all that we can to
prolong a loved one’s life. However, this very love gives that touch of pragmatism that decides,
in hopeless cases, when enough is enough. We wait for death to come. Euthanasia, or mercy
killing, has never really been a problem with us.

Abortion

Abortion is the termination of pregnancy brought about by natural physical causes. It is

the expulsion of the fetus from the mother’s womb. The Kinds of Abortion:

 Spontaneous Abortion – is the natural death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to

survive independently. Some use the cutoff of 20 weeks of gestation after which fetal
death is known as a stillbirth.
 Induced Abortion – the termination of pregnancy caused by a human agent without any
relation to natural physical causes. This may be:
 Therapeutic or Direct Abortion – the termination of pregnancy for a
medical reason by a physician after due consultation with the patient.
 Criminal Abortion – the termination of pregnancy induced by physicians,
irregular practitioners or laymen at the request of the patient, without any
medical reason to be offered in justification.
 Indirect Abortion – is the name given by the Catholic theologians to a medical procedure
which has a therapeutic medical effect and also results in an abortion as a secondary
effect.

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Assassinations

An assassination may be prompted by religious, political, or military motives; it is an act

that may be done for financial gain, to avenge a grievance, from a desire to acquire fame or
notoriety, or because of a military, security or insurgent group’s command to carry out the
homicide.

Massacres

Massacres are mass murders, is a specific incident which involves the killing of people,
although not necessarily a crime against humanity. Three of these stand out in recent history:
 That of the Palestinians in refugee centers, for which the Jewish leadership was
assailed for allegedly allowing it to happen.
 That of the Kampuchean refugees reportedly hundreds of women and children
were slaughtered with hand grenades and bayonets by the Vietnamese.
 The shooting down by the Soviets of the commercial Korean Air Lines with 269
passengers abroad, 67 of whom were Filipinos.
Suicide

Suicide is killing of oneself, and the act of intentionally causing one’s death. Risk factors
include mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality
disorders, alcoholism, or substance misuse. It is immortal like murder, because it, too, is a blatant
denial of justice and love.
 It is against God, our Creator.
 It is against society.
 It is against the family of the one who commits suicide, their grief, guilt, and
shame.
 It is against himself. He has cut off himself from whatever growth and flowering
there could have been in his future. It is against his own instinct for survival, a
tragic no to the gift of life.
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 REACTION & DISCUSSION

Man, an embodied being, regards his life as the highest of all things in this world, as an
“exalted good.” He regards himself as a viator making the most of his few years, trying to cram
within a lifetime physical fitness, intellectual growth, and spiritual joy.

The Christian believes that his bodily life does not belong to him, but to the Creator of it.
It is a precious gift and he is its steward. It is entrusted to his freedom, and therefore has its
attendant risks. Man is not interested to live in a sterilized capsule, shunning all dangers, for this
will take away the joy of living.

The question is: what risks to take? When to take them? It is a weighing of values that
will consider life in all its dimensions: vegetative, psychosomatic, rational, spiritual. Human life
is entrusted to the love and justice of others. Its accountability is a shared responsibility: the
mother and her child, the brother for his next kin, you and your neighbor, a soldier for his
country, and a nation for its citizens. It encompasses a host of moral problems: contraception,
abortion, sterilization, artificial insemination, suicide, etc.

Christian existential moralist uphold that the value of human life is starkly seen against
the background of death. It is death that gives full meaning to life; and thus, each person has his
unique way of apprehending his own death. It is the ultimate moment of choice: for fullness or
nothingness.

After medical breakthroughs with the first transplant, there was an urgent need for a re-
definition of the moment of death. Today, it is accepted that brain death equals human death.
Bernard Haring, author of Medical Ethics, quotes Lyman A. Brewer: “After brain death, the
surgeon has the moral obligation to stop all artificial methods of sustaining life by respirators.”

Biological life can continue after brain death; machines can keep the heart, lungs,
kidneys, and liver functioning by artificial means.
34
 CONCLUSION

There is a final point that must be made with regard to these two opposing positions. The
difference in the evidence used by each side creates another complication in resolving the issue
of whether teens should be allowed to drink. Engels et al, based their argument on the social
benefits of teen alcohol use. Brown bases her argument on health concerns. Engels does not
consider health, and Brown does not consider social interaction.

What this means is that you could agree with both of them, or you could disagree with
both of them. You might think that it is dangerous in terms of long-term health for teens to drink
alcohol, but that the risk is outweighed by the social benefits of drinking. Or you might think that
there are no significant social benefits, but there are also no significant risks.

You will have decide, in addition to whether you are convinced of either position, how to
weigh the conclusions of the two sides of the debate. This is what is called a cost-benefit
analysis. When you weigh the potential costs of an action (e.g. drinking) against its potential
benefits, in order to decide what to do, you are engaging in cost-benefit analysis.

35
 CHAPTER 8
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Department of Labor and Employment - (DOLE)

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) started a small bureau in 1908. It
became a department on December 8, 1933 with the passage of Act 4121. The DOLE is the
national government agency mandated to formulate and implement policies and programs, and
serve as the policy-advisory arm of the Executive Branch in the field of labor and employment.

Vision
Every Filipino worker attains full, decent and productive employment.

Mission
To promote gainful employment opportunities, develop human resources, protect workers
and promote their welfare, and maintain industrial peace.

Mandate
The National Labor Relations Commission is a quasi-judicial body tasked to promote and
maintain industrial peace by resolving labor and management disputes involving both local and
overseas workers through compulsory arbitration and alternative modes of dispute resolution. It
is attached to the Department of Labor and Employment for program and policy coordination.

Philippine National Police - (PNP)

PNP envisions to evolve into a highly-professional, dynamic and motivated organization

working in partnership with a responsive community towards the attainment of a safe place to
live, work, invest and do business.
36
Vision
Imploring the aid of the Almighty, by 2030, we shall be a highly capable, effective and
credible police service working in partnership with a responsive community towards the
attainment of a safer place to live, work and do business.

Mission
The PNP shall enforce the law, prevent and control crimes, maintain peace and order, and
ensure public safely and internal security with the active support of the community.

Mandate
Republic Act 6975 entitled An Act Establishing the Philippine National Police under a
reorganized Department of the Interior and Local Government and Other Purposes as amended
by RA. 8551 Philippine National Police Reform and Reorganization Act of 1998 and further
amended by RA 9708.

Department of Education (DepEd)

The Department of Education (DepEd) adopts the enclosed Basic Education Research
Agenda which provides guidance to DepEd and its stakeholders in the conduct of education
research and in the utilization of research results to inform the Department’s planning, policy,
and program development aligned with its vision, mission, and core values.

The Research Agenda shall build on gains from existing research, generate new knowledge on
priority research areas, focus DepEd’s attention on relevant education issues, and maximize
available resources for research within and outside the Department.

All DepEd Orders and other related issuances, rules and regulations, and provisions which are
inconsistent with this policy are hereby repealed, rescinded or modified accordingly.

Immediate dissemination of and strict compliance with this Order is directed.

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Vision
We dream of Filipinos who passionately love their country and whose values and
competencies enable them to realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to building
the nation. As a learner-centered public institution, the Department of Education continuously
improves itself to better serve its stakeholders.

Mission

To protect and promote the right of every Filipino to quality, equitable, culture-based,
and complete basic education where:

Students learn in a child-friendly, gender-sensitive, safe, and motivating environment.

Teachers facilitate learning and constantly nurture every learner.
Administrators and staff, as stewards of the institution, ensure an enabling and supportive environment
for effective learning to happen.

Family, community, and other stakeholders are actively engaged and share responsibility for
developing life-long learners.

Mandate

The Department of Education was established through the Education Decree of 1863 as
the Superior Commission of Primary Instruction under a Chairman. The Education agency
underwent many reorganization efforts in the 20th century in order to better define its purpose
vis a vis the changing administrations and charters. The present day Department of Education
was eventually mandated through Republic Act 9155, otherwise known as the Governance of
Basic Education act of 2001 which establishes the mandate of this agency.The Department of
Education (DepEd) formulates, implements, and coordinates policies, plans, programs and
projects in the areas of formal and non-formal basic education. It supervises all elementary and
secondary education institutions, including alternative learning systems, both public and private;
and provides for the establishment and maintenance of a complete, adequate, and integrated
system of basic education relevant to the goals of national development.

38
Department of Social Welfare and Development
 Is the executive department of the Philippine Government responsible for the protection
of the social welfare rights of Filipinos and to promote social development.

Vision

Individuals, families and communities empowered and enjoying an improved quality of

life.

Mission

Enable disadvantaged individuals, families and communities to achieve quality of life

through the provision of comprehensive and responsive social welfare programs and services in
partnership with development stakeholders.

Mandate

The Department of Social Welfare and Development of ARMM is established to care,

protect and rehabilitate individuals, families, and communities who are disadvantaged and have
the least in life in terms of social welfare assistance and development interventions so that they
could become more productive members of society and thereby participate in regional and
national development.

Department of Health (DOH)

The Department of Health (DOH) is the principal health agency in the Philippines. It is
responsible for ensuring access to basic public health services to all Filipinos through the
provision of quality health care and regulation of providers of health goods and services.

Vision

A global leader for attaining better health outcomes, competitive and responsive health
care system, and equitable health financing.

Mission

To guarantee equitable, sustainable and quality health for all Filipinos, especially the
poor, and to lead the quest for excellence in health.

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Mandate
 The National Reference Laboratory for Environmental, Occupational Health, Toxicology
and Micronutrient Assay (NRL-EOHTM) is an attached government agency of the East Avenue
Medical Center (EAMC) established in accordance with Department Order No. 393-E s, 2000,
dated November 14, 2000.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)

Is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for promoting

peace and order, ensuring public safety and strengthening local government capability aimed ...

Vision

The Department is primary catalyst for excellence in local governance that nurtures self-
reliant, progressive, orderly, safe and globally competitive communities sustained by God-
centered and empowered citizenry.

Mission

The Department shall promote peace and order, ensure public safety, strengthen
capability of local government units through active people participation and a professionalized
corps of civil servants.

Mandate

The National Reference Laboratory for Environmental, Occupational Health, Toxicology

and Micronutrient Assay (NRL-EOHTM) is an attached government agency of the East Avenue
Medical Center (EAMC) established in accordance with Department Order No. 393-E s, 2000,
dated November 14, 2000.

40