STUDY of ETHICS

the study of ethics, one must be well informed, must think carefully,
to additional information and insights.
home with utilitarian approach.
fundamentally concerned with evaluating past actions, assessing guilt
attaching blame or credit.
interested in guidance for decision making.
with helping people answer the question WHY.
and right thing for me to do?
concerned with making value judgements.
implies regularity, dependability and predictability.
likely in terms of certainties.

To do good work in
and must be open
- Is entirely at
- Is not
or innocence or
- It is primarily
- It is concerned
- What is good
- One is
The very term order
Social order less
Discipline of
- Require the use of
Natural/Social
- Share concern for
- Both deal with

ETHICS
-

Is a systematic,
evaluation is
- Ethics does not
WHY
CHRISTIAN
- is the critical
- Stands within the
CHRISTIAN
-shares some beliefs

Psychology and sociology

H scientific methods different from physical sciences.

Sciences

R an accurate description of what exists.

I
S
T
I
A

objective reality.

critical study concerned with the evaluation of human conduct.

oriented toward the future.
stand on its own feet, but rather is based upon philosophy.
determined by ones basic view of life.
ETHICS
evaluation of human conduct from a Christian perspective.
Christian faith and makes Christian assumptions about human nature.

N
with adherents of other religions and some non religious ethicists.

CHRISTIAN Faithgeneralizations which

reach about a proposed

defines the motives from which the Christian ethicists act, the
they may make about value and duty and the conclusions which they
course of action.

Morality is used
Ethics and Morals
Ethics has to do with
Morality has to do
Value means worth,

freely in discussions of ethics.

are often used interchangeably.
theory.
with specific actions.
importance.

Teleological approach
- Achievement of a
concerned with
- Duty is derived
Duty refers to n
station
in
life.
Responsibility

the self.
Satisfaction comes
sense
of
Deontological

E
T

H certain desirable goals

I
C
S

movement toward an ultimate objective.

from value- we ought to do what helps attain the goal.
obligation that is based on a relationship or that result from ones
Closely related with responsibility.
implies an action prompted by a sense of loyalty to something outside
from doing ones duty- the good life is the life of response to the inner
compulsion.

-Response to a certain

fundamental relationship.

norms or standards.

Concerned with

Essence of Ethics
Nature of EthicsASSUMPTIONS of
1) Study of Ethics
Christian Ethics
(Different
2) Study of Ethics
independent of
(Patterns, Cause &
3) Human Beings
(Honest and
4) Freedom of the will
(With restrictions, o one
5) The
( having a decision

making of value judgments

prescriptive rather than descriptive.
ETHICS:
is based upon a world view and that the world view upon which
is based is the Christian Faith.
understanding of value & duty, right & wrong, good & bad.)
is that there is an orderliness within the universe that is
our knowledge of it.
effect, predictions, consistency of norms)
can know somethings about that orderliness.
Disciplined scientific invest)
assumes to be totally free)
responsibility of the individual.
one must live with it)

JOHN HOSPERS
- Ethics is concerned
upon them
Problems/Difficulty
1. There is no consensus
2. One encounters in the
are simple, clear-cut
3. Difficulty troubles people
4. Difficulty complicates
CHAPTER 2
Alternatives to Christian
1. Humanism
2. Objectivism
3. Behaviorism
4. Self- Realization
5. Marxism

S to find the truth about these moral questions, not to try to make us act

1. HUMANISM

on the nature of good/bad,right/wrong,value/duty.

T effort to develop a pattern of right conduct is the fact that few problems

choices between right and wrong.

in the making of certain intensely personal decisions.
efforts to make moral decisions.
Ethics

-Most important of all

-Approach to moral issues
- Emphasis on centrality of

current alternatives to C.E.

affirms that our basic obligation is to the human race-HUMANITY.
persons, possibilities of human achievement

MORRIS B STORER is
set aside faith in revelation

an excellent representatives of secular humanism.(persons who have

and dogmatic authority).

PAUL KURTZ
1. Based primarily upon
2. Committed to the use of
solving problems; and
3. An ethical philosophy;

characterize humanism as:

science.
critical intelligence and rational inquiry in understanding the world and

MANIFESTO- defines
significant.(Item 7).
-(Item 5) Makes

E
T

H religion as those actions, purposes and experiences which are humanly

I
C

unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values.

Humanism committed to a high moral ideal of respect for the person, of individual responsibility and of
the establishment of a social order that operates for the benefit of all people.
- Focuses upon humankind as central in the universe.
MAX HOCUTT
- give consideration to the needs and interest of other- not because doing so is right accdng to some
transcendent standards of morality laid down but becoz doing so cannot be avoided.

2. OBJECTIVISM
- One;s primary obligation is to oneself.
- basis for decisions on moral issues is the effect of an action upon oneself.
RAND attacks ALTRUISM- one way or another is a central element in most traditional ethical systems.

3. BEHAVIORISM
-

Way of thinking which conceives of human behavior not as a matter of free choice but one of
conditioning.
Understanding of human nature, and as such it has profound implications for the study of ethics.
Sees human activity as reaction more than response.
B.F. SKINNER study of psychology
J.B. WATSON study of psychologists was not mental processes but human behavior.

4. Self-Realization
- conceives of the highest good in life; and therefore of the right, in terms of the harmonious development
of the normal capacities of human nature. Concerned with an understanding of human nature.
CHARLES M PATTERSON
- List 5 characteristics of the self;
1. It is both mind and body, which interact with each other.
2. It desires and that desiring quality makes progress possible;
3. It is social, needing interaction with other selves;
4. It seeks to know, and what it learns then becomes a part of the self; and
5. It is moved by ideals.

HAROLD TITUS and MORRIS KEETON the unique and distinctive qualities of selfhood:
1. Self-Consciousness;
2. Abstract thought or the power of reflective thinking
3. Ethical discrimination and some freedom of choice;
4. Aesthetic appreciation;
5. Religious aspiration and commitment
6. Transcendence of particular, conditions of time and space
7. Development fulfilled through community living; and
8. Unique powers of creativity
HAROLD TITUS and MORRIS KEETON
moral guidelines:
1. Action is right if it leads to physical, intellectual and spiritual development or to a more
harmonious personal and social life;
2. The right choice is the selection of the greater or greatest value; and
3. The good life depends on the nature of man, as well as on the nature of the world in which man
lives.
TITUS and KEETON 4 principles which persons might choose between conflicting values:
1. Seek the greater of two alternative values;
2. Select a value that has worth in itself over one that has instrumental worth only;

3. Choose the more productive of two otherwise equivalent values;

4. Choose the more permanent or lasting values, other things being equal.
Tentative list of human rights which they consider fundamental:

1. Health;
2. Education;
3. Freedom;
4. Work and a living wage;
5. Security;
6. Love and a home;
7. Recreation and leisure;
8. A share in controlling the conditions of life
9. A share in the cultural heritage
10. Worship

5. MARXISM
-

Dominated the large portion of the world.

Basic concepts of modern communism.

KARL MARX born in Germany in 1918 to Jewish parents(converted to Lutheranism)

- Education, Universities of Bonn and Berlin.
Five stages of HISTORY:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

There was a primitive communism in which all property was held in common rather than individually;
The development of the concept of private property resulted in the aristocratic-slave system;
Serfs replaced slaves in the military-feudal era;
The factory system resulted in the rise of capitalism; and
The end of the class conflict which characterized stages, two, three, and four will come and an era of
freedom, equality and abundance will be instituted when capitalism is destroyed and communism is
restored.
ALIENATION to be the basic human problem in capitalistic society:
1. The worker is alienated from himself because he is not seen as human being but as an instrument
whose labor exists outside himself, and alien to him.
2. Capitalism alienated the worker from the product.
3. Capitalism estranges human beings from