What Is Ethics

1. What is ethics? What is morality? Ethics is the philosophical study of morality. Morality refers to the belief of right and wrong, good and bad, beliefs that can include judgments, values, rules, principles and theories. 2. In what ways are we forced to do ethics? What is at stake in these deliberations? A person is forced to do ethics every time they exam any feeling, choice, or action concerning right or wrong. The thing that is at stake when doing ethics is a person’s values. 3. What is the unfortunate result of accepting moral beliefs without questioning them? Some of the unfortunate results of accepting moral beliefs without questioning them are it undermines your personal freedom meaning if you just accept belief from someone else without thinking about them they are not truly your beliefs. Another result of blindly accepting belief of someone else is when asked to defend these beliefs the person may have no sound argument to back it up. Finally it limits intellectual moral growth. 4. Can our feelings be our sole guide to morality? Why or why not? Feelings should not be sole guide to morality because by solely following feelings a person is not critically examining the problem. 5. What is descriptive ethics? In this field, what do researchers study? Descriptive ethics is the moral study of belief and practices. Researchers in this field try to explain how people actually behave and think. 6. What is normative ethics? Applied ethics? Normative ethics is the study of principles, rules, or theories that guide our actions and judgments. Applied ethics is application of moral norms applied to a specific moral issue. . What is metaethics? What is the difference between normative ethics and metaethics? Metaethics is the study of the meaning and logical structure of moral beliefs. Normative ethics job is to assume certain things about the meaning of moral terms and the logic relation among them but the job of meteethics is to question all assumptions. 8. What is the difference between judgments of value and judgments of obligation? Ju dgments of value judges what is morality good, bad, blameworthy, and praiseworthy. While judgments of obligation deal with actions and things a person feels what they should do. 9. What is the difference between moral and nonmoral value? Moral Value refer to value in the sense of morality while nonmortal value refers sense of good and bad that are not morality bad or good but rather quality. 10. What is the difference between instrumental value and intrinsic value? Instrumental values are things that are valuable as a means to something else. While intrinsic values are things that are valuable for its own sake. 11. To what does the â€Å"preeminence of reason† refer? The preeminence of reason refers to being able to critically think and logically argue a claim. 12. What is the principle of universalizability? The principle of universalizability states that if a moral statement applies to one situation it must apply to relatively similar moral situations 13. What is the relationship between morality and religion? The relationship between morality and religion is very important because same way critical reason is used to exam moral norms it can be used to exam religion. What is Ethics? Ethics are standards that differentiate right and wrong and how people should conduct themselves. Ethics refer to standards that would prevent someone from doing something wrong, like murder for example. Is it ethical to commit murder? Society has deemed murder as an unacceptable. In the same way ethics help to determine what are appropriate behavior at home, school, and the work place. How we interact with others can be considered ethical, treating others with respect, hospitality, sharing, and helping others in need would be considered good ethical behavior. Ethical standards also include virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. The Virtue Theory The virtue theory deals with the individual, the expectation is to â€Å"cultivate excellence in all that you do and all that others do (Boylan, 2009). † It deals with the character of an individual. Qualities of a virtuous person would be considered an upstanding, trustworthy, dependable, and honest. In contrast an unethical person would be selfish, unreliable, devious, or careless. People are characterized as â€Å"good† or â€Å"bad† or a combination of both, it does not leave room for a good person to make a bad choice. Once a person commits an unacceptable act, he or she may be branded as a bad person even if they have high morals and ethics instead of a good person who made a bad decision. An example of this would be of a person who drinks and drives. This is bad choice and the consequences of this choice can lead to accidents and death, but does this mean that this is a bad person? More than likely there would be no negative consequence unless the person is caught or there is an accident causing physical or property damage. The Utilitarianism Theory Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that places right and wrong on the consequence of the action that will be for â€Å"the greatest good for the greatest number† (Boylan, p. 133, 2009). The utilitarianism moves from the individual’s interest and takes into account the interest of others. An example of this would be when a team member knows that another person is a better fit for a job and steps down so that person can take the lead, which would benefit the whole team in the process. An example of this that comes to mind is: during the plot to kill Jesus, John 11:49-50 â€Å"Caiaphas, being high priest that year, spoke up, you know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man should die for the people than the whole nation perish. † This is an example of the sacrifice of one to benefit the whole group or nation† (â€Å"Caiaphas – High Priest Of The Jerusalem Temple†). The Deontological Theory Deontological theory questions right and wrong by action instead of consequences. It is considered to be wrong when the action intentionally harms others. The deontological approach defines ethics as either right or wrong, there is little or no middle ground for exceptions (â€Å"Deontology Ethics,† 2008). With the utilitarianism theory it is acceptable to lie if it is to prevent hurting a person, with the deontological theory it is wrong to lie because it is a lie. Conclusion The similarities between the ethics theories concern the idea of right and wrong, and good and bad. The differences constitute on how they interpret right from wrong, and good from bad. With the virtue theory deals with the individual, whereas the utilitarianism focus on the group where actions are right when they provide the greatest good to the largest group. The deontology determines rightness by actions not the consequences; deontology is more of an absolute, stealing is wrong, lying is wrong, and murder is wrong, anything that causes harm to another person. All three theories have a place in present society and are used interactively without conscious effort. From a young age people are taught right from wrong from parents, teachers, church, and other people they come in contact with. What Is Ethics? Ethics is not equivalent to feelings. We feel on whether a certain thing is right or wrong. Feelings actively affect our daily choices. It may sometimes prevent us from making the right ethical choices. [Peter Zafirides, 2012]. Some may feel remorse when an unethical deed is done. This can be mainly attributed to persons’ different needs and desires. In 1992, Dr. Cox, a 70 year old, with a lethal injection of potassium chloride had what rheumatologists’ described as the worst case of rheumatoid arthritis ever seen. Conventional medicine was unable to relieve her pain and repeatedly requested to die. The Independent, 1992]. In that case, Dr. Cox was charged with attempted murder. It may seem to some people that it is ethically and morally â€Å"alright† to end a persons’ suffering and misery by taking his/her life, if requested. However it is unethical to end a persons’ life for whatever the reason so. Hence, an ethical standard cannot be judged by feelings alone. Ethics is not religion as well. Many people are religious but not all are ethical. The same applies to people who are not religious are not necessarily ethical as well. However, most religions do practice an ethical code of conduct. Faith in religion does not require ethics but ethical principles apply to everyone. For example, during the 9/11 incident, what happened a decade ago was raging a â€Å"holy war† against the Americans and other western democratic nations in the name of their religion. Although the Islamic religion advocated good ethical standards, some deviate from the path and become corrupted, even in the name of their religion. Al Qaeda and the leader had taken the religion to its extreme. [Scholastic; Natalie, no date] A law abiding person may not necessarily be ethical. Although the law does embody high ethical standards generally accepted by the public, it may easily deviate from ethics as well. The law may become ethically corrupt under totalitarian regimes and turn it into a form of power to serve the interest of certain people or groups. For example, abortion is made legal in certain states and countries. Like China, where abortion is not a criminal offence but in turn is available on request by the patient and is even done by the government as a public service. Furthermore they are able to receive 2 weeks to a month of sick paid leave for abortion. [Act Now AU 2008][UN Abortion Policy, no date]. It may have been made legal by the law but that does not mean it is ethical to do so, unless in certain situation, it may affect maternal health or life. In Malaysia, an abortion is legal when there is risk of life or threat of injury to the pregnant woman. [WAO, 2011] Ethics is also not parallel to socially and culturally accepted norm. Although many cultures are ethical, some are very corrupted and even blind to ethical concerns. One good example would be the Netherlands Drug Law and Cultures. In the Netherlands weed or pot (common name of the drug marijuana/cannabis) is openly traded and consumed every day. There are even specific places (the coffee shops) in the Netherlands where they specifically cater to drug consumption. [Mark Owoll, 2000] Although it is widely accepted culturally, socially and legally in Netherlands, it is still unethical to consume cannabis/marijuana as it does harm to ones’ body through lung diseases, heart diseases, weakened immune system and many more and it is unethical to do harm to oneself. [WebMD, no date] Ethics is not a science as well. Ethics is not based off accurate calculation and scientific formulas and most certainly is unable to certainly predict the correct action to every ethical issue. However, social science and natural science are able to aid in making a better ethical decision. Science may provide the explanation but ethics provide the reason as to how we should act. For example, Cheryl, a mother of one and was pregnant with another at that time, was diagnosed with cancer while she was pregnant. Science had given her the option to have an abortion, and then proceed with chemotherapy or continue without chemotherapy and save the baby, but endangering her own life. Cheryl then decided to have the baby and died shortly after giving birth to her second child in an emergency caesarean birth.