This document provides an overview of ethics and ethical decision-making. It defines ethics as a standard for right and wrong behavior that is influenced by factors like upbringing, religion, and culture. The document discusses various approaches to ethics like ethical relativism, different ethical theories, and processes for resolving ethical dilemmas. It also explains the role of values and how value conflicts can arise in ethical situations. The goal is to help readers understand concepts like moral standards, virtues, and ethical reasoning.

1. Chapter 1
Understanding
Ethics
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2. Learning Outcomes
• Define ethics
• Explain the role of values in ethical decision
making
• Understand opposing ethical theories and their
limitations
• Discuss ethical relativism
• Explain an ethical dilemma and apply a process
to resolve it
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3. Ethics
• Manner by which one tries to live one’s life
according to a standard of right or wrong
behavior
• In both how one thinks and behaves toward
others and how one would like them to think
and behave toward others
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4. Ethics (continued)
• Factors that influence ethics
• One's upbringing
• One’s religion
• One's social traditions and beliefs
• Society: Structured community of people
bound together by similar traditions and
customs
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5. Understanding Right and Wrong
• Moral standards - Principles by which
judgments are made about good and bad
behavior based on:
• Religious beliefs
• Cultural beliefs
• Culture: Particular set of attitudes, beliefs, and
practices that characterize a group of individuals
• Philosophical beliefs
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6. Understanding Right and Wrong
(continued)
• Sources of beliefs
• Family and friends
• Ethnic background
• Religion
• School
• Media
• Personal role models and mentors
• Morality - Collection of influences built over a
person’s lifetime
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7. How Should One Live?
• Standards of ethical behavior are absorbed by
osmosis from everyone around
• Ethical behavior can be based on experience of
human existence rather than any abstract
concepts of right and wrong
• Morals and values - Set of personal principles
by which one aims to live one’s life
• Value system: Set of personal principles
formalized into a code of behavior
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8. Value of a Value
• Intrinsic values: Quality by which a value is a
good thing in itself
• Pursued for its own sake, whether anything
comes from that pursuit or not
• Instrumental values: Quality by which the
pursuit of one value is a good way to reach
another value
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9. Value Conflicts
• Impact of a value system on individuals can be
seen in the extent to which their daily lives are
influenced by those values
• Occur when one is presented with a situation
that places one’s value system in direct conflict
with an action
• Personal value system - Specific choices and
responses to a situation by an individual
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10. Doing the Right Thing
• Categories under which individuals classify
ethics
• Simple truth
• Question of someone’s personal integrity as
demonstrated by behavior
• Rules of appropriate individual behavior
• Rules of appropriate behavior for a community
or society
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11. The Golden Rule
• Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you
• Problem with the rule is the assumption that
others would follow the same principles as one
would do
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12. Ethical Theories
• Virtue ethics: Concept of living one’s life
according to a commitment to the achievement
of a clear ideal
• Criticism - Societies can place different
emphasis on different virtues
• Utilitarianism: Ethical choices that offer the
greatest good for the greatest number of
people
• Criticism - Idea that the ends justify the means
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13. Ethical Theories (continued)
• Universal ethics: Actions that are taken out of
duty and obligation to a purely moral ideal
rather than based on the needs of the situation
• Universal principles are seen to apply to
everyone, everywhere, all the time
• Criticism - Reverse of the weakness in ethics for
the greater good
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14. Ethical Relativism
• Concept that the traditions of one’s society,
one’s personal opinions, and the circumstances
of the present moment define one’s ethical
principles
• Implies some degree of flexibility as opposed to
strict black-and-white rules
• Offers the comfort of being a part of the ethical
majority in the community or society
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15. Ethical Dilemmas
• Situations in which there are no obvious right or
wrong decisions, but rather a right or right
answers
• Occur when the decision one must make
requires one to make a right choice knowing full
well that one is:
• Leaving an equally right choice undone
• Likely to suffer something bad as a result of that
choice
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16. Ethical Dilemmas (continued)
• Contradicting a personal ethical principle in
making that choice
• Abandoning an ethical value of one’s
community or society in making that choice
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17. Resolving Ethical Dilemmas
• Sleep-test ethics
• Ethics of intuition
• Individuals should rely on their personal
insights, feelings, and instincts when facing a
difficult problem
• Process for solving an ethical problem
• Analyze the consequences
• Analyze the actions
• Make a decision
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18. Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (continued 1)
• Arthur Dobrin’s questions
• What are the facts?
• What can one guess about the facts one doesn’t
know?
• What do the facts mean?
• What does the problem look like through the
eyes of the people involved?
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19. Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (continued 2)
• What will happen if one chooses one thing
rather than another?
• What does one’s feelings tell oneself?
• What will one think of oneself if one decides
one thing or another?
• Can one explain and justify one’s decision to
others?
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20. Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (continued 3)
• Application of Arthur Dobrin’s model is based
on the following key assumptions:
• Sufficient time is there for the degree of
contemplation that such questions require
• Enough information is available to answer the
questions
• Dilemma presents alternative resolutions for
one to select from
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21. Ethical Reasoning
• Looking at the information available while
resolving an ethical dilemma
• Drawing conclusions based on that information
in relation to one’s own ethical standards
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22. Figure 1.1 - Lawrence Kohlberg’s
Stages of Ethical Reasoning
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