Business Ethics (Supplementary Lecture Notes)
Mr. Joel C. Porras

“Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actios, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, they beconme your destiny.”

ANONYMOUS

Preliminary Notions: A. Etymological: The word ethics comes from the Greek word “ethos” ,meaning : custom, a habitual way of acting character, a meaning that the Latin terms “mos” , “moris” also connote. Among the Greeks , “ethics” meant what concerns human conduct/human action. B. Descriptive: Largely a concern of cultural anthropologists and sociologists. Its task is to describe how some person, members of a culture or society address all sorts of moral issues, what customs they have, and so, how they are accustomed to behave. C. Met-ethics: Concerns itself with the meanings of moral terms: like good and bad, right and wrong, duties and rights, etc. Hence the concern is with the understanding of the use of these terms, their logical forms and the objects to which they refer. Sometimes the concern of meta-ethicist is even more fundamental: What is the possibility of moral philosophy. D. Normative: Ethics is normative, not in the way that logic is, namely. With regard to the correctness of our thinking, but with regard to the goodness of our living, the right orientation of our existence. It is a practical science, not simply because it treats human action, but also because it aims at guiding this. Moralists are not content to describe human conduct: they intend to judge and rectify it. They propose rules and give warning, they provide counsels and issue precepts, so as to make clear to men the path of right living and to help them walk upon it. E. Normative can be understood in two ways: 1. Teleological (Telos) End, Goal, Fulfillment,