Unit:1

Professional Ethics and Morality

in the East and the West
Prof. Dr. Anis Ahmad*

Prof. Anis is meritorious professor of comparative ethics and religion and Vice
Chancellor, Riphah International University, Islamabad. He is also Editor of Quarterly
Journal West & Islam, Islamabad. He can be contacted at anis.ahmad@riphah.edu.pk
 1 Meaning and Origin of Ethics and Morality

“The term ethics is derived from Greek ethikos, (from ethos),

meaning “custom” or “usage”.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) applied the term to include both idea of
character or disposition, personality and inclination.
 Moralis was introduced by Roman Philosopher Cicero (106-43
BC) who regarded it as the Latin equivalent of Ethics.

W.L Reese, Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western

Thoughts, New Jersey, Humanities press, 1980 p156.
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• Ethics is defined as philosophical study of moral life.

• Ethos refers to totality of conceptions held by a community in relation to

ethics.

• Morals and morality refer to manners observed by a specific community,

reasoned knowledge of what is considered ethical.

• Morals also mean habitual conduct or behavior of a society, moral

sanctions and principles imposed on people in a society.

 J Grooten and G. Jo Steenberger, ed. New Encyclopedia of Philosophy,

Philosophical Library, 1972 New York, p 136, p278.
 3 Professional Ethics
• Every profession, whether highly-sophisticated or less-sophisticated, has
certain norms that are expected to be followed by a practitioner.
• These norms and principles act as ‘religion’ in a profession.
• A physician or a lawyer is expected to maintain secrecy of information
about his patients or clients and offer honest counseling and advice.
• A professional in education is expected to be a learner and communicator
of knowledge and truth.
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• All human actions are either good or not good as such, irrespective of
their outcome.
• Good, evil, right, wrong and other values in the East and the West are
generally considered situational, temporal and ever evolving .
• Ethics may be defined as “ the normative science of the conduct of human
beings living in societies – a science which judges this conduct to be right
or wrong, to be good or bad….”

 William Lille, An Introduction to Ethics, London, Methuen and Co Ltd,

1971, p 1-2
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• A science is defined as a systematic body of knowledge about a particular
set of related events or objects.
*Political science deals systematically with political behavior of a
group of people, governance and political Institutions.
*Medical science deals with systematic study of health and
wellbeing of human beings.
*Ethics as a science provides a systematic body of norms, values,
and principles which help in regulating human conduct in society.
 6 Positive sciences

• Sciences are divided in two general categories.

Positive or descriptive sciences, describe objects and phenomena as we
find them with the help of our sense organs.
*An ophthalmologist inform us about the constitution of our eye
and its health.
*An economist tells us about wealth generation, investment, effects
of inflation on economic development and other related areas.
Non of the descriptive or positive sciences claim to deal beyond their
domain or set of objects and facts.
 7 Normative Sciences
• Another group of sciences deal systematically with observable
conduct and behavior or objects from an axiological or normative
view point.
• These sciences deal with standards, rules or conventions by which we
judge objects, phenomena, conduct or prescriptions, as good or bad,
right and wrong, evil or virtuous.
• Aesthetics for example deals with standards by which we judge and
perceive objects as beautiful or ugly.
• Logic deals with standards by which we judge statements as true or
false, consistent or contradictory and conflicting .
• Ethics deals with standards by which we judge human action to be
right or wrong.
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• Ethics as a normative science judges human conduct and actions as
good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate.
• When good is taken to be key to ethical behavior, this leads to ethical
theory characterized by value fulfillment and right means fulfillment
of a set of obligations towards others.
• Such theories are termed Axiological i.e. stressing value aspect or
teleological, (from Greek telos, (end) Logos (discourse), final cause or
purpose, final goal, purpose, objective or design.
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• When right , good is taken as key obligation and duty, such

theories are termed Deontological (stressing obligation,

imperative).
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• Good and right can be viewed as either objective- independent- existence,
or subjective- standing.
• The former is termed as ethical objective while the later is called ethical
subjective.
• The epistemological question how the good and right are known is
answered by Ethical Naturalist who claim right can be known as natural
objects are known and right can be empirically verified.
• Those who claim good and right can only be known by a special
Intuition are called Ethical Intuitionists.
• Those who think ethical terms do not stand for any thing objective are
called Non-Cognitivists.
• They think ethical judgment stand for emotion, attitudes, proposal and
recommendation.
 11 Ethical perceptions of western philosophers.
 Socrates (470-400BC) viewed ethics as inner principle,
 Plato (428-348 BC) regards good an eternal form to be
realized in human life.
 Aristotle (384-322 BC) holds the goal of life is happiness or
well being, virtue is formed by finding the golden mean.
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 St Augstine (354-430) also considers happiness as universal principle.

 Kant (1724-1804) regards ethical conduct to be categorical Imperative,
observed as a law,(Deontological).
 Bentham (1784-1832) and Mill (1806-1873) consider greatest good for
the greatest number as the goal to be achieved.
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 Westermarck (1880-1943) considered ethical system as a
reflection of social conditions, ethical relativism.
 Sartre (1905-1980) Identifies ethical judgment with authentic
choice.
 Johan Rawls (1921- 2002 ) considers what is just and fair is
also ethically good.
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• The term “good” generally means a thing which is valuable

for some end or purpose. It often refers to an end not a
means. Therefore considered “summum bonum” or supreme
good, ultimate end.
• Building a house, purchase of a car may be an end but not a
supreme good, or summum bonum.
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• Human beings have a variety of ideals, objectives and

purpose of life such as wealth, power, knowledge, love,
serving others, etc.
• Ethics as a normative science offers criteria to make a
cognitive, perceptive judgment in conduct of affairs.
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• Ethics being theoretical implies, that knowledge of ethical principles is
expected to help in good conduct, but not a condition for good conduct.
Its study can not necessarily make men and women pious and virtuous.
• For example a good painter is one who can paint beautifully; a good man
is not one who can, but one who does act rightly. A good painter is good
when he is asleep. A good man is not good when asleep unless it is good to
sleep.
• Goodness is not a “capacity”, or potentiality, but a volitional activity.
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• As a normative science of conduct of human beings, living in

society, ethics judges conduct as right or wrong, good or bad.
• Positive sciences describe objects or phenomenon as we
observe them with our senses. A botanist is not expected to
declare a plant beautiful or ugly, good or bad, but to describe
it as a phenomenon.
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• Ethical judgment involves use of terms, “right” “wrong”,

“moral”, “immoral”, “ought to do”, “should do”, “duty”,
“bad”, “good” and so on.
• But does “goodness” or “righteousness” depend upon their
results? Or circumstances? and situations?
• Ethics as a normative science tries to resolve these and similar
issues.
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• Ethics as a normative study deals with the ideals and

standards of rightness and wrongness, good and evil
involved in human conduct.
• Unlike other focused areas it has a wider scope and domain
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• For example Psychology deals mainly with individual’s cognitive,
emotional behavior in a cultural context. It tries to understand a person’s
personality and its formative phases.
• Human desires, wants and urges in psychology are studied from a
psychological perspective.
• Human desires and wants depend on the world view of a person or
society.
• Ethical norms, in the western and eastern thought are also subject to
social environment.
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• Ethics is organically related with political, social, economic

cultural, educational, legal and communicational domains .
Legitimacy of acquisition and consolidation of power in
politics and monopoly and control of resources in economics
are essentially ethical issues.
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• Desire and wish as terms are used synonymously in psychology,

economy, politics as well as in ethics, Yet there is a difference.
• The term “wish” refers to those desires that continue to be
effective.
• An effective wish may or may not lead to a definite act of will.
• An intention or resolution is more than a wish. It leads to action
or force of will, or power of carrying out an act.
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• Human beings are also members of a group, a family, a nation, a

profession or trade. This effects their deliberate or willful action.
• The true intention corresponds pretty close to the true purpose.
Purpose refers to the mental activity while intention refers to the
“end” toward which the mentioned activity is directed.
• The purpose of a graduate course is to learn while intention is to
achieve the “end” an M.Phil. or a PhD.
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• There may be a difference between immediate and remote

intention of an act.
• X and Y may have immediate intention to save P from
drowning while X may do so simply to save his life, Y may save
him from drowning in order to hang him later
• Remote intention of an act is called a motive.
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• We may also distinguish between “outer” and “inner” intention of an

act.
• The “outer” intention of lifting a man fallen in a ditch may be to help
him come out while the “inner” intention may be to relieve one’s own
mind from the human distress and pain of seeing a person suffer.
• The “outer” intention may be to have “inner peace” through prayer
while the “inner” intention may be to secure a place in paradise.
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• There can be a “conscious” or an “unconscious” intention of an act,
social work may be due to concern for well being of mankind or personal
reputation.
• A formal and material intent may also be different. Two persons may
intend on overthrow a political regime with common material intention.
While formal intention of one may be liberal policy of state while other
may do so because he thinks state is too Conservative. Ethics helps in
judging the ethicality of human conduct and behavior according to
certain agreed norms.
Wama tawfiqi illa billah
wa
Shukran

Thank You

February 16, 2024