Chapter One: Understanding Civics and Ethics

1.1. Defining Civics, Ethics, Morality

1.1. Defining
1.1.1. Civics, Ethics, Morality
Civic Education
1.1.1. Civic Education
Over the years, different terms have been used in deal with the
Over the years, different terms have been used in deal with the
task of developing democratic minded citizens.
task of developing democratic minded citizens.
The subject assumed different names and purposes depending on
The subject assumed different names and purposes depending on
countries‘ ideologies and thus the definition of the discipline vary
countries‘ ideologies and thus the definition of the discipline vary
across States.
across States.
Terms such as Right Education (in South Africa), Citizenship
Terms such as Right Education (in South Africa), Citizenship
Education (in United States of America and Germany),
Education (in United States of America and Germany),
Citizenship and Character Education (in Singapore), Civics and
Citizenship and Character Education (in Singapore), Civics and
Ethical Education (in Ethiopia) are just a few examples.
Ethical Education (in Ethiopia) are just a few examples.
The term civics relates to citizenship education
 Citizens are political member of a state. Therefore,
simply, civics means a study about citizenship, or it can
be called citizenship education.
Primarily, it teaches rights and duties of citizens but not
limited to it.
It addresses much broader issues such as values of
democracy, the concept of state, government,
citizenship, etc.
Rights and duties co-exist as two sides of a coin.
Cont…

Citizens have rights to get from their state and

duties to pay to their state and vice versa.
Example, the state has duties to ensure law and
order, protect social security, and provision of
basic public services and this is civic rights of
citizens. Citizens in turn have duties to observe rule
and regulations, pay tax, respond to the national
calls for defense, etc.
Cont…
Civics teaches democratic culture such as supremacy of
constitution, the rule of law, rights and duties of citizens
Aims at producing self-confident citizens who decide on
issues based on reason/ rational thinking
Teaches about issues of fostering nested
identities/pluralism/ unity in diversity, inclusiveness, and
equity, peace-building
Sources of civic education include: social source such as
schools; documentary source: such as constitution; and
theoretical source: field of studies as philosophy, political
science, history, law, etc.
This shows that civics is interdisciplinary subject that
borrows theories and concepts from multiple sources
1.2. The Definition and Nature of Ethics and Morality

 Ethics is a branch of philosophy that attempts to understand people‘s moral

beliefs and actions

 Ethics‘ described the process of thinking about people‘s morality.

 It refers theories about what human beings are capable of doing, alongside
accounts of what they ought to do if they are to live an ethically good life.

 It explores the meaning ethical values, such as honesty, autonomy, equality

and justice.

 Ethical questions are not concerned with what one would do (an essentially
psychological concern) but what one ought to do.

 Judgments about ethical decisions are expressed with words like right and
wrong, should and ought, or obligation and duty.
Cont…

 Occasionally the term ethics is used interchangeably with

morals.

 Although this is acceptable, a precise usage would apply the

term‘s morals and moral to the conduct itself, while the terms
ethics and ethical would refer to the study of moral conduct or to
the code that one follows.

 Thus, the specific act of telling the caller you were home could
be described as moral or immoral. But what makes any act moral
or immoral, right or wrong fall within the province of ethics.
 moral problems refer to specific problems, such as ―Is lying
ever right?‖ or ―Is stealing always wrong?
 ethical problems as being more general and theoretical.
 Thus, ―what makes any act, such as lying or stealing, right or
wrong?‖ and ―what makes any entity good?‖ are ethical
problems.
 In short, morality refers to the degree to which an action
conforms to a standard or norm of human conduct.
 Ethics refers to the philosophical study of values and of what
constitute good and bad human conduct.
Cont…
Generally, ethics is:

 Critical examination and evaluation of what is good,

evil,right and wrong in human conduct
 A specific set of principles, values and guidelines for a
particular group or organization
 The study of goodness, right action and moral responsibility;
it asks what choices and ends we ought to pursue and what
moral principles should govern our pursuits and choices.
What is Morality?

Morality refers to the concept of human action which pertains to

matters of right and wrong.
It is a code of conduct in a society, or within a subgroup of society.

Morality is an effort to guide one‘s conduct by reason that is, to do

what there are the best reasons for doing while giving equal weight
to the interest of each individual who will be affected by one‘s
conduct.
A common goal to ensure harmony and integrity.

character of individuals and community.

Ethics Morality

Norm of human conduct and it is  Code of conduct one follows while

more theoretical and general one. ethics is the study of moral conduct or
the study of the code that one follows

 Ethics establish the standards, norms, or  Is the conformity of human behavior to the
codes to be followed by human beings are established code of conduct .If an action
the study of morality, moral principles, and conform to the established code, it is called
moral decision making. moral ,if not immoral

 Is the development of reasonable standards  Refers to the effort to guide one‘s conduct
and procedures for ethical decision-making by reason while giving equal weight to the
interests of each individual who will be
affected by one‘s conduct

 Set of normative rules of conduct that  Has to do with what one should do, all
govern what one ought to do when the well- things considered, not what, in fact, any of
being, or duties to oneself, others or us will so in a particular instance
institutions is at stake.
 The Importance/Goal of Moral and Civic Education

 Civics and ethics/moral education is given with the aim of

educating students about democratic culture, ethical values and

principles, supremacy of constitution, the rule of law, rights

and duties of citizens.

 It is also aimed at creating a generation who has the capability

to shoulder family and national responsibility.

 These elements are imperative in the process of producing self-

confident citizens who decides on issues based on reason.

Cont…
 Generally, the necessity of delivering the course
moral and civic education emanates from:
I. The need to instill citizens about their rights
and duties
II. The Need for Participant Political Culture
III.The Need for Relevant Knowledge, Skills and
Positive Attitudes
IV. The issue of fostering intercultural societies
V. The issue of peace-building
Chapter Two
Approaches or Contending Theories of Ethics

There are three Branches of Ethics namely, normative,

non-normative and applied ethics
2.1. Non-Normative Ethics
It consists the fields of Descriptive and metaethics
I. Descriptive non-normative ethics: Scientific and
factual investigation of moral behavior/Ethics.
It concerned with how people do in fact behave.
Concerned on how moral attitudes and codes differ from
society to society, investigating and describing the
values and behaviors of different societies.
II. Meta Ethics
 It is a highly technical discipline investigating the meaning
of ethical terms
 It is a critical study of how ethical statements can be
verified.
 It is concerned with the meanings of such ethical terms as
right, wrong and good, bad. Vice, virtue etc.
2.2. Applied ethics
 Refers to the practical application of moral considerations.

 Applied ethics is a branch of ethics devoted to the treatment of moral

problems, practices, and policies in personal life, professions, technology,
and government.
 Deals with difficult moral questions and controversial moral issues that
people actually face in their lives.
Examples: the moral issues regarding…
 Abortion
 Euthanasia

 Death penalty

 Gay/lesbian marriage (or other rights) etc.

2.3. Normative Ethics

 Normative ethics involves an attempt to determine precisely what

moral standards to follow so that our actions may be morally right or
good, bad or wrong.
 Justify one’s action and decision as moral or immoral/good or bad
 Tries to guide us in the making of decisions and judgments about
actions in particular situations
 Offers theories or accounts of the best way to live.
 These theories evaluate actions in a systematic way, i.e., they may
focus on outcomes or duties or motivation as a means of justifying
human conduct.
Continue…

 Normative ethics poses questions of the following kind:

 Are there general principles or rules that we could follow which

distinguish between right and wrong? Or

 Are there virtues and/or relationships that we can nurture, in order to

behave well?
 1. Teleological Ethics (Consequentialist)
 Teleological theories maintain that the morality of an action
depends on the consequences that the action brings about.
 The comparative amount of good produced, or the
comparative balance of good produced over evil is what
justifies an act as good or bad/ moral or immoral.
 One may have the best intention or follow the highest moral
principles but if the result of the moral act is harmful, or
bad, it must be judged as morally or ethically wrong act.
 Teleologists differ on the question of whose good it is that
one ought to try to promote: Egoism, Utilitarianism and
Altruism
A. Egoism is concerned with the best consequences for self,.
 Egoism holds that one is always to do what will promote his
own greatest good -- that an act or rule of action is right if
and only if it promotes at least as great a balance of good
over evil for him in the long run as any alternative would,
and wrong if it does not.
B. Utilitarianism 

 The ethical doctrine that an action is right if, and only if, it promotes
the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
 utilitarianism with the best consequences for the majority
 It has often been the basis of legislative and judicial advances, social
reforms, welfare movements, and egalitarian ideals.
 Identified with the English philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John
Stuart Mill
Act- And Rule-Utilitarianism

 Two classical types of utilitarianism:

– act- and rule-utilitarianism

 Act-utilitarians- In applying the principle of utility, act-

utilitarians, such as Bentham, argues that an act is right

if and only if it results in as much good as any available

alternative.

 Measures the consequences of a single act.

 Rule-utilitarianism: measures the consequences of

the act repeated over and over again through time as

if it were to be followed as a rule whenever similar
circumstances arise.
C. Altruism

 In altruism an action is right if the consequences of that

action are favorable to all except the actor.
 promotes and prioritizes other people‘s interests ahead of
one’s own
 Puts others interest first over one’s own interest. Ethical
altruists promote selflessness
 This view is called psychological altruism and maintains
that at least some of our actions are motivated by instinctive
benevolence.
 2. Deontological (Non-Consequentialist) Ethics
 This is a theory that the rightness or wrongness of moral action
is determined, at least partly with reference to formal rules of
conduct rather than consequences or result of an action.
 It is an emphasis on the intentions, motives, moral principles or
performance of duty rather than results, as the sign of right
action/morality and immorality.
 It is a duty based and according to this theory, the consequences
or results of our action have nothing to do with their rightness or
wrongness.
 It is guided by the principle of the “means justifies the end.”
The name of the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant

(1724-1804) is identified with the moral theory known as

deontology.

For deontologists, it is not the consequence which determine

the rightness or wrongness of an action, but, rather, the

intention of the person who carries out the action.

The consequences or results of our action have nothing to do

with rightness or wrongness of moral action.

3. Virtue ethics
 It is an aspect of normative ethics which justifies an
act looking at the agent/doer of the act/ rather than
the act itself.
 If the doer of the act has moral virtue, then the act is
also judged as moral. But if the person taking the act
is without moral virtue, then the act wouldn’t be
taken as moral.
• Under normative ethics there are two major ethical
perspectives about moral judgement . These are:
Ethical relativism vs. Ethical universalism
A. Ethical relativism holds the view that:
• morality is relative that varies from culture to culture
or even from individual person to person
• Ethical relativism has two sub-branches: cultural
relativism vs. ethical subjectivism
Cultural relativism- morality differ from culture to
culture based on differences in cultural values/norms.
• Morality not only differs from culture to culture but
may also change within a culture over time. \.
• There are no universal moral values by which we
measure the rightness or wrongness of a societal or
personal beliefs/actions.
• Ethical relativism, particularly cultural relativism
can be considered as the foundation of
multiculturalism, which is part of its strength.
Ethical subjectivism- morality differ from person to
person based on personal belief, opinion, and
feelings.
B. Ethical Universalism

• This view believes that moral principles exist

independently of cultural context of societies.
• That is, it assumes that moral values and principles
are not culture specific, rather they transcend across
societies.
• Hence, it is reasonable to identify such absolute
moral rules—in guiding human beings moral
conduct—as not to kill, not to steal, not to harm
human beings, but to respect and treat human
beings with dignity, not lying, etc.
Other important variety of ethics

The Divine Command Theory

Ethical principles are simply the commands of God.

They derive their validity from God’s commanding

them, and they mean “commanded by God.”

Without God, there would be no universally valid

morality.
B. Rights Theory
 A second duty-based approach to ethics is rights theory.
Most generally, a "right" is a justified claim against another
person's behavior - such as my right to not be harmed by
you.
 Rights and duties are related in such a way that the rights of
one person imply the duties of another person. For example,
if I have a right to payment of $10 by Smith, then Smith has
a duty to pay me $10. The correlativity of rights and duties.
 John Locke argued that the laws of nature mandate that we
should not harm anyone's life, health, liberty or
possessions.
 For Locke, these are our natural rights, given to us by God.
 There are four features traditionally associated with moral
rights.
First, rights are natural insofar as they are not invented
or created by governments.
Second, they are universal insofar as they do not change
from country to country.
Third, they are equal in the sense that rights are the same
for all people, irrespective of gender, race, or handicap.
Fourth, they are inalienable which means that I cannot
hand over my rights to another person, such as by selling
myself into slavery.
C. Kant’s Categorical Imperative
 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is identified with the moral
theory known as deontology
 Deontologists maintain that there are some moral
obligations which are absolutely binding, no matter
what consequences are produced.
 a categorical imperative simply mandates an action,
irrespective of one’s personal desires, such as “You
ought to do X.”
 Kant believed that nothing was good in itself except
a “good will.” Intelligence, judgment and all other
facets of the human personality are perhaps good
and desirable, but only if the will that makes use of
them is good.
 Kant’s categorical imperative states that we should
act in such a way that the maxim or general rule
governing our action could be a universal law.
D. W. D. Ross: Ross’s Prima Facie Duties
 The term prima facie means “at a first sight” or “on the
surface.”
 This theory of ethics is applied when human beings have
faced two conflicting duties simultaneously but they do not
have the capacity to perform the two at the same time. In this
case, human beings can choose one duty which has a strong
prima facie over the other.
 This theory of ethics is often in a position to mediate between
the ethical views of deontological and teleological ethics.
Ross’s list the categories of prima facie duties

• Duties of Fidelity: the duty to keep promises and the

obligation not to lie.

• Duties of Reparation: This is a duty to make up for the

injuries one has done to others.

• Duties of Gratitude: the duty to thank those who help us.

• Duties of Justice: The duty of justice requires that one act

in such a way that one distributes benefits and burdens
fairly.
 Duties of Beneficence: the duty to improve the
conditions of others. "rests upon the fact that there are
other beings in the world whose condition we can
make better in respect of virtue, or of intelligence, or
of pleasure.“
 Duties of Self-improvement: The duty of self-
improvement is to act so as to promote one’s own
good, i.e., one’s own health, security, wisdom, moral
goodness, virtue, intelligence and happiness.
• Duties of Non-maleficence: The duty of non-injury
(also known as non-maleficence) is the duty not to
harm others physically or psychologically: to avoid
harming their health, security, intelligence,
character, or happiness.
• .
Development ethics
• Development ethics is a field of enquiry that deals
with the ends and means of national, regional and
global development.
• In other words, it deals with the moral status of
development.
• What is good or ‘real’ development? What is the
good life which development policy should seek to
facilitate, what really are benefits? How are those
benefits and corresponding costs to be shared within
the present and the next generation?
Environment ethics
 mainly relates to the duty of human beings toward
the environment.
• It also deals with how science and technology are
responsible for today’s environmental crises.
• There are two contending views concerning the moral
status of human being and the environment:
• A. Anthropocentrism (Anthropocentric View): it
focuses on the utility and function of the environment
to human well-being.
• Scholars in this category advise to use natural
resources properly to fulfill the existing and future
needs and demands of human generation.
• In this respect, Aristotle stated that “nature has made
all things specifically for the sake of man”. The
statement clearly indicates the instrumental value of
environment to human beings.
B. Biocentrism (Bio-centric View)
 It endorses a view that all living things are alike in
having value in their own right independent of their
usefulness to others.
 Scholars in this tradition reject anthropocentrism in
that it does not value all living creatures equally.
 The contemporary environmental ethicists believe
that the current environmental crisis relates to
climate change and its disastrous consequences are
happening due to the mismanagement of natural
resources.
Cont…
The major principles of environmental ethics that address
the global environmental problems are the following:
• Duty for Future Generation: save resources to care for the
future generation.
• Duty to Limit Over-consumption: limit in the production
and consumption pattern of resources.
• Right to Livable Environment: Every human being has
iright to live in clean environment
• The Polluter Pays Principles: holds that those developed
countries that affect the global environment by their
numerous and huge industries—through the ejection of
CO2 in to the atmosphere—need to pay the cost and value
in proportion to the damage they made.
Professional Ethics
Profession refers to a paid occupation, especially one that
requires advanced education and training skills.
Professional ethics is concerned with moral obligations and
responsibilities expected from office holders and professionals.
It deals with the specific as well as general guideline principles
that should be followed and exhibited by every professionals
and/or office holders. Accordingly, the basic
standards/principles of professional ethics are the following:
• Impartiality
• Transparency/Openness
• Confidentiality
• Due Diligence/Hardworking, and
• Avoiding Potential (Apparent) Conflict of Interest.
List of the FDRE Public Service professional ethics
• Accountability- answerable for the decisions and actions made
• Transparency- openness in the process of carrying out tasks
• Confidentiality- the condition of keeping secret/privacy of the
client
• Honesty- the quality or fact of being sincere
• Impartiality -being and becoming objective/unbiased
• Respecting the Law/Rule of Law- the condition of obeying and
working with respect to the law
• Responsiveness- serving the legitimate interests and needs of the
public at large
• Exercising Leadership- being and becoming a role model by
exercising legitimate authority.
• Integrity- the quality of being uprightness and trustworthy
• Loyalty- the condition of faithfulness