Jeremias F. Buraga

Authors:  Jensen DG. Mañebog, Mark Joseph T. Calano, Jeremias F. Buraga, Rafael Y. Paragas

HAVING A SENSE of morality is one of the things that differentiates us from animals. By nature, we are sincerely concerned with what is right and what is wrong in human behavior. Unlike animals, we care about living out ethical principles.

Since we can elicit abstract concepts such as truth, righteousness, and goodness, reflection about morality has been an essential element of human civilizations. Around the world, people ask basic moral questions such as, “What is the good?” “What makes a life a good life?” “What are the virtues of a human being?” and “What duties do we have to each other?”

A course in Ethics is thus undoubtedly fundamental and necessary. The subject significantly helps in endorsing valuable moral and social values like cooperation, social responsibility, respect for human rights, compliance with the law, and peace preservation. As Ethics calls for rational and righteous living, it encourages making good choices and living a purposeful and meaningful life.

ETHICS: A Critical Evaluation of Moral Philosophies was written to serve as a comprehensive introduction to the study of morality and ethical evaluation. It humbly aims to help the readers develop a conscious ethical sense and become critical in choosing a moral philosophy to live by.

Some Features of this Book:

This book possesses various features that make it an effective tool for both instructor and students:

1. Written in module form. Each lecture comes with other important elements like objectives, discussions, activities, self-tests, and others which make each module a holistic learning package.
2. Compatible with distance/online education program. Having ample experience in teaching under distance learning program, the authors also designed this book for online students. Modular in form, the book is self-taught so students can also advance at their own pace. Online students' responses to activities, self-tests and discussions may be sent to their respective professors through e-mail.
3. Uniquely filled with analyses. Unlike many Ethics books, its modules do not only present and explain the various moral philosophies but also critically evaluate them by deeply examining them in detail.
4. Advocates e-learning and blended learning. When adopted by professors, many instructions under Activities will allow students to further learn from additional online lectures which were already screened and filtered by the authors. Some activities are even programmed to let the students experience engaging in intellectual discussions with other people anywhere in the world online.

To the Professors:

If used creatively, this book could also integrate the development of thinking abilities with the four language skills so crucial to success in college and careers: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Through thought-provoking readings, writing assignments (answering questions in the 'discussions,' reaction papers, and essays), and discussion exercises, students can improve their language skills.

Each module is purposely designed to comprise the following parts:

1. A set of specific objectives which allows readers to anticipate the concepts, principles or skills they will learn in the module.
2. The lecture proper which presents and discusses in details the topics.
3. The analysis part where the critical evaluation and appraisal of the ethical theory could be read.
4. Discussions which contain questions and guide topics professors can use during lectures, or for recitation and evaluation. These lead the students to further internalize the subject matter.
5. Activities which provide students with means through which they can further internalize the topic or experience how the concepts can be applied. These can also serve as pre-lecture or post-lecture homework, or classroom task when the professor could not attend class.
6. Self-tests which measure how well the students comprehend the lecture. Professors may use them for evaluation (quiz, pre-test, etc.).
7. Professors under distance learning program may supplement this book, for instance, by providing a calendar of deadlines on which online students have to submit their responses (answers to self-test, reactions to discussions, products for activities, etc.).
8. Ultimately, professors arc free to treat each module either as a self-contained unit or as a launch pad to other teaching-learning processes.
9. To the Students:

• This book is designed to help you become knowledgeable and critical about various moral theories. Hopefully, this could also help you become better in reasoning skill, a quality which you can subsequently apply to your other academic subjects and various facets of life. The lectures, moreover, call for you to provide context for the topics by eventually considering them in forming or modifying your personal beliefs and principles.
• To online students, you should treat this book as your personal tutor. By dedicatedly reading the lectures and faithfully accomplishing all the things required by your assigned professor, you can teach yourself the necessary knowledge and skills related to Ethics. Remember that those competencies cannot be acquired by unintelligently subscribing to 'cut-and-paste' malpractice in accomplishing your tasks and assignments.
• To all students, if you wish to benefit much from this Ethics book, you should be ready to dedicate as much time as necessary. Taking this book seriously will help you transform into an intellectually mature, creative, and responsible moral person.