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1
B.V.M. ENGINEERING COLLEGE, V.V.NAGAR
Ph.D. Course Work
RESEARCH AND
PUBLICATION ETHICS (RPE)
(PHD002)

UNIT: 1
PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS

Dr. J. M. Rathod Dr. J. R. Pitroda Dr. D. C. Dalwadi Dr. M. E. Shimpi

Professor, Professor, Asso. Professor, Professor,
EL Dept. Civil Dept. EC Dept. Mathematics Dept.
Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya Engineering College
(An Autonomous Institution)
Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat

THINK BIG THINK DIFFERENT

Course Content

Unit Particulars Teaching

No. Hours
1 Philosophy and Ethics 04
• Introduction to Philosophy: Definition,
nature and scope, concept, branches
• Ethics: Definition, moral philosophy,
nature of moral judgements, and
reactions.
Introduction to Philosophy
• Mankind has always been in the quest for the truth and has
taken the assistance from the science for the search of
truth - Philosophy has uncovered potential causes
behind the truth of life.
• Philosophy is essentially the study of the very
nature of reality, reason, core presence,
knowledge, values, mind and language.
• It refers to a particular system of thought and
analytics based on investigation and in-depth
study.
• With its origins in the mystical land of Greece, the word
Philosophy is said to derive from original Greek word
philosophia, again an amalgamation of two Greek words,
philia (friendship/love) or philo (friend/lover) and
sophia (wisdom), accurately translated as the
"love of wisdom".
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• What is Life?? • How nature works?

• Who M I? • What do we mean by God?
• What is World? • Is there God?
• Who is Friend/Enemy? • What to be done with natural
• What is Love/Hatred?? resources?
• What is Right/Wrong? • What is Civilization?
• What is Universe? • What is Nation?
• What is Joy? • What is technology?
• What makes life meaningful? • Which is the best administrative
• What is Prosperity? system for state?
• Historically speaking,
• Pythagoras was the first to use and coined the
term philosopher, which he claimed himself to be one.
• Pythagoras clarified the stand of a philosopher citing
three classes of common people who take part in festive
games in various protagonists - those who seek fame and
popularity by being an active part of the games, those
who flourish their trade and seek monetary benefit and
the unassuming third category of spectators who seek
nothing but the pure joy of the games. Their objective is
not to squander for wealth or eminence, but to stay
connected to the truth by contemplation. He clearly
segregated a philosopher's quest for wisdom from the
perceptiveness of a trader and the skills of a player.
• Another undisputed philosopher hailing from Greece -
Aristotle termed philosophy as "the first and the last
science" - this seemingly contradicting statement -
indicated his clear thinking as he considered
philosophy as the foremost science in existence
much before any other science and the last one
as well, as it deals with ultimate reality of
principles and causes.
• He defines it as follows: "There is a science which
investigates being as being, and the attributes
which belong to this in virtue of its own nature.
Now this is not the same as any of the so-called
special sciences, for none of these treats
universally of being as being. They cut off a part
of being and investigate the attribute of this part"
(Metaphysics 1003al8-25).
• Plato points to Socrates as the philosopher. Plato
gives a few characteristics of philosophical
wisdom, such as ability to enter into critical
discussion, having direct access to "true reality,"
knowledge of the purpose of life, etcetera.
• Oxford Dictionary defines philosophy as "that
department of knowledge which deals with
ultimate reality, or with the most general causes
and principles of things."
Nature and Scope
• Whether it is the Indian or Western scenario, the
influence and scope of philosophy find
applicability to innumerable areas of study.
• The scope of philosophy is truly vast and wide as it applies
to almost all erudite endeavors. There is barely any
branch of study which is not interrelated to philosophy as
philosophy deals with the fundamentals of life and
is intimately linked with all extents of human
interest.
• Simply stating, philosophy shows us a comprehensive
view of the entire universe. Thus, the study of
space, time, mind, matter, future life fall within the
bounds of philosophical studies. What is more -
philosophical investigation also incorporates the supreme
God or the absolute within its folds.
• Philosophy is also deeply associated with wisdom
— a supreme virtue in itself. The seekers of wisdom
are in search of a meaningful life and also the ways
in which this could be shared with other seekers as
well, and this is what is at the core of philosophical
studies - the very essence of philosophy.
• By relating philosophy to wisdom, we have already
implied that the scope of philosophy cannot be put
within the confines of a precise boundary, albeit it
can be accommodated within the ever- widening horizon
of wisdom.
• It is also true to state that philosophy embraces the
whole of reality. Although philosophical assertions to
consider everything in general and nothing in particular,
we can still point out some of the areas that are generally
accepted as characteristically philosophical.
• The most fundamental field of philosophy is the
inquiry into the first whence and the last whither,
an inquiry into the 'beyond' of physics, that seeks
to ask and answer the most decisive and essential
questions about the whole of reality—the Divine,
the human, and the cosmos.
• The Science of distinguishing true reasoning sums up to
logic, incorporating all categories of reasoning. The theory
of knowledge is concerned with how we know what we do,
what justifies us in believing what we do, and what
standards of evidence we should use in seeking truths
about the world and human experience.
Branches of Philosophy
• The academic discipline of philosophy is traditionally
space into 4 branches. Which are Epistemology,
Ethics, Logic, and Metaphysics.
1. Epistemology
• The study of knowledge is termed as Epistemology and
this is the division of philosophy that explores the origin,
nature, approaches and confines, if any, pertaining to
human knowledge. Knowledge initiates the
understanding and the responsiveness of particular
aspects of reality.
• Epistemology as the word stems from the Greek words
'episteme + Logy' concurring to 'knowledge' and 'science’.
• The theory of knowledge is concerned with how we know
what we do, what justifies us in believing what we do, and
what standards of evidence we should use in seeking
veracity about the world and human experience.
• There are three key aspects involving Epistemology:
• 1) The origin or paths to knowledge. On how do we know
what we assert to know? and How do we know certain
types of things?
• 2) The nature of knowledge. What do we indicate when
we claim we know something? If I declare
• 3) The validity of knowledge. In this, the matter of truth or
falsity is considered. How do I claim to know that
something is true?
Epistemology: “Knowing Is”
• “How” we come to know what we know.
• A variety of ways of knowing exist.

Practice and
experience are
important.

What is factual
evidence?
• (Ex) examining
your beliefs.
• The study of the origin, nature, methods, and
limits of knowledge
– How do we know?
– What do we know?
– How do we know that what we know is what we
know?
– How do we learn through education, through
sport, and through play?
The nature of knowledge and
learning
• What is knowledge?
• What is truth?
• Where did knowledge originate?
• How do we come to know?
• How do we learn?
2. Ethics
• Another branch of philosophy related to moral principles is
Ethics.
• Ethics are the judgement of the good and bad,
right and wrong.
• Ethics originates from the Greek term "Ethos" meaning
character or habit.
• Ethics translates to science of customs or the science
elucidating human behaviour. Ethics encompass
behaviour and the all important moral ideals and is not
limited to certain acts or a subset of moral codes.
• Ethics control the principles that prevail over the
lives of the humans and act as regulatory
controls managing their actions in being good,
bad, righteous, and wrongful; Ethics also guide
them towards their rightful duties as well as
responsibilities.
• Simply stated - Ethics followed by an individual exhibit
his true behavioral self. The customs and habits that a
man astutely follows are a reflection of his ethical beliefs,
and these very beliefs control his characteristic behavior
under varied circumstances. The right or wrong deeds of
an individual are deeply rooted in the deep-rooted ethics
that he customarily follows from the early years of his life.
3. Logic
• The Science of distinguishing true from false reasoning
sums up to logic, incorporating all categories of
reasoning. As stated in Webster's Dictionary, logic
perpetuates through principles of reasoning and
criteria of validity supported by inference drawn
through demonstration.
• Logic is also referred to as the science of the law of
thought processes, and pertain to the non-formal
relations and formal structures, and therefore
rightly also referred to as the art of reasoning.
• The field of logic also has in it folds the subtle difference
between evidence and hypothesis, between beliefs and
reasons and even the thin line between premises and
conclusion. Both conclusive and inconclusive inferences
come under the study of logic. Explicitly, the logic includes
the comprehensive study of formal systems that display
entailments and inductions.
• On a more generic note, it pertains to the study of conditions
wherein a conclusion can be either justified or supported or
confirmed or much rather falsified. The study of logic also
touches the methods and principles that govern the
segregation between the correct and incorrect reasoning.
4. Metaphysics
• Another significant and vital branch of Philosophy is the
study of existence, of reality and is christened as
Metaphysics.
• Metaphysics revolves around the numerous
demands and queries on the existential nature of the vast
universe, the very purpose of the entire world questioning
its origin and permanency, amongst the many other
issues.
• This study perpetrates questions like:
– "Is there a world outside the boundaries of the mind?"
– "How can the mind control the physical being?"
– "What is reality?"
– "How did the world originate?"
• Along with such retrospective questions, Metaphysics
aims to illuminate the conception of existence, time and
space, the objects and their associated aspects, all kinds
of possibilities, and of course also an insight into the realm
of cause and effect.
• Metaphysics also touches upon the facets reality,
mysticism and spirituality.
• An individual who trios to interpret the substance of reality
is a metaphysician. He is in a continual quest to
understand the truth behind the perception of existence
and as to why things exist at all. Metaphysics largely
contributes to philosophy and everyone experiences.
Metaphysical perspective during the journey of
life as we all tend to question the nature of reality.
• Philosophy has found a firm base in Metaphysics, which
has contributed in a finite way by providing us answers -
explicit explanations or an understanding of the creation
around us, preparing us to tackle with the reality.
• Metaphysics, armed with clarity and resilient reasoning
skills, has made the view of the world comprehensible to
a certain degree of correctness, such that we can relate
and act accordingly. Without this affirmative science, all
knowledge seems shallow.
• Any misleading view of reality will only make life tedious
and tough to out of margin through.
Ethics
• The term ethics is a combination of morals, values,
and beliefs. The term "ethics" correspond to the Greek
word "ethos", which means "character" or "habit" or
"custom" etc., and from the Latin word "mores", which
means "customs" or "character" or "behavior" etc.
• Mackenzie defines ethics as "the study of what is right
or good in human conduct" or "the science of the
ideal involved in conduct". So, it is clear that ethics is
the study which determines rightness or wrongness of
actions.
• The word has several meanings. Basically it is an activity
and process of inquiry.
• Secondly, it is different from non-moral problems, when
dealing with issues and controversies.
• Thirdly, ethics refers to a particular set of beliefs,
attitudes, and habits of individuals or family or groups
concerned with morals.
• Fourth, it is used to mean 'morally correct'.
• Thus ethics may be defined as the systematic
study rightfulness or wrongfulness of human
actions, as means for the attainment of the
ultimate happiness.
Why do we need ethics?
• The study on ethics helps to understand people
along with their beliefs, values, and morals, learn
the good and bad of them, and practice them to
maximize their well-being and happiness. It
involves the inquiry on the existing situations,
form judgments and resolve the issues.
• In addition, ethics tells us how to live, to respond to
issues, through the duties, rights, responsibilities,
and obligations.
• In religion, similar principles are included, but the
reasoning on procedures is limited.
• The principles and practices of religions have varied
from to time to time (history), region (geography, climatic
conditions), religion, society, language, caste and creed.
But ethics has grown to a large extent beyond the
barriers listed above.
• In ethics, the focus is to study and apply the principles
and practices, universally.
• Ethics help us to consciously make decisions as
they give us a certain perspective about
everything.
Ethics vs Morals
• While they are sometimes used interchangeably, they
are different:
• Ethics refer to rules provided by an external source, e.g.,
codes of conduct in workplaces or principles in religions
• whereas:
• Morals refer to an individuals own principles regarding
right and wrong.
• Moral Philosophy
• Moral philosophy is the branch of philosophy that
contemplates what is right and wrong.
• It explores the nature of morality and examines how
people should live their lives in relation to others.
• Moral philosophy is usually divided into three distinct
areas: meta ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics.
• Meta Ethics
• Deals with the "after" or "beyond”, and questions such as:
"What is goodness?" and "How can we tell good from
bad?" It also questions the origin of ethical principles,
whether they are human or divine in origin.
• It also deals with questions like: What are the meanings
of ethical terms: right, wrong, love, compassion?
• It also questions whether moral judgments are universal
or relative, and if they are of one kind or many.
• Prescriptive Ethics (Normative Ethics)
• Normative Ethics is concerned with the criteria of what is
right or wrong. IT includes the formulation of moral rules
that have direct implications for what human actions,
institutions and ways of life should be like. It deals with
questions like: How should people act? What is the correct
action?

The different branches are:

1. Virtue Ethics
2. Consequentialism
3. Deontological Ethics
4. Applied Ethics
• Applied ethics is a philosophical examination from a
moral standpoint of particular issues in private and public
life that are matters of moral judgment. This uses
application of moral knowledge to practical problems and
uses philosophical methods to identify the morally correct
course of action in various fields of human lite.
The different branches are:
■ Bio Ethics
■ Business Ethics
■ Military Ethics
■ Political Ethics
■ Environmental Ethics
■ Publication Ethics
Nature of Moral Judgements (નૈતિક
ચકુ ાદાઓ) and Reactions
• Moral judgment is a judgement of values. It is different
from the judgement of facts. The judgment of value is a
judgment of "what ought to be". But a judgement of fact is
a judgment of "what is". The judgement of fact is
descriptive, while moral judgement is an appreciative or
critical judgement. So, moral judgement is a mental act of
pronouncing a particular action to be right or wrong.
• According to Mackenzie, moral judgement is not
merely to state the nature of some object, but to
compare it with a standard and to pronounce it to
be good or evil, right or wrong. So, it is normative.
• Muirhead says that moral judgement is concerned with the
judgement upon conduct, the judgement that such
conduct is right and wrong. The judgement upon conduct
has a judicial sense and the judgement of fact has logical
sense. Thus, when we perceive a voluntary action we
compare it with the moral standard and thus judge
whether the action conforms with it or not. So, it is clear
that moral judgement is inferential in nature, involving the
application of a standard to a particular action. But in the
language of Bradley, ordinarily, moral judgment is intuitive
and immediate! Because we intuitively bring an action
under a moral rule recognized by the community and
judge it to be right or wrong.
• It is only in difficult or doubtful cases that we consciously
compare an action with the moral ideal and judge it as
right or wrong. Hence, we can find out that a moral
judgement presupposes a subject, who judges
an object that is judged, a standard according to
which an action is judged. Therefore from the
aforementioned statements, we can assume that
moral judgements are based on an emotional
evaluation rather than a factual analysis.
• Again, it is important to observe that moral judgment is
distinguished from logical and aesthetical judgment. As
we know Ethics, Logic, and Aesthetics are normative
science. And accordingly, they have three supreme
norms and ideals of life. Ethics is concerned with the ideal
of Highest Good, logic is concerned with the ideals of
Truth and aesthetics is concerned with the ideal of
Beauty. All of them are indeed an appreciative or critical
judgement. But moral judgements are always
accompanied by moral obligation and moral sentiments,
which are not accompanied by logical and aesthetics
judgments.
• When we judge an action to be right, we feel a moral
obligation to perform it and have a feeling of approval.
And when we judge an action to be wrong, we feel that
under moral obligation we are not to perform it and
therefore, we have a feeling of disapproval. Feeling of
approval, disapproval, rightness, wrongness, etc. are
called moral sentiments. Thus, moral judgments are
obligatory in character and are accompanied by moral
sentiments. So, they differ from logical and aesthetic
judgments that are not accompanied by moral obligation
and moral sentiments.
• Moral judgements, whether something is good or bad in
its own right are contained wholly in the field of ethics. In
the process of reasoning also we find different classes of
judgements and they are usually judgement of facts. But
moral judgement as a judgement of value is
concerned with what ought to be. It judges our
actions ought to be.
• It has distinctive features:
• It is critical judgement and appreciative.
• It is the mental act of discerning and pronouncing a
particular action to be right or wrong. After evaluation and
deliberation actions are to be judged in conformity with a
standard. To speak the truth is always right is a moral
judgement. Moral judgement differs from judgement of
fact which is descriptive judgement and it describes what
is. Judgements of facts are more objective because they
depend on the real nature of the world. For example
'Water is made of oxygen and hydrogen'.
• Moral judgement is inferential in character though the
element of inference generally remains implicit. It involves
the application of a standard to a particular action. When
we perceive a voluntary action, we compare it with the
moral standard and we judge whether the action
conforms to it or not. Ordinarily, moral judgements are
intuitive and immediate.
• F.H. Bradley says that they are intuitive subsumptions.
But in complex and doubtful cases the whole process
becomes explicit and reflective. In complicated
circumstances, the moral standard is explicitly held before
the mind and applied to the cases under consideration.
How are the Moral Judgements (નૈતિક
ચકુ ાદાઓ) Different from Logical
Judgements (િકક સગ ં િ ચકુ ાદાઓ)?
• Moral judgements stand apart from logical judgements. Logical
judgements are made based on truth, whereas moral judgements
are made based on the utmost good.
• In moral judgement there is always a sense of moral obligation and
moral sentiments. Moral obligation is also carried out of a sense of
duty.
• Moral judgements are accompanied by a feeling of approval or
disapproval, feeling of complacence or remorse, etc. when we judge
an action to be right, we feel morally obliged to go ahead with
performing the action and thereafter feel a sense of approval. On the
other hand, when we judge an action to be immoral or incorrect, we
feel under moral obligatory pressure that prevents us from
performing it and also experience a deep sense of disapproval.
Under any of the above-mentioned circumstances, the influence of
logical judgement is completely absent.
• Mackenzie holds an opinion that moral judgement is a
judgement upon action concerning the moral ideal. He
expresses that moral judgement unlike a logical
judgement - a judgement about an action. His opinion is
that moral judgement does not consider the nature of an
action, but it considers its moral value.
• It is also factual to state that moral judgement is not a
judgement in the logical sense; rather it is a judgement in
the judicial sense.
How do Moral Judgements (નૈતિક
ચકુ ાદાઓ) Differ from Aesthetic
Judgements (સૌંદર્કલક્ષી ચકુ ાદાઓ)?
• Moral judgements are distinctively differ from Aesthetic
judgements, even though they both represent normative
sciences, but their norms are dissimilar.
• The moral judgement deals with the ideals of good values
whereas aesthetic judgement finds its connection with the
idea of beauty.
• Again, aesthetic judgements are not supplemented by
moral obligation or moral sentiments. On the other hand,
moral judgements are invariably obligatory in nature and
are supported by moral sentiments.
• Moral judgement has objective validity. An action is right
in a particular situation from the standpoint of the
universe. It is not determined by the subjective inclination
and prejudices of the person who makes the judgement.
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