CHAPTER ONE
UNDERSTANDING CIVICS AND
ETHICS
Defining Civic, Ethics, Morality
A Seed will only become a flower if it gets
sun and water.
- Louis Gottschalk.
What does civic education mean?
Cont…
• Man is a social animal
-Aristotle
human being couldn‘t live alone.
Thus, he/she has to respect fundamental
principles and values to live together with
his/her fellow beings and
to build peaceful society and lead
prosperous life.
Cont…
• The essence of the fact is that man has always
belonged to a society of some sort, without which
he can’t exist at all.
• Society fulfills all his needs and provides security
to him.
• He took birth, grows, lives and dies in society.
• Without society his life is just like a fish out of
water.
Cont…
• The African Ubuntu Philosophy:
A person is a person through other persons.
None of us comes into the world fully formed.
We would not know how to think, or walk, or
speak, or behave as human beings unless we
learned it from other human beings. We need
other human beings in order to be human.
(Tutu, 2004:25)
Cont…
Ubuntu philosophy-the African socio-cultural
framework.
The word Ubuntu is derived from a Nguni
(isiZulu) aphorism: Umuntu Ngumuntu
Ngabantu, which can be translated as:
“a person is a person because of or
through others”
(Moloketi, 2009:243; Tutu, 2004:25-26).
Cont…
• Ubuntu can be described as the capacity in an
African culture to express:
• compassion,
• reciprocity,
• dignity,
• humanity and mutuality in the interests of
building and maintaining communities
with justice and mutual caring.
Cont…
• The Ubuntu philosophy believes in group solidarity,
which is central to the survival of African
communities.
• An African is not a rugged individual, but a person
living within a community.
• In a hostile environment, it is only through such
community solidarity that hunger, isolation,
deprivation, poverty and any emerging challenges
can be survived, because of the community’s
brotherly and sisterly concern, cooperation, care, and
sharing.
Cont…
• Respect and love amongst the community
members play an important role in an African
framework.
• The African view of personhood rejects the
notion that a person can be identified in terms of
physical and psychological features.
• Ubuntu is the basis of African communal cultural
life.
• It expresses the interconnectedness, common
humanity and the responsibility of individuals to
each other.
Cont…
Progressive and peaceful setting subsists in a
given society as far as that society develops the
qualities of its members and generates good
citizens.
-Johan Stuart Mill (1972)
Thus, creating a good citizen has been the prior
concern of many States, including Ethiopia.
This is because good citizens are made not
born.
Cont…
In general, civics is a branch of social science which deals
with :
the rights and responsibilities of citizens,
theory and practices of democracy,
international socio-economic and
political affairs of citizens etc…
The Definition and Nature of Ethics and Morality
What is Ethics concerned with?
Are you the type of person who usually ‘does the
right thing? How do you know what the right thing
is?
What is ethics?
What makes an act morally right or wrong (a
question of conduct)?
What makes a person or something good or bad
(a question of value)?
How to draw the correct conclusion about what
we ought to do or what kind of person we ought
to be?
Defining Ethics
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with
how we ought to live, with the idea of the
“good”, “right” or “wrong”.
Ethics is a discipline that studies morality itself.
Ethics is the study of what is right or good in
human conduct or character.
Cont…
Generally, Ethics is:
The 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.
Ethics is 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.
Defining Morality
What is Morality?
Morality is derived from the Latin word,
‘mores/Moralitas’ which means ‘manner,
character and proper behavior’
It also referred to as good and evil.
Morality deals with the study of the actual
patterns of behavior.
Moral issue
Cont…
Generally Morality is:
Those principles and values that actually guide,
for better or worse, an individual‘s personal
conduct
Morality is the informal system of rational
beings by which they govern their behavior in
order to lesson harm or evil and do good.
Morality says, “do this, don’t do that”, “act this
way, acting the other way is wrong”, “follow
these principles, if not it is wrong.”
Where does morality come from?
Parents
Religion
Peers
Technology
Culture
Ethics VS Morality
• Philosophical and scientific study • Rule for everyday life
(practical)
of morality
(theoretical
• Influenced by profession, field, • Influenced by society, culture
organization etc. and religion
• Related to professional work • Related to custom, values and
norms of society
• Uniformity compared to morals • Vary according to culture
different culture and religion
• Guiding principles of conduct of • Principles on which one’s
an individual or group. judgments of right and wrong
are based.
Ethics VS Morality
• Ethics are applicable by a group • Morality are applicable to
or community or society, individuals
• Ethics point towards the • Morality is a foundation of
application of morality ethical behavior
• objective • subjective
• The purpose of ethics is to • The purpose of morality
influence human conduct along promote better personal
the line of the moral law. relationships with other people
M and [Link]
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The Goal of Moral and Civics Education
2) The Need for Participant Political Culture
As Almond and Verba stated that they are three political
cultures:
• Where citizens are only remotely aware of
the presence of central government
parochial cultures • They have neither knowledge nor interest in
politics.
• Where citizens are aware of central
government
• are heavily subjected to its decisions with
subject cultures little scope for dissent.
• The individual is aware of politics, its actors
and institutions.
• Citizens are able to influence the
government in various ways and they are
Participant cultures affected by it
• In general congruent with a democratic
political structure.
3) Fostering intercultural
societies
4) The Need for Relevant Knowledge, Skills and Positive
Attitudes
6) The issue of inclusiveness (empowering all concerning
bodies)
Cont…
Aristotle also says:
“Educating the mind without
educating the heart is no education
at all.”
Cont…
Moral and Civics Education is based on
and seeks to promote in students core
moral, ethical, democratic, and educational
values, such as:
Respect for life
Respect for reasoning
Fairness
Concern for the welfare others
Respect for diversity
Peaceful resolution conflict
