Lesson 11: Feelings as Instinctive and Trained Response to Moral Dilemmas

Feeling

is an emotional state or reaction, experience of physical sensation, like feeling of joy, feeling of warmth, love, affection, tenderness, etc.

Feeling

are instinctive and trained response to moral dilemma

Feeling

They can be obstacles to making right decisions but they can also help in making the right decisions.

• Hume and the Philosophy of the Mind

• Scheler and the Philosophy of Feelings

2 Philosophical insights on Feelings

David Hume (1711-1776)

a philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist.

David Hume (1711-1776)

He famously placed himself in opposition to most moral philosophers, ancient and modern

David Hume (1711-1776)

argued to regulate actions using reason and that reason has dominion over feelings or emotions.

1) Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the "slave of the passions".

2) Moral distinctions are not derived from reason.

3) Moral distinctions are derived from the moral sentiments: feelings of approval (esteem, praise) and disapproval (blame) felt by spectators who contemplate a character trait or action.

4) While some virtues and vices are natural, others (including justice) are artificial.

Hume’s four (4) theses:

pleasure, uneasiness

Hume sided with the moral sense theorists that a person gains awareness of moral good and evil by experiencing the _______ of approval and the ______ of disapproval.

Theory of the Mind

According to Hume's ________ _______, humans have what he called passions (which he used to describe emotions or feelings).

• Direct passions

• Indirect passions

Two (2) classifications of passions

Direct passions

are caused directly by the sensation of pain or pleasure

Direct passions

the passion that "arises immediately from good or evil, from pain or pleasure" that we experience or expect to experience (e.g. desire, aversion, hope, fear, grief and joy)

Indirect passions

are caused by the sensation of pain or pleasure derived from some other idea or impression

mistake, wrong

When passion is unreasonable, it is because we make a ____ in judgment or our opinion is _____.

Max Ferdinand Scheler

an important German Ethical philosopher distinguished for his contributions in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology

Max Ferdinand Scheler

sought to know what comprised the structures of consciousness, including that of mental acts such as feeling, thinking, resolve, etc

Philosophy of Feelings

the emotion is the most important aspect in human existence

Philosophy of Feelings

are inherent, objective, and it exists even if you have not experienced it before (a priori).

Divine Plan

Feelings are independent of the mind; that it corresponds to the ____ ____

Human feelings

are strict, exact, and objective.

Feelings

follows a peculiar form of laws that you cannot avoid and is obligated to follow.

Feelings

They are the "purest sphere" of human consciousness.

• Sensual feelings

• Vital feelings

• Psychic feelings

• Spiritual feelings

Four (4) strata of feelings/Stratification model of emotive life

Sensual feelings

involve bodily pleasures or pain.

Vital feelings

are the life functions such as health, sickness, energy, fatigue, etc.

Psychic feelings

are about aesthetics, justice, and knowledge (scientific).

Spiritual feelings

deal with the Divine.

Spiritual feelings

It is the only one that is intentional for it is directed to a particular special object.

Dr. James Rachels

philosopher and professor, in moral reasoning, you could not rely on your feelings no matter how powerful these feelings may be.

• The facts are correct.

• The moral principles are correctly applied.

• Each individual's well-being is treated equally important.

An argument is reasonable if: (3)

• Emotive element

• Prescriptive element

Two (2) elements in moral judgement

Emotive element

expressing positive feelings towards a

particular act.

Prescriptive element

is an instruction or prescription of a particular behavior.

• Its non-deliberate nature

• Its partial nature

• It is capricious

3 Why feelings can be obstacles to making right decisions?

Deliberate

means the act was intentional, planned, with conscious effort.

Nondeliberate

denotes spontaneous actions. It is doing something without thinking through.

Non-deliberate nature of feelings

Responsibility entails free choice.

Partial nature of feelings

It operates on a principle called "the law of concern" where emotions give focus only on matters of personal interest.

• Decisions based on feelings focus only on a narrow area.

• It reflects personal and self-interest perspectives.

Two (2) aspects of Partial nature of feelings

Emotions

_____ influence our attention.

Emotions

make us preoccupied with specific matters and we become oblivious to everything else

Emotions

draws its perspective from personal interest.

Capricious nature of feelings

Emotion rises up for arbitrary reasons

subsequent moral judgment

Aspects or situations that have nothing to do in moral situations could rile up your emotion, and this emotion will certainly influence your _____ ___ ____

1) It signals the need to adjust behavior.

2) It can help us learn from our mistakes.

3) Emotional responses can be reshaped as time pass by.

Three (3) ways that help in making the Right Decisions?

Counterfactual thinking

is a psychological concept about the human tendency to create possible or alternative scenarios other than what had actually happened.

Mindfulness

psychological state where you give active and open attention to personal thoughts and feelings.