GEC 8 Ethics: Core Terms and Concepts

A comprehensive vocabulary review of GEC 8 Ethics covering Filipino ethical values, the moral agent and virtue, inter-human relations, feelings and reason, love and justice, formal and material value ethics, and moral courage.

Kapwa

Shared self or identity; seeing others as equals and as part of yourself.

Loob

A person's inner self: true character, feelings, and sincere intentions.

Kagandahang-loob

Sincere goodness; doing good for others freely, without expecting anything in return.

Utang na Loob

A deep, lasting debt of gratitude for kindness freely given to you; goes beyond saying thank you.

Hiya

Sense of shame and propriety; awareness of what is socially appropriate and how your actions affect others.

Pakikisama

Getting along and maintaining harmony with a group; often following majority decisions.

Bayanihan

Communal unity; voluntary cooperation and mutual help, such as neighbors carrying a house together.

Risk of Kapwa

A person may neglect their own needs just to satisfy the group.

Risk of Loob and Kagandahang-loob

Good intentions do not always guarantee good results; consequences must also be considered.

Risk of Utang na Loob

It can be abused to demand wrongdoing or obedience against someone's conscience.

Risk of Hiya

Fear of judgment may stop a person from speaking up about something wrong.

Risk of Pakikisama

It can become an excuse to stay silent when the group does wrong; integrity must come first.

Risk of Bayanihan

People may be forced or pressured to help beyond their abilities; helping must stay voluntary.

Kapwa vs. Bayanihan

Kapwa is seeing others as part of yourself; Bayanihan is working together to help the community.

Loob vs. Kagandahang-loob

Loob is your inner self and true character; Kagandahang-loob is sincerely doing good for others.

Utang na Loob vs. Bayanihan

Utang na Loob is gratitude toward someone who helped you; Bayanihan is voluntary cooperation in a community.

Hiya vs. Pakikisama

Hiya is awareness of proper behavior and how others see you; Pakikisama is maintaining harmony in a group.

Moral agent

A person who can tell right from wrong, make moral choices, and take responsibility for their actions.

Virtue

A settled disposition or character developed through repeated practice of good actions.

Hexis

A settled disposition; a lasting habit of character.

Habituation

The process of developing virtue through repeated actions.

Eudaimonia

Human flourishing; living a good and fulfilling life.

Routine

An action repeated automatically, without awareness or choice.

Moral habit

A repeated action that remains deliberate and chosen.

Aristotle's famous teaching

We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, and brave by doing brave acts.

Is virtue innate?

No. Virtue is developed through practice, not born with us.

Recognition of Dignity

Every person has inherent worth and is an end in themselves, never merely a means to our purposes.

Reciprocity and Mutual Respect

The dignity and rights I claim for myself I must give to others; my freedom is balanced by their rights.

Responsiveness and Solidarity

Responding to the needs of others and sharing responsibility for the community's well-being.

Dialogue and Mutual Accountability

Moral understanding grows through communication, and each person takes responsibility for their actions.

Feelings (Heart)

Compassion, empathy, and care; they help us notice wrong and motivate us to help, but can be biased or manipulated.

Reason (Mind)

Careful thinking that gives fair decisions and wider perspective, but can become cold or lack motivation.

Feelings alone

Lead to bias and unfairness.

Reason alone

Can lack compassion.

Balanced moral decision

Uses feelings to care and act, and reason to judge fairly.

Love (moral orientation)

Focus on the person, with care and devotion; asks "What do they need?"

Justice (moral orientation)

Focus on principles that apply equally to everyone, with fairness and rights; asks "What is owed?"

Love used alone

Leads to favoritism.

Justice used alone

Leads to rigidity.

Love and justice together

Love softens justice; justice strengthens love. Both are necessary.

Logical individual

Moral person defined by consistency and rationality; follows rules that apply to everyone, with no special exceptions for oneself.

Main question of the logical individual

"Would I be okay if everyone did what I'm doing?"

Axiological individual

Moral person defined by real value, human dignity, growth, and well-being; human worth comes before convenience or objects.

Main question of the axiological individual

"What is genuinely worth protecting here?"

Thinker linked to the logical individual

Immanuel Kant and Deontology.

Material value ethics

Focuses on what is good and worth pursuing, based on human values and flourishing; asks "What is worth pursuing?"

Formal ethics

Focuses on how people should act through rules and universal principles; asks "Can this action be a universal rule?"

Thinkers of material value ethics

Max Scheler and John Stuart Mill.

Thinker of formal ethics

Immanuel Kant.

Risk of material value ethics

Values may become subjective.

Risk of formal ethics

Rules may become too rigid.

Courage

Continuing to act despite fear or difficulty; not always morally right.

Moral courage

The ability to do what is morally right even when it is difficult, risky, or frightening.

Elements of moral courage

Knowing what is right; understanding the risks; choosing to act despite fear; doing it because it is right, not just beneficial.

Courage is not the absence of fear

It is the decision that something else matters more than fear.

Lack of courage

Knowing what is right but staying silent because of fear.

Courage but immoral

Being brave but using that bravery for something wrong.

Doctrine of the Mean

Aristotle's idea that virtue is the balance between two extremes.

Cowardice

Too much fear; avoiding danger because of excessive fear.

Recklessness

Too little fear; taking unnecessary risks without proper judgment.

Courage as the virtuous mean

Proper fear and wise action; facing difficulty with good judgment and knowing when to act or retreat.

Integrity

Unity of what we believe, what we say, and what we do.

Guardian of all virtues

Moral courage; without it, justice is abandoned, compassion is not expressed, and truth is not spoken.

Why courage is a habit

Choosing integrity makes future moral choices easier; avoiding courage makes them harder.