Unit 2 Christ and Culture

Reason

Using your judgement and understanding, based on facts, to make conclusions on a situation.

Catholic Tradition on Reason

• Emphasizes God's truth in Sacred Scripture.

• Humans use their capacity to think and reason as a key aspect of this tradition.

• Contemporary ethical questions arise from humanity's capacity to know.

• Rational thinking and logic are central to human activity.

Virtues (And type of virtues)

• habits that help us live good or/and happy lives. And we have to do our part to do the good.

• Cardinal Virtues: Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance.

• Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity.

St. Thomas Aquinas on Faith and Reason

• Argument from Causation: Everything is caused by something else, leading to the first uncaused cause, God.

• Teleological Argument: Things are made efficiently and purposefully, implying a designer, God.

• Faith and Reason: They do not conflict; truth is unified.

• Truth isn’t subjective, because the truth is based on something outside of the mind. Suggesting faith in that something outside which is God that shows truth. 

• We believe what others say because we trust they spread the truth just like God does with us. Some signs of credibility can’t be proven with actual reasons but we still do put our faith into them (ex: Holy Trinity, God’s divinity) because God tells us the truth. 

Ethics (different aspects within ethics?)

is the branch of philosophy that deals with moral principles and what constitutes good and bad behaviour. It explores how people ought to act and make decisions, considering notions of:

• Right vs Wrong

• Good vs Bad

• Duty vs Outcomes

• Reason vs Faith

Obligation

Can be understood as a moral requirement to act in a certain way.

Deontological Ethics (Kant)

• Obligation arises from duty and following universal moral principles.

• Actions are morally right based on motives, not outcomes.

• Moral theory is objective

• Moral theory is rigid (set of rules)

• Treat EVERYONE (even siblings, family members, or loved ones) the same

Teleological Ethics (Aristotle)

• Goal-oriented, purposeful actions.

• Actions are judged by their contribution to achieving happiness (eudaimonia).

• Moral theory is objective

• Moral theory is flexible (differences of context)

• Can potentially treat loved ones a little differently.

Autonomy

With our freedom and state of being independent, we also have moral responsibility and ethical responsibilities. 

Levinas' Ethics

• Ethics as the foundation of philosophy.

• Ethical encounters start with the "Face of the Other."

• Responsibility arises from the suffering of others.

Sensible Experience (Perspectives?)

Refers to how we perceive the world through our senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing). It's the raw data our senses gather about the world around us.

• Objective: Independent of individual perception.

• Subjective: Based on personal opinions and desires.

Human Actions

• Actions performed with intention and moral consequence.

• Shaped by intentions, motivations, and commitments.

Criteria for Human Actions?

1. There is a self, a human agent.

2. That human agent has the intent to do something.

3. They have motivations (reasons) for doing it; it will seem to be good for them.

4. They will commit to the outcome of the action, whatever it may be.

Pleasure

a momentary response to stimuli

Happiness

is the state where humans behave in a way most human

• This end of human life could be called happiness. 

• A happy person should have a balance of reasons and desires. 

• The goal in life is to achieve ultimate happiness.

The Mean (Example?)

The balance between the excuses of too much and too little. 

Every virtue is in the middle of two vices (the golden mean). The golden area every person should be in to be virtuous and be a good person.

For example: Courage is a virtue that is in the middle, too much and they are considered reckless, too little and they are considered a coward. 

Universal Principles

This is a key concept in Kant's deontological ethics. A universal moral principle that essentially states we should only take actions that could be universally followed by everyone and are objectively good actions to take, without causing chaos or contradiction.

The Thrill of Astonishment

Levinas calls an absolute experience of another a "thrill of astonishment".

The One

• The Individual: Levinas emphasizes the importance of the unique individual encountered as the "Other." It's not about an abstract category of people, but about the specific person before you.

• The Other as Other: The "One" could also highlight the way the Other transcends our own understanding. They are always more than we can fully grasp, which creates an ethical demand.

Suffering (Levinas)

Someone’s struggles are what compels us to act ethically. Their vulnerability creates a demand on us, even if they haven't explicitly asked for help. Calls us to respond with compassion and responsibility.

What calls forth the Ethical in us?

It's the vulnerability and suffering of others that awakens our ethical responsibility.

Values

• Moral principles or beliefs about right and wrong.

• Connected to identity, family, culture, and experiences.

Moral Stance

• Choices that shape character and reflect commitments to values.

• Demonstrated through actions and visible to the world.

Values Steeped in Identity

Much of how we understand our place in the world comes from how we view our family connections, and our family tree.

Catholic Values

• Worldview that includes specific values like individual dignity and life.

• Commitment to the Church's values as one's moral stance.

• Catholicism asserts the value of individual dignity and life, rejecting positions like racism and abortion.

• Values are the core business of Catholicism, which can be problematic in a world that dislikes values.

• Individuals committed to one faith = committed to a specific set of values. 

• Conscience is NOT rooted in personal preference or opinion. 

Conscience

• Place where we meet God and respond to His law.

• Involves using reason to apply natural law to specific cases.

• Requires formation and education to align with moral truth.

• Using our capacity to reason to respond to God and God's eternal law.

• An interior sense that knows from right and wrong.

• Sometimes our conscience can be wrong.  

Formation of Conscience

• Involves seeking moral truth and aligning with Church teachings.

• Requires integrity, sincerity, and ongoing self-formation.

• We need to form a basic capacity to decide what is good and avoid evil to make good moral choices truly.

God’s Law and Nature’s Law

•  God's eternal law is only knowable to God.

• God reveals certain elements of this law to humans through our capacity to reason.

• Natural law is human participation in God's eternal law, written on the human heart.

• This natural law is knowable to everyone, and understanding it doesn't require religious faith.

Moral Opinion vs Conscience

• Culture plays a significant role in the formation of conscience

• The moral opinion is subjective. It can often conceal a lot of self-interest; opinions are often more the product of emotional responses than sound reasoning.

• The judgment of conscience is objective and consistent with moral principles. It has an interior sense of sureness. 

• Conscience is not swayed by emotion.

The moral principle directing you to follow your conscience only holds when it presupposes two things:

(1) That what we're calling conscience in this case is not just mere moral opinion.

(2) That what we're calling conscience here presents itself with clarity and certainty.

The Morality of Human Acts

• Depends on the action, intentions, and circumstances.

• Some actions are evil in themselves; good intentions cannot justify bad acts.

Cultural Influences on Actions

• Moral decision-making influenced by societal norms and information culture.

• Importance of critically evaluating information and forming sound values.

• Impact of societal norms, laws, and the internet on moral decision-making.

• Importance of forming values and ethics despite conflicting information.

Intention

• The intentions of the person: A bad intention makes evil an act that might have been good. A good intention does not make a bad act good.

• The reason behind why a human did what they did, and what they wanted to cause. 

Motivations

Factors or personal reasons for doing the action/actions; it will seem to be good for them.

Commitments

After the action, the human agent commits the continuing with the action. They will commit to the outcome of the action, whatever it may be.

Circumstances

External factors or an overall situation can change what an agent does in a specific situation.

Moral Relativism

• The idea that there is no universal set of moral principles that apply to everyone.

• Aims for inclusivity and respect for diverse beliefs but avoids judgment.

Catholic Church on Organ Donation

• Supports organ donation as an act of human solidarity.

• Donation presupposes a free, conscious decision by the donor or their representative.

Life Values (Evangelium Vitae)

• Called to fullness of life, sharing in the life of God.

• Importance of family bonds and love.

• Courage, responsibility, and strength to help others.

Predestination

A part of the Protestant Reformation argued that a person's ultimate destiny, whether it be salvation or damnation, is determined by God alone. All events are determined by God.

Determinism (Types?)

The opposite of free will/freedom. If free will enables the human capacity to choose, determinism seems to disable the human capacity to choose.

Forms: social determinism; physical determinism, and religious determinism.

Social Determinism (Ex?)

It states that human are vulnerable to the workings of their psyche and are not free to go against these socialized behaviours. Acceptance that those who act out modelled behaviour should be blameless. 

Ex: A criminal “gets off lightly” because of a supposed childhood trauma that was the reason for their actions. 

Religious Determinism

This is the view that all events, including human behaviour, are caused (determined) by God. Advocates of this maintain that the concept of free will or self-determinism contradicts the sovereignty of God.

The Catholic perspective: All events, including human behaviour, are determined by God, contradicting the sovereignty of God.

• The Catholic Church emphasizes the importance of works of love. 

The Protestant Reformation (15th century): was sparked by the controversy about faith and good works, with Luther teaching that faith alone is justified and forgiven. 

Naturalism (Physical Determinism)

The naturalistic view in contemporary culture views humans as part of the universe's machinery, with every event being caused by preceding events such as environment and genetics. 

• This view deems human behaviour completely controlled by genetic and environmental factors, excluding free choices. 

• This perspective is closely tied to the scientific world, where the understanding of the human brain has expanded and grown. 

• According to naturalism our sense of freedom, individuality, and agency is part of a very complex system of DNA control. Our genes simply want us to survive and reproduce and have evolved an extraordinary means by which we do it.

• Any idea that an individual has of being in control is an illusion brought about by a very complex brain.

Freedom

Power to do what we ought (what we need to do). Our responsibility. Rooted in duty.

Human Freedom: For you to be able to do actions, and to act ethically, you need to possess the freedom to choose the good.

Identity

Made visible to the world through actions, outward positions, and the values to which humans are willing to make commitments.

• Charles Taylor says values are rooted in one’s identity

Narcissism (In religion)

Formation of conscience can be hindered by conditions such as narcissism, a disorder marked by self-absorption to the exclusion of others.