UNIT 1 Religion Exam

Four Ethical Experiences 

1. The Scream

2. The Experience of the "Other"

3. The Experience of Obligation

4. The Experience of Contrast

The Scream

• Awareness of responsibility for another person

• Inner tension compels immediate action

• Instinctive, deeply felt, automatic

• A unique human response

Example: Hearing a scream from down the road and rushing to help without thinking.

The Experience of the "Other"

• The Beggar (Levinas)

• Ethics starts with the human face, especially of those in need

• Face-to-face encounters remind us of our responsibility

• The Other’s face "takes you hostage", demanding a response

Example: Seeing a homeless person in need how asks you for food or money and feeling compelled to help

The Experience of Obligation

• "I Have To"

• Ethical sense is activated when ordered to act

• Feeling obliged to follow a law or moral duty

• The order disrupts consciousness, demanding action

Example: Stopping at a red light with no other cars around.

The Experience of Contrast

•  "This Isn’t Fair!"

• Outrage at injustice → contrast between reality and what ought to be

• Built-in moral capacity to recognize fairness

• Shock at inhumanity → deep moral instinct

Example: Seeing someone being excluded in the cafeteria and inviting them to sit and eat with you.

Aristotle (6)

• Teleology

• the Good Life - rational thinking

• Happiness (eudaimonia)

• Community

• Excellences virtues

• The Doctrine of the Mean

Kant (9)

• Deontology

• Theoretical and Practical Reason

• The Good Will

• Duty

• Moral Maxims

• Ends and Means

• God

• Freedom

• Immortality

Levinas (4)

• The Search for the Good/Goodness

• God

• Uniqueness

• The Face/Other

Aristotle & Kant

• Reasoning→Rational Thinking

  • Think before doing the right thing

  • Using brain rather than heart

Aristotle & Levinas

• Community

Levinas & Kant

• God is the supreme good

• Duty, obligation, responsibility

Aristotle, Kant & Levinas

• Ethics → with the search for the good

• Connect to Christian values

• Humans are fundamentally ethical

The conceptual Framework of Action (7)

• The WHO: The Agent

• The WHY: The Motive

• The WHAT: The Action

• The HOW: With What Means?

• With Whom or Against Whom?

• Under What Circumstances?

• With What Outcome?

The WHO: The Agent

Agent – the person who makes things happen

The WHY: The Motive

Motive – the reason for the action

The WHAT: The Action

Action – what the agent does

The HOW: With What Means?

How you perform an action reflects who you are as a person (the agent)

With Whom or Against Whom?

When one justifies an action, the agent is either seeking approval or to prevent disapproval from another person.

Under What Circumstances?

Every action has aggravating or mitigating circumstances (other things to consider)

With What Outcome?

The outcome of one’s actions – intended or not – good or bad – affects the person.

Naturalism Principles (6)

• Everything is shaped by physical, biological, psychological, social and environmental processes. 

• Everything is connected - Cause and Effect

• Science reigns supreme

• Everything must be explained by scientific experimentation. 

• “It’s all in the genes.” - understanding who we are

• The Mind-brain distinction

  • The mind and brain are one. 

    • The mind is the brain at work

Naturalism Freedom (4)

• There is no human spirit or culture

  • humans and human activity are the result of the natural selection process. 

• Freedom is a delusion

  • neural state

Naturalism Morality (3)

• biologically and neurologically determined

• explained through evolutionary psychology and brain chemistry.

• Right and wrong are understood through cause and effect, societal benefit, or biological survival.

Social Determinism Principles (2)

• human behaviour, choices and identities are shaped primarily by social forces

  • Culture, environment, upbringing, and societal norms

• Role of Institutions - like schools, governments, and media - play a significant role in shaping how people think and act

Social Determinism Freedom (2)

• individuals are not entirely free to make their own choices

• individuals are influenced by external factors beyond their control

Social Determinism Morality (3)

• shaped by social context

• Right and wrong are learned behaviours, not chosen freely or rooted in objective truth.

• limited because choices are influenced by external societal forces

Religious Determinism Principles (4)

• Eternal Damnation: What humans live for (ensuring to be in eternal life not separated from God - heaven or hell)

• If people don't have God, they can do nothing to save themselves

• The Election of God: God loves and elects some and rejects others.

• God chooses to save those who are faithful to him

Religious Determinism Freedom (5)

• Freedom: An individual's free will

• Providence: God’s Influence upon events and actions

• God has already decided everything that will happen in the world, including people’s actions and choices

• Providence and Freedom do not conflict

• Free will

Religious Determinism Morality (3)

• determined by divine law and God’s will.

• Right and wrong are objectively defined by God

• Moral actions must align with faithfulness and obedience to God’s commands

Six Aspects of the Human Person

• The Importance of Others

• The Importance of Having direction in life

• The Importance of Communication & Language

• The Importance of Character and one’s body

• The Importance of Conscience

• The Importance of ImportanceDevelopment of Conscience

The Importance of Others (3)

• Understanding the human person is always a relational attempt.

• bearing the responsibility of another person

EXMP: Someone falls and drops their books in the halls - you help them pick up their books

The Importance of Having direction in life (2)

• Knowing who you are, trying to understand one’s place in the universe, and being able to enjoy true freedom are efforts to know where you stand. 

EXMP: Setting goals for yourself - like getting a degree

The Importance of Communication & Language (3)

• we emerge from a community;

• our understanding of the person is also very much conditioned by and emerges from a reality formed by language and communication.

EXMP: The extinction of Indigenous languages

The Importance of Character and one’s body (3)

• Building character is a matter of practice

  • “Moral fibre”: The more you exercise it, the stronger your chracter

EXMP: Going to church every Sunday

The Importance of Conscience (3)

• the place where we hold our own selves in our hands. 

• recognizes right from wrong

EXMP: Your teacher leaves the answer key to a test on her desk and she leaves the class room - you continue writing your test instead of going to her desk to see the answers

The Importance of ImportanceDevelopment of Conscience (2)

• Your conscience develops as you mature

EXMP: Following the sermons in the Bible 

What does the Church teach about conscience? (5) 

• calls conscience “an inner voice that calls us to love and to do what is good and to avoid what is evil”

• It is “a law inscribed in human hearts by God”

  • that helps a person discern right from wrong. 

• It is described as “a inner sanctuary where we are alone with God”

• It’s not just a feeling or opinion, but a judgment of reason that allows someone to evaluate whether an action aligns with moral good or evil.

Why is it important to make moral decisions compared to other sources? (4)

• Personal moral authority: conscience connects a person directly with God’s law.

• Individual responsibility: It respects the dignity and freedom of the person to make decisions.

• Not infallible but must be obeyed: Even if conscience can err (if poorly formed), a person must never act against it in good faith.

• More reliable than societal norms: Conscience is grounded in universal moral truths, whereas society’s values can change or be flawed

Types of Consciences (4)

• Well formed

  • formed by using the scripture, church and community

  • entails recognizing one's ownguilt from past wrongdoings and what such an experiencetaught

• Wrongly formed

  • formed on information that is mistaken

• Lax

  • not being concerned about whether or not an act is right or wrong.

• Legalistic

  • obeying rules perfectly

  • following the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.

Types of Guilt (4)

• Warranted Guilt: When we know an act is wrong and we do it anyway

• Unwarranted guilt: There is no real justifiable reason to feel guilty. This guilt occurs when we have a wrongly formed conscience

• Too Little Guilt:

  • Becoming accustomed to sin and therefore feeling immune to wrongdoing.

  • occurs when we have a laxconscience

• Excessive Guilt: Guilt out of proportion to the severity of the wrongdoing. This guilt occurs when we have a legalistic conscience

The Id (2)

• The most infantile and demanding part of the brain - wants to find pleasure and avoid pain

  • ‘Ms is talking, but - ooh this video’s hilarious!’

The Ego (2)

• part of the brain which battles against the id and superego with reason, logic and rationale

  • ‘You need a good mark in this class,id! Focus!’

The Superego (3)

• unreasonably abuses you for shirking responsibilities and not living up to your potential

  • the source of demands and prohibitions 

  • ‘Put the phone away and pay attention, you loser! Id, you suck!’

Conscience (8) vs. Superego (7)

Conscience

• Your own morals

• More internal

• Who you are: Your character

• Not a feeling

• doing things for the right reasons

• I want to do it

• Free

• Matures

Superego

• About pleasing others/People pleaser

• More external

• Meeting others standards

• Guilt 

• I should/have to do it

• Not free

• Stays stagnant

Ethics (5)

• The GOOD that humans tend towards

• The search for the infinite good

• Having to do with good character

• Gives vision to our action

• Has to do with laws, rules, and commandments

Morality (3)

• The WAYS that humans attain the good

• Translating the search for the good into action

• Has to do with customs, habits, and manners

Teleological ethics

Having to do with the design or the purpose of something

Deontological ethics (2)

• the good is the aim of moral life

• concerned with moving toward practicalcertainty in ethics

Moral Agent

an individual that has the capacity to make moral decisions

Predestination

God has already decided everything that will happen in the world, including people’s actions and choices

Narcissism (3)

• based on a fear of failure or weakness

• a focus on one’s self

• an unhealthy drive to be seen as the best, and a deep-seated insecurity and underlying feeling of inadequacy

Character

the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual