Moral Philosophy Notes
The Foundations of Ethics
Every human activity presupposes something already existing.
Science's foundation must be grounded on well-established facts and principles (postulates), not mere theories (hypotheses).
Ethics, like science, has postulates based on universally perceived truths:
Difference between right and wrong.
Obligation to perform right actions and avoid wrong ones.
Responsibility for actions.
Deserving punishment for wrongdoing.
Moral skepticism and relativism are opposed to ethics.
Skepticism doubts all moral standards.
Relativism makes truth variable based on factors like time, place, and status.
Weaknesses:
Skepticism refutes itself by doubting its own statement.
Relativism's truth becomes uncertain if all truths are relative.
Diversity of moral judgments doesn't negate objective morality.
Relativism is destructive to knowledge and leads to moral disorder.
The Study of Ethics
Ethics comes from Greek "ethos" (characteristic way of living) and Latin "mos, mores" (tradition/custom).
Ethos relates to rationality, intellect, and free will.
Meaning of Ethics:
Science of morality of human acts.
Study of human motivation and rational behavior.
Morality: quality of human acts as good, bad, or indifferent.
Ethics as Value Formation:
Moral Philosophy based on human reason, not divine revelation.
Value Education: guides individual in choosing values.
Rational foundation for Value Education, explaining values in relation to human existence.
The Art of Correct Living:
Ethics provides a master plan for living well, implying order and harmony.
Importance of Ethics:
Indispensable knowledge; without it, man is merely an animal.
Moral integrity is the measure of man.
Foundation of human society; every culture values morality.
Two Ethical Systems:
Atheistic: matter is all that exists; morality is a human invention, relative and changeable.
Theistic: God is the Supreme Lawgiver; morality aligns with God's will and is absolute.
Ethics and Religion:
Ethics relies on rational investigation.
Religion is based on faith or revelation.
Religion enriches ethics with moral insights and provides direction.
Ethics and Law:
Ethics studies human motivation; Law requires action regardless of feelings.
Ethics covers thoughts and feelings; laws judge external actions.
Morality has a bigger implication than law.
Ethics aims to develop the “right disposition and inner spirit” for accepting what is lawful.
Professional Ethics:
Code of ethics guides professionals where the law is inadequate.
The Human Acts
Human acts: actions performed knowingly, freely, and voluntarily.
Acts of man: instinctive actions outside the will's control.
Essential Attributes:
Knowledge: awareness of the action and its consequences.
Freedom: acting by one's own volition.
Will: resolve to perform the act.
Kinds of Human Acts:
Elicited acts: performed by the will.
Wish, intention, consent, election, use, fruition.
Commanded acts: done by mental or bodily powers under the will.
Internal actions, external actions, combined actions.
Moral Distinctions:
Moral actions: conform to the norm of morality (good and permissible).
Immoral actions: do not conform to the norm of morality (bad or evil and not permissible).
Amoral actions: neutral to the norm of morality (neither good nor bad).
Extrinsic and Intrinsic Evil:
Intrinsic evil: defective by nature (e.g., stealing).
Extrinsic evil: rendered wrong by circumstances (e.g., drinking beer in excess).
Intrinsically evil acts are always prohibited.
Extrinsically evil acts may be tolerated if the wrong circumstance is removed.
Imputability of Human Acts:
A person is responsible for actions done with intellect and will.
Imputability involves guilt or innocence.
Sanctions and Penalties:
Imputability means deserving reward or punishment.
Penal laws punish crimes.
Immorality not legally punished may result in loss of peace of mind.
Voluntariness:
Essential to a human act; without it, it is an act of man.
Types: perfect, imperfect, conditional, and simple voluntariness.
Types of Voluntariness:
Direct voluntariness accompanies a primarily intended act.
Indirect voluntariness accompanies an act's result.
Indirectly Voluntary
A person is accountable for foreseeable results of their actions.
Accountability for indirectly voluntary acts exists when:
The doer can foresee the evil result.
The doer is free to refrain from the action.
The doer has a moral obligation not to produce the evil effect.
Principles (Panizo):
Responsibility exists for evil effects that flow directly and necessarily from the action.
An act with both good and evil effects is permissible only if:
The action is good or morally indifferent.
The good effect doesn't come from the evil effect.
The motive is towards the good, with the evil as incidental.
The good effect outweighs the evil.
The Modifiers of Human Acts
Modifiers influence inner disposition and voluntariness.
Types: ignorance, passion, fear, violence, and habit.
Ignorance: absence of knowledge one ought to possess.
Vincible ignorance: can be dispelled with effort.
Affected ignorance: maintained to escape blame.
Invincible ignorance: irremovable.
Principles:
Invincible ignorance renders an act involuntary (not responsible).
Vincible ignorance lessens voluntariness (lessens responsibility).
Affected ignorance increases accountability (greater responsibility).
Passions: tendencies towards desirable (positive) or away from harmful (negative) objects.
Antecedent passions: precede an act.
Consequent passions: intentionally aroused.
Principles:
Antecedent passions lessen accountability (lessens responsibility).
Consequent passions increase accountability (greater responsibility).
Fear: disturbance of mind due to impending danger.
Act done with fear: voluntary.
Act done out of fear: simply voluntary.
Act done because of panic: involuntary.
Violence: physical force compelling action against one's will.
Principles:
External actions with reasonable resistance are involuntary (not responsible).
Elicited acts are voluntary (responsible).
Habits: readiness from repeated acts.
Principles:
Actions from habit are voluntary in cause, unless counteracted.
Actions partake in voluntariness of previous acts.
Efforts to fight habits may render actions as acts of man (not accountable).
Law
St. Thomas: Law is an ordinance of reason, promulgated for the common good by one who has charge of society.
ordinance of reason – rational deliberations intended to guide men towards what is good for them and for society.
promulgated – made known to the people who are bound to observe them
one who has charge of society – can only be valid if they are the legitimate exercise of authority - Laws are necessary to man because they regulate human activity. Without laws there will surely be anarchy and chaos, since each one will be acting according to his/her wishes without regard for the common god. - Laws are like signs in the street which guide us towards our destination.
For the common good – it is for the community’s welfare
Kinds of Law:
Divine positive law: commanded by God (e.g., Decalogue).
Human positive law: promulgated by legitimate authority (State or Church).
State laws: Constitution and the Code of Civil Laws.
Church laws: Canon Law.
Derived from Eternal Law.
Positive laws are those that require the performance of an act, such as, to worship God, to pay taxes, etc.
*Negative laws are those that require the omission of an act, such as not to steal, not to kill, etc.Divine or human laws are either moral or penal. A moral law binds in conscience. A penal law binds by virtue of the penalty imposed.
Moral and Political Laws:
Moral laws: derived from natural law, guiding towards higher human development; universal.
Political laws: enacted by men for societal order and material prosperity; regulate external actions.
Properties of Human Laws:
Conform to divine laws.
Promote the common good.
Must be just and not discriminatory.
Practicable.
Regulate external actions only.
Fallible and adjustable.
The Determinants of Morality
Morality depends on the act itself, motive, and circumstances (object, end, and circumstances).
A good act is good in all three aspects; a defect in any renders it objectionable.
The act in itself:
Considers the nature of the act.
Bad actions disrupt harmony within the person.
Intrinsic evil: evil by its very nature; dehumanizes.
Extrinsic evil: evil due to added factors/circumstances.
The motive of the act:
Purpose the doer wishes to achieve.
A good motive is consistent with human dignity.
Bad motives stem from selfishness.
"The end does not justify the means."
Circumstances of the act:
Consider time, place, and accompanying elements.
Who, what, where, with whom, why, how, when.
The Norms of Morality
Morality is universal but lacks agreed-upon definitions.
Norm: standard of measurement; norms of morality are standards of right and wrong.
Criteria for judging persons and actions.
Relationship with the norm is one of conformity or non-conformity.
Good conforms; evil does not conform.
Remote norm: Natural Law.
Proximate norm: Conscience.
Ultimate norm: Eternal Law.
Eternal Law:
God's plan in creating the universe.
Natural Law:
Man's awareness of moral laws binding him to seek good.
Formal Norms are those that relate to our character, i.e., to what kind of persons we ought to be. Formal norms are absolute principles and are unchangeable.
Material Norms relate to the sorts of actions we ought to do. They are the application of the formal norms to individual concrete action. They answer the question: “What should I do?” And since material norms deal with concrete and specific actions, they are not absolute.
Properties of the Natural Law:
Universal.
Obligatory.
Recognizable.
Immutable.
The Order of Reason
Man participates in Eternal Law through reason, called "specific natural law" (Aquinas).
Differentiated from Laws of Nature governing the material world.
The task of discovering and interpreting Natural Law belongs to moral conscience.
Conscience
Proximate norm of morality, judging actions as good or bad.
Examines, judges, and passes a "sentence" on moral actions.
Functions: determine what ought to be done; approve or reproach after the act.
Kinds of Conscience:
Correct or True.
Erroneous or False:
Resulting from mistakes.
Mistake in inferential (conclusion) thinking, such as deriving a wrong conclusion from given moral principles
Ignorance of the law
Ignorance of the fact and other circumstances modifying human actions
Ignorance of future consequences, especially those dependent on the free will of others.
Certain.
Doubtful.
Scrupulous.
Lax Conscience.
The Compulsory Nature of Conscience - to act according to rational insights.
Conscience and Authority - human authority loses its moral power to bind individual conscience to obedience, when contrary to natural law
Education of Conscience.
Determining Moral Responsibility
Moral responsibility determines the extent to which a person deserves blame or punishment and involve the notion of guilt or innocence.
Elements of Moral Responsibility:
Moral responsibility is dependent on knowledge and freedom
Knowledge as an Element of Moral Responsibility - cannot be held morally responsible without the knowledge of the wrongfulness of an act
Freedom as an Element of Moral Responsibility - not responsible if forced to commit it.
Freedom and Choice - does not act freely if choice one makes is determined by the will of another person
Classifications of Moral Responsibility: Based moral responsibility can be: Perfect or Aggravated, mperfect or Mitigated, Diminished or Exempted Moral.
Limits to Moral Exemptions - A person is morally responsible for a wrongdoing. All one need to do is to learn from mistakes of others and take precautions not to commit the same blunders.
Rights and Duties
*Duties however are more fundamental than rights.The duty to do good and avoid evil is above all rights.
Objectively speaking, right is anything which is owed or due. Subjectively, it is a moral power, bound to be respected by others.
Objectively, duty is anything we are obliged to do or to omit. Subjectively, it is a moral obligation incumbent upon a person of doing, omitting or avoiding something.
Rights and duties are inseparable.
In interpersonal relationships, rights and duties are reciprocal. The right of one person implies in all others the duty to respect that right. All laws are expressive of duties.
Freedom
Real Meaning of Freedom: Common understanding: is doing what one wants. But freedom is limited, not absolute
Freedom is based on what is true.
Sin It is defined as an abuse of freedom/ Sin makes us unfree.
Part of man’s dignity as a person is that he is endowed with intellect and will.
We can be free from ignorance by keeping ourselves informed on the law of God (intellect) and applying our knowledge in solving the moral issues that face us daily (will). Freedom from passion refers to our ability to put our inner drives under the control of our mind and will.