chapter 3

• Character


  A distinct mark by which one thing is distinguished from others, the assemblage of qualities that distinguish one person from another
• Moral Character


  The existence or lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty. A good moral character means being a good person and a good citizen with a sound moral compass.
• Moral Character (Aristotle)


  A settled condition we are in when we are well off in relation to feelings and actions, being in a mean or intermediate state in regard to them. A vicious character is being badly off in relation to feelings and actions, and failing to hit the mean in regard to them.
• Character vs. Personality


  Moral character traits have an irreducibly evaluative dimension, involving normative judgment, and the agent is morally responsible for having the moral character trait itself or for the outcome of the trait.
• Acts and Character


  Acts that emanate from moral character matter in moral development, as a person's actions determine their moral character, and moral character itself generates acts that help in developing either virtue or vice.
• Virtuous Person


  • Can determine with regularity and reliability what individual acts are appropriate and reasonable in certain situations, and can decide with regularity and reliability how and when to secure goods and resources for himself/herself and others.
• Moral Character as Dispositions

  Moral character traits (virtues or vices) are dispositions of character for which agents are morally responsible.
• Kohlberg's Six Stages of Moral Development

  • Pre-Conventional Morality: Obedience and Punishment Orientation, Individualism and Exchange
  • Conventional Morality: Good Interpersonal Relationships, Maintaining the Social Order
  • Post-Conventional Morality: Social Contract and Individual Rights, Universal Principles
• Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation


  Choosing what is right based on avoiding punishment, "might makes right"
• Stage 2: Individualism and Exchange


  Being egotistic or self-serving, "what's in it for me?"
• Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships


  Pleasing important others, conforming to someone else's expectations, "I want to be nice"
• Stage 4: Law and Order Thinking


  Internalizing society's rules and conforming to maintain social order, "I'll do my duty"
• Stage 5: Justice through Democracy


  Understanding the underlying moral purposes of laws and social customs, being willing to change unjust laws, "I'll live by the rules or try to change them"
• Stage 6: Universal Principles


  Rationally choosing a philosophy of life that truly guides life, being tough enough to act on moral principles even if others disagree, conscience-based moral decisions
• Problems with Kohlberg's Theory: Dilemmas are artificial, lacking ecological validity; the study was biased as it was based on an all-male sample.
• Feelings and Moral Decision-Making


  Moral judgments should involve both reason and emotion, as feelings are instinctive and trained responses to moral dilemmas.
• Feelings as Obstacles to Making the Right Decisions

  Occurs when the role of feelings in ethics is misinterpreted or exaggerated.
• Ethical Subjectivism


  The theory that moral judgments simply describe our personal feelings, and that there are no objective facts in morality.
• Case of Abortion


  • Anti-Abortion: "God hates it, it is unethical. Sanctity of life should always be the superior goal."
  • Pro-Abortion: "Mother's life is more important. Practitioners must be tolerated and be respected."
• This happens when feelings' roles in ethics are misinterpreted or exaggerated
• Ethical Subjectivism


  Theory that acts contrary to the principle that there is objectivity in morality. It is a theory about the nature of moral judgments, not about what is good or bad or how we should live
• Ethical propositions


  Dependent on feelings, attitudes, or standards of a person or group of persons. Moral judgments simply describe our personal feelings
• Case of Abortion


  • Anti-Abortion: "God hates it, it is unethical. Sanctity of life should always be the superior goal."
  • Pro-Abortion: Mother's life is more important. Practitioners must be tolerated and be respected
• A. and B. are both expressing their respective opinion, but where morality is concerned, there are no objective facts and no position is objectively right. It submits that our moral opinions are based on feelings and nothing more
• Ethical Subjectivism


  • Allows us to think for ourselves because it implies that we need not agree with culture or society for our moral principles are based on our feelings and not what society feels or dictates
  • The assumption is that the mere fact that we like something would make it good (slavery, racism, discrimination, drugs, bullying, Jack the Ripper)
  • Moral judgments are not mere expressions of our personal feelings. In our sincere moral judgments, we claim that the stance we choose represent the truth
  • If Ethical Subjectivism is correct, then each of us is infallible in our own moral judgments as long as we are speaking sincerely. But we are not infallible, we may be mistake, even when we are speaking sincerely
  • There is no disagreement between A and B. Both of them are correct provided that they are sincere in their feelings and beliefs. This entails that each should acknowledge the truth of what the other is saying
  • When the theory is faithfully subscribed to, children would be taught to simply follow their likes and dislikes. It is deficient in providing us any guide on how to develop sensible and proper feelings
• Emotivism


  An improved version of Subjectivism. Moral judgments express positive or negative feelings. Since ethical judgments are essentially commands and exclamations, they are not true or false; so there cannot be moral truths and moral knowledge
• Emotivism


  • Utterances in ethics are not fact-stating sentences, they are used as means of influencing other's behavior or to express the speaker's attitude
  • Suggests that we cannot appeal to reason but only to emotion. Could encourage propaganda wards not minding to resort to reason, would simply try to manipulate the feelings or emotions of the opponents
  • Fails to distinguish moral judgments from mere expressions of personal preference. For an utterance to become a genuine moral or value judgment, it must be supported by pertinent reasons
  • Discards moral truth reducing morality to mere matters of feelings. It fails to notice that humans have not only feelings but also reason, and reason plays vital role in ethics
• Reason


  The basis or motive for an action, decision, or conviction. The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; for consciously making sense of things, establishing and verifying facts, applying a common sense and logic, and justifying, and if necessary, changing practices, institutions, and beliefs based on existing or new existing information
• Reason in Ethics


  • Moral Deliberation is a matter of weighing reasons and being guided by them. Truth in ethics entails being justified by good reasons
  • Being defined by good reasons, moral truths are objective in the sense that they are true no matter what we might want or think. This explains why morality is arbitrary. Reason commends what it commends, regardless of our feelings, attitudes, opinions, and desires
• Impartiality


  The idea that each individual's interests and point of view are equally important. Decisions ought to be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons
• Impartiality in morality


  • Requires that we give equal and/or adequate consideration to the interests of all concerned parties. It assumes that every person, generally speaking, is equally important; that is no one is seen as intrinsically more significant that anyone else
• 7 steps/ elements of a model for making moral decisions

  1. Gather the facts

  2. Determine the Ethical Issues

  3. Identify the Principles that have a Bearing on the Case

  4. List the Alternatives

  5. Compare the Alternatives with the Principles

  6. Weigh the Consequences

  7. Make a Decision
• Moral Courage


  Doing the right thing even at the risk of inconvenience, ridicule, punishment, loss of job or security of social status, etc. It requires that we rise above the apathy, complacency, hatred, cynicism, and fear-mongering in our political systems, socioeconomic divisions, and cultural/religious differences
• Will


  The faculty of the mind which chooses, at the moment of making decision, the strongest desire from among the various desire present. It goes along with reason and understanding and it enables a person to act deliberately
• Will Power


  The inner strength to make a decision, take action, and handle and execute any claim or task until it is accomplished, and regardless of inner and outer resistance, discomfort or difficulties. It bestows the ability to overcome laziness, temptations and negative habits, and to carry out actions, even if they require effort, are unpleasant and tedious or are contrary to one's habits
• Developing Will and Moral Courage

  1. Develop and practice self-discipline

  2. Do mental strength training

  3. Draw inspiration from people of great courage

  4. Repeatedly do acts that exhibit moral courage and will

  5. Avoid deeds that show lack of moral courage and will