ethics

• David Hume


  Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism
• Hume conceived of philosophy as the inductive, experimental science of human nature
• Hume tried to describe how the mind works in acquiring what is called knowledge
• Hume concluded that no theory of reality is possible; there can be no knowledge of anything beyond experience
• Hume's 4 theses pertaining to Philosophy of the Mind

  • Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the "slave of the passions"
  • Moral distinctions are not derived from reason
  • Moral distinctions are derived from the moral sentiments: feelings of approval (esteem, praise) and disapproval (blame) felt by spectators who contemplate a character trait or action
  • While some virtues and vices are natural, others (including justice) are artificial
• Direct Passions


  Caused directly by the sensation of pain or pleasure; the passion that "arises from good or evil, from pain or pleasure" that we experience or expect to experience (ex. Desire, aversion, hope, fear, grief and joy)
• Indirect Passions


  Caused by the sensation of pain or pleasure derived from some other idea or impression (ex. pride, humility, ambition, vanity, love, hatred, envy, pity, malice, generosity)
• Scheler's philosophy


  • Emotion is the most important aspect in human existence and that emotions and feelings are inherent objective, and it exists even if you have not experienced it before (a priori)
• Scheler's Stratification Model of Emotive Life

  • Sensual Feelings
  • Vital Feelings
  • Psychic Feelings
  • Spiritual Feelings
• In moral reasoning, you could not rely on your feelings no matter how powerful these feelings may be
• Feelings can be irrational and merely a product of prejudice, selfishness, or cultural conditioning and that the morally right thing to do is one that is supported by rational arguments
• Reason plays a role in making a moral decision; hence, Philosophers encourage the use of reason in making moral decisions
• Our moral compasses are also powerfully influenced by feelings as Hume claimed that in any given situation, a person would act based on emotions rather than reason
• Emotive element in moral decisions

  Expressing positive feelings towards a particular act (ex. Kindness is good)
• Prescriptive element in moral decisions


  Feeling that a particular act should be encouraged for others to follow (ex. Be kind to others)
• Feelings are non-deliberate in nature, meaning the act was spontaneous, without conscious effort
• Philosopher Aaron Be'en Zeev's 3 reasons why feelings are non-deliberate


  • Responsibility entails free choice
  • Free choice entails and intellectual deliberation in which alternatives are considered and the best one is chosen
  • Since intellectual deliberation is absent from emotions, we cannot be responsible for our emotions
• Partial nature of emotions

  Emotions focus only on a narrow area and reflect personal and self-interest perspectives
• Emotions are capricious, rising up for arbitrary reasons that have nothing to do with the moral situation
• Emotions are the foundation of all our cognitive and behavioral practices; and emotional responses often guide a person in making beneficial choices without any conscious reasoning
• 3 ways that feelings, especially negative ones, help in making the right decisions

  • It signals the need to adjust behavior
  • It can help us learn from our mistakes
  • Emotional responses can be reshaped as time pass by
• Negative feelings trigger "counterfactual thinking", the human tendency to create possible or alternative scenarios other than what had actually happened, which presents an opportunity to reflect and prepare oneself in making different, and possibly better choices in the future
• Reason


  The power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgements by a process of logic
• Immanuel Kant argued that reason alone is the basis of morality, and once the person understood the basic requirement for morality, he or she would see that acting morally is the same as acting rationally
• Impartiality is commonly understood as a core value in professional codes of ethics and as a principle of justice
• Moral courage


  The courage to put your moral principles into action even though you may be in doubt, afraid, or face adverse consequences
• Moral imagination


  The ability in particular circumstances to discover and evaluate possibilities not merely determined by that circumstance, or limited by its operative mental mode or merely framed by a set of rules or rule-governed concerns
• The Will


  The mental capacity to act decisively on one's desire. It's the faculty of the mind to initiate action after coming to a resolution following careful deliberation
• For Aristotle, the soul in living creatures is distinguished by two functions: the judging capacity which is a function of the intellect and of sensation combined, and the capacity for exciting movement in space
• For Aristotle, since vice and virtues are up to us, we become just by the practice of just actions; self-control by exercising self-control, and being courageous by practicing acts of courage
• Self-mastery is the product of the "will" that is achieved by actually putting rational, moral choice into action
• Aristotle was born in Stagira in Macedon (now part of northern Greece) in 384 B.C.
• In 367 B.C., Aristotle came to Athens and was a member of Plato's Academy until the death of Plato in 347
• In 334 he returned to Athens and founded his own school, the Lyceum
• According to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, all human activities aim at some good, and the good has been rightly declared as that at which all things aim
• The good life is characterized by happiness that springs from living and doing well
• Virtue Ethics


  Theories that put emphasis on the role of character and virtue in living one's life rather than in doing one's duty or in acting to bring about good consequences
• Telos


  The end of human act, which is either good or bad
• Aristotle insists that any good end is achievable, as only human beings are capable of seeing the good in all things
• Every action that aims in achieving the good is the telos/end of human actions, but our understanding of the good may not necessarily be good to others