LONG QUIZ

• Feelings


  Instinctive and trained response to moral dilemmas
• David Hume's four theses

  • 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 action
  • While some virtues and vices are natural, others (including justice) are artificial
• Hume sided with the moral sense theorists that a person gains awareness of moral good and evil by experiencing the pleasure of approval and the uneasiness of disapproval
• Direct passion


  Caused directly by the sensation of pain or pleasure
• Indirect passion


  Caused by the sensation of pain or pleasure derived from some other idea or impression
• Scheler's philosophy of feelings

  • Emotion is the most important aspect in human existence
  • Inherent, objective, and it exists even if you have not experienced it before (a priori)
  • Independent of the mind
  • Not chaotic
• Scheler's four strata (levels) of feelings


  • Sensual feelings - bodily pleasures or pain
  • Vital feelings - life functions such as health, sickness, energy, fatigue, etc.
  • Psychic feelings - aesthetics, justice, and knowledge (scientific)
  • Spiritual feelings - Divine
• Moral reasoning


  • You cannot rely only on your feelings no matter how powerful these feelings may be
  • Feelings can be irrational and merely a product of your prejudice, selfishness, or cultural conditioning
  • The morally right thing to do is one that is supported by rational arguments
• Emotive element


  Expressing positive feelings towards a particular act
• Prescriptive element


  An instruction or prescription of a particular behavior
• Reasons why feelings can be obstacles to making right decisions

  • Its non-deliberate nature
  • Its partial nature
  • It is capricious
• How emotions help in making the right decision

  • It signals the need to adjust behavior
  • It can help us learn from our mistakes
  • Emotional responses can be reshaped as time passes by
• Emotions are powerful and unavoidable. Upsurge of feeling is natural. However, it should not control behavior nor should it prevent reason. What we do with our feelings is what makes us ethical or unethical.
• Reason


  The power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic
• Impartiality


  Decisions should be based on objective criteria rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring to benefit one person over another for improper reasons
• Reasons why people should be moral


  • Enlightened self-interest - "I will be better off"
  • Traditional law - "Because some authority says so"
  • Responsibility - "It is expected of me"
  • Fairness and justice - "It is about fairness and justice"
  • Shared human needs, goals, desires, and/or objectives - "People are better met when treated in a manner that promotes right and good"
• Reason is a requirement for morality
• Impartiality is a requirement for morality
• 1. step Moral Reasoning Model

  1. Gather the facts

  2. Identify the stakeholders

  3. Articulate the dilemma

  4. List the alternatives

  5. Compare the alternatives with the principles

  6. Weigh the consequences

  7. Make a decision
• Moral courage


  The courage to put your moral principles into action even though you may be in doubt, are 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
• Will


  The mental capacity to act decisively on one's desire
• The "will" is as important as reason because it is the product of intellect and sensation, and it gives the person the capacity for "exciting movement in space"
• Developing the "will" involves using the intellect to decide and the resolve to put the decision into action