ETHICSSSSS

• Virtue


  • (Etymologically) manliness, i.e. strength, courage
  • Disposition, ability, or habit inclining man to think and act correctly to follow what is right and avoid what is evil
  • A highly regarded personality trait or aspect of character
  • Deeply held value by a person that intrinsically leads him or her to behave in a certain way
  • Good universal values, all of us should have
  • It affect how we absorbed the world around us and act in the world
  • Virtuous people are not perfect, but it does not affect the purity or inspirational component of the virtue itself
  • Virtuous actions make a person good
  • It is a good quality of the mind by which one lives rightly, which no one uses badly and which God works in us but without us (St. Augustine)
  • It is a good habit perfecting man in any of his rational potencies and inclining him to the right and perfect use of his potencies (St. Thomas)
• Virtue Ethics


  • Considers excellence or goodness in terms of performance
  • Any activity that is good reflects the doing of things in an excellent way
  • Actualization or perfection of human excellence
  • Virtues that give rise to a good life
  • A good life and the manner by which it is lived, and exemplification of the virtues
• Eudaimonism


  • The ideal goal of human existence is individual eudaimonia (Happiness; wellbeing; good life
  • This goodness is attainable by acting out those virtues, called phronesis (prudence or practical wisdom)
  • phronesis is a tool to achieve happiness
• Ethics of Care


  • 20TH century
  • Outgrowth of feminist theory of Annette Baier
  • Gender role influences a person's action and thinking
  • Taking care of others, patient and nurturing, willing to sacrifice one's own happiness for the sake of other's happiness
• Agent-Based Theory


  • Uses the largest, most normal and most lauded virtues across time and culture (ex. Kindness and mercy)
  • Moves the burden of ethics to the inner life of the agent who performs those actions
• Law


  Makes man concern about common good (good of the community or whole people)
• Law

  An ordinance of reason, made and promulgated by man for the common good
• Divisions of Law

  • Eternal Law
  • Natural Law
  • Human Law
  • Divine Law
  • The Old Law
  • The New Law
• Eternal Law

  • A norm whereby God governs the universe and most of which are unknowable to man
  • What God wills for creation
  • Keeps the universe (Kosmos) in proper working order
  • It always exist, and always will within the mind of God (Logos)
  • All creatures are part and participate in this law
• Natural Law

  • Aspect of eternal law knowable to man and applicable to human lives
  • "an intellect-bit size of reality"
  • Man has participation and contribution as a rational being
• Natural Law

  • procreation of man and woman
  • sustaining and defending life
  • protection of the environment
• Human Law

  • An application of the general principles of natural law to particular situations, by the human minds
  • Morally-based earthly laws by which human societies function
• Divine Law

  • An aspect of the eternal law made known to human minds by God through historical revelations
  • Laid out in Old and New testaments
• Divine Law

  • the 10 Commandments
• The Old Law

  • An aspect of the Divine law made known by God thru pre-Christian revelation to the Jewish people
• The New Law

  • An aspect of the Divine law made known by Christ to the church
• Emotions

  • Are constitutive of being human on personal and collective levels
  • Are momentary feelings; unsuitable to moral decision making
  • Are unwilled and subjective; are fleeting feelings hence, there can hardly be accountability
• Emotions


  Conscious mental reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body
• Philosophers are convinced that emotions play a crucial role in moral decision-making
• Blaise Pascal: 'The heart knows what the mind does not'
• The mind is not the sole arbiter of what is right and wrong
• Emotions operate with precision and consistency of their own
• Two schools of thought on emotions

  • Emotion is a hindrance and a help
  • Emotions should be guided by reason
• Emotion is a hindrance and a help

  1. Why they can be obstacles in making the right decision?

  2. How can they help in making the right decision?
• When moral claims could not be supported by reasonable arguments, then such claims would in no way resolve a moral issue
• The neutral position (relativism) carried out by feelings implies a double standard
• Emotions unaided by reason do away with critical analysis for objectivity, disconnecting ethics
• Animal passion


  Instinctive tendencies
• Human rationality

  Control instinct with reason
• Feelings maybe helpful but it should be guided by reason
• Moral emotions
• The four cardinal virtues

  • Prudence
  • Justice
  • Fortitude
  • Temperance
• Prudence


  Regulates the intellect to think of the right thing and to avoid evil
• Justice


  Regulates the will of giving what is due to others
• Fortitude


  Regulates weakness of character
• Temperance


  Voluntary self-restraint
• Charity


  • The mover, the mother and root of all virtues and the source of good will, kindness, mercy, and forgiveness
  • Supernatural virtue of loving God above all things and loving one's neighbour because of God
  • Gives unity and harmony to individual moral life and to the whole humanity
  • Helping the poor, the unfortunate, the underprivileged
• Justice


  Giving what is due to others
• Legal justice


  • Binding all men to do what is for the common good in accordance with the law
• Distributive justice


  • Directs the state to share out to the people benefits and offices according to the merits and capabilities