Module 9

• REASON


  the capacity for consciously making sense of things, establishing and verifying facts, applying logic, and changing or justifying practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information.
• Reasoning is associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect.
• PRACTICAL REASON


  reasoning which is used to guide action, and is contrasted with theoretical reason, which is used to guide thinking. Also refers to any way of working out what to do, more usually it refers to proper or authoritative, hence reasoned ways of working out what to do.
• REASONS can motivate and guide us in our actions such as moral actions as well (and omissions), in the sense that we often act in the light of reasons. More so, REASONS can be grounds for beliefs, desires and emotions and can be used to evaluate whether one's action is within the bounds of morality or not, and sometimes to justify all these. In addition, REASONS are used in explanations: both in explanations of human actions, beliefs, desires, emotions, etc., and an explanations of a wide range of phenomena involving all sorts of

  animate and inanimate substances.
• IMPARTIALITY


  (also called evenhandedness or fair- mindedness) is a principle of justice

  holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than

  on the basis of bias, prejudice,
• RONALD DWORKIN,


  a legal philosopher, says "everyone need not receive equal treatment, but everyone should be treated as an equal."
• Immanuel Kant


  argued that morality was based on reason alone, and once we understood this, we would see that acting morally is the same as acting rationally.
• Kant morality


  by definition, must help us decide what to do. When we are choosing how to act, we know that our self-interest or happiness influences our choices.
• Principle of Impartiality


  from the moral point of view asserts that all persons are considered equal

  and should be treated accordingly.
• The 7-step Moral Reasoning Model

  State problem.

  Check facts.

  Identify relevant factors.

  Develop list of options.

  Test options.

  Make a choice based on steps 1 - 5

  Review steps 1 - 6
• State problem.


  For example, "there's something about this decision that makes me uncomfortable" or "do I have a conflict of interest?"
• Check facts.


  Many problems disappear upon closer examination of situation, while others change radically.
• Develop list of options.


  Be imaginative, try to avoid "dilemmas"; not "yes" or "no" but whom to go to, what to say.
• Test options


  • Harm test
  • Publicity test
  • Defensibility test
  • Reversibility test
  • Colleague test
  • Organization test
• Harm test


  Does this option do less harm than alternatives?
• Publicity test


  Would I want my choice of this option published in the newspaper?
• Defensibility test


  Could I defend this choice of option before a congressional committee or committee of peers?
• Reversibility test


  Would I still think choice of this option good if I were adversely affected by it?
• Colleague test


  What might my profession's governing board or ethics committee say about this option?
• Organization test


  What does the organization's ethics officer or legal counsel say about this?
• MORAL COURAGE


  is the courage to take action for moral reasons despite the risk of adverse consequences. the commitment to standing up for and acting upon one's ethical beliefs amidst sarcasm, respite, humiliation, and ridicule.
• Kant and Thomas Aquinas


  are just two among philosophers who attempted to provide will and reason as strong foundation for moral actions.
• Kantian view of the practical, if reason is practical, the will, guided by reason, can effect, or cause, action. Kant agrees that free will is the necessary postulate of moral reason.
• According to Aquinas, WILL


  is the rational appetite, which basically means that will as 'appetite' is the form of desire, but, as rational, will is guided by intellect/reason.
• Aquinas's concept of will cannot be separated from his notion of reason.
• Reason, qua action-directing, is called "practical." The problem at issue is the

  relation, if any, between will and reason, i.e. practical reason.