Unit one- Ethics and morality

• Autonomy 


  The ability to direct your own life and actions
• Personal Power 


  Competency in your skills to set outcomes
• Intimacy 


  The wonders of mutual disclosure with friends, family, members of the other gender, and God
• What directs my life- Destiny

  A non- Catholic view that the stars hold your destiny and you cannot change what happens
• What directs my life- Chaos

  An idea that accidents that occur direct your life
• What directs my life- Talent 


  An idea that only your choices will direct your life
• What directs my life- The grace of God 


  An idea of providence; that God knows and has a plan for your life, and you play a role in determining your choices
• Two great commandments to keep Christians authentic

  1. You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your mind
  2. You shall love your neighbour as yourself
• Individual identity 


  Characteristics that set us apart from others
• Collective identity 


  Characteristics that set a group of people apart from others
• Paradigm 


  A way of seeing, understanding, and interpreting the world around you, your personal perspective
• Catholic paradigm- Humor


  Humans were made for heaven and to be joyful
• Catholic paradigm- Humility 


  Humans are creatures who must obey God
• Catholic paradigm- Humus 


  Humans are made from the earth and are stewards of the earth
• Catholic paradigm- Different appetites or desires humans have

  Physical health (most important)

  Sexual completion

  Aesthetic wonders

  Emotional security

  Psychological belonging

  Intellectual curiosity

  Spiritual transcendence
• Catholic paradigm- Passions 


  Humans have passion, feelings, desires, and emotions such as love, hatred, fear and anger

  Passions are sensual- they are related to our senses and to our body

  Passions are a gift of God that engages your senses, allowing your attraction to the good also be a physical attraction
• Catholic paradigm- Humans are beings


  We have the choice to be or not to be, a spiritual side, or a soul that other creatures do not have. We have FREEDOM
• Catholic paradigm- Catholic identity: each person is uniquely and lovingly created in the image of God 


  Personal and unique

  Communal, bound together (you desire and need other people in your life)

  Defined in our relationship with God ( you are a moral and spiritual being)

  Have free will and have the ability to affect change in the world

  Have a soul ( part of us that exists most especially in God's image)

  Have a conscience (desire to do good and avoid evil)
• Soul equation 


  Intellect (know what is good) + Will ( choice to do what is good)
• Intellect 


  The part of the world that has the capacity to recognise God's presence in our lives and the world

  Has the power to recognise God's fingerprints all over creation
• Free Will 


  Allows us to choose to love God back and to choose what is good

  No other creature we have discovered has the power of the human soul
• Happiness 


  Is not a state of subjective contentment nor a rest from desire, but rather it is a state of possessing the objective (actual) good for human begins
• Levels of Happiness- Level One: Physical pleasure and possession 


  Comes from external stimuli; interacts with our senses and offers immediate gratification

  Is concrete, direct, tangible, and often quite intense

  Does not extend beyond myself

  Is not long lasting

  Does not use a person's higher powers (intellect, free will, love)
• Levels of Happiness- Level Two: Ego-Gratification 


  Comes from achievement, winning, power, and popularity

  Requires some skill and control and seeks a comparative advantage over others

  Offers short term gratification

  Does not extend beyond myself

  Not long lasting

  Uses only some of a persons higher powers

  Lead to jealousy, envy, fear of failure, aggression, blame, rage, self pity ect
• Levels of Happiness- Level three: Good beyond myself 


  Comes from doing the greater good beyond the self and being with others in empathy

  Seeks to satisfy the human desire for truth, love justice, beauty, and unity

  Extends beyond myself

  Long term gratification

  Uses a person's higher powers

  Our desire for a perfect world is not achievable and it will often lead to frustration, dashed expectation, and despair
• Levels of Happiness- Level four: Ultimate Good 


  Our true and complete happiness comes from reviving and participating in ultimate truth, love, justice, beauty, and unity

  Can only be achieved by believing that the ultimate goal exists as a reality (God)

  Extends beyond myself infinitely, is eternally enduring and infinitely deep

  Only God can fill the longing hole in our hearts
• Philosophy 


  The discipline that searches for an explanation of human existence and reality
• Human Nature 


  The ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, which come naturally to humans
• Ways of thinking about the human condition: Idealism

  Everything we experience in the world and think of as reality is really just an illusion created by our imperfect senses

  "The world of ideas is more real than the world of things"
• Ways of thinking about the human condition: Realism 


  The external world exists independently of humans being present to experience it

  If all things that are red vanish, would red itself no longer exist?
• Ways of thinking about the human condition: Dualism 


  Two kinds of reality- the physical (material) and the non physical (spiritual)

  The mind and body are in some way separate from each other yet can still influence each other and that the mind (soul) is somewhat non physical in nature (free choice or will)
• Three parts of the soul 


  Reason

  Appetite (physical urges)

  Will (emotion, passion, spirit)
• How did Plato believe we should balance the three parts of the soul?

  Belived in reason and rationality above all

  The mind should lead and have the final say in any decision

  Education should be the way to reach goodness
• Are people naturally good (yes and no) 


  Plato: said good would be found in the wisdom derived from truth or education found in society not from the individual

  If you remove fear of punishment, the righteous will behave no differently than the wicked
• Are people naturally good (No)

  Machiavelli: said goodness was false

  Viewed ambition, competition, and war as inevitable parts of human nature
• Are people naturally good (no)

  Nietzsche: said good is defined by the individuals perceptive or subjective truth
• Are people naturally good (yes)

  Socrates: said goodness is found by living your best live and focusing on improving your soul

  No one willing chooses to do wrong
• Are people naturally good (yes)

  Aristotle: stated that happiness is the goal of life by pursing virtue in oneself, but using moderation while doing so
• Are people naturally good (yes)


  Kant: said the good we seek call us to do out duty as it is our responsibility to be good
• Are people naturally good (yes)

  Levians: changed perspective by saying where is goodness instead of what is goodness