Chapter 8 Ethics

• Ethics


  Moral philosophy, practical philosophy, distinguished from moral theology
• Logic


  The intellectual activities and teaches the proper method in the acquisition of truth
• Object of Logic

  The true
• Ethics


  Directs the activities of the will
• Object of Ethics

  The good
• Ethics is the science of the moral rectitude of human acts in accordance with the first principles of natural reason
• Ethics is pre-eminently practical and directive
• Ethics orders the activity of the will, which means ordering the whole man
• Ethics not only directs a man how to act if he wishes to be morally good, but sets before him the absolute obligation of doing good and avoiding evil
• Morality


  The built-in awareness of right or wrong in each individual
• Ethics


  The scientific or philosophical treatment of morality
• Ethics has to do with the order which relates to man as man, and which makes him a good man
• Natural sciences related to ethics

  • Jurisprudence
  • Pedagogy
  • Political economy
• Ethics


  Derived from the Ancient Greek word ēthikós (ἠθικός), meaning "relating to one's character"
• ēthikós


  Comes from the root word êthos (ἦθος) meaning "character, moral nature"
• Ethica


  Latin term for ethics
• Éthique


  French term for ethics
• Sources and Methods of Ethics

  • Man’s own experience
  • Principles and truths proposed by other philosophical disciplines
• Ethics distinguishes between what is good and what is bad, between good men and bad men, between virtue and vice
• Ethics agrees that the good is to be strived for and the evil shunned
• Proper method of ethics

  Speculative and empirical
• Supernatural Christian Revelation is not a proper source of ethics
• The Christian philosopher should be guided by the revealed truth
• Rejected methods of ethics

  • Pure rationalism
  • Pure empiricism
  • Positivism
  • Traditionalism
• Pure rationalism


  Bases itself on reason alone, putting aside the Christian revelation
• Pure empiricism


  Bases itself on the foundation of experience limited to past or present phenomena
• Positivism


  Emancipates ethics from metaphysics and bases it on facts alone
• No science can be constructed on the mere foundation of facts, independently of metaphysics
• Traditionalism


  Complete certainty in religious and moral questions was not to be attained by reason alone, but only by revelation through tradition
• Traditionalism evolves with the certainty that God exists and reveals himself
• Traditionalism teaches that faith consists in certain appreciative judgments
• Traditionalism relegates religion and morals to pure subjectivism, losing all objectivity and universality of value
• Man’s Freedom


  The power to act or not to act, and to perform deliberate acts of one's own
• Man’s freedom attains perfection in its acts when directed toward God, the sovereign Good
• Man’s freedom characterises properly human acts
• Man is responsible for acts of which he is the voluntary agent
• Imputability or responsibility for an action can be diminished or nullified by ignorance, duress, fear, and other psychological or social factors
• Imputability is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of man
• The exercise of freedom does not entail the putative right to say or do anything
• Three sources of the morality of human acts

  • The intention
  • The circumstances
  • The act of willing