Moral Philosophy: Decision Making

Moral Philosophy: Decision Making

• Decision involves seeking a solution to a problem through selective elimination of alternatives and requires a process for execution.
• Effective decisions enhance organizational performance and are linked to participant maturity and experience, with wider gaps potentially causing conflicting opinions.
• Organizations that do not employ a democratic process when making decisions risk facing problems in their execution.
• Involving all members leads to more effective decisions and simpler execution.
• Leaders should align decisions with the nature of the problems and know when to include others.
• Urgent matters need quick, unilateral decisions, but lasting solutions need action commitment.

Morality in Daily Life

• Morality is about what is right and wrong in daily life and provides order and agreements in society, and neglect of morality can result in undesirable conditions.
• Moral system requires tolerance in everyday interactions, acknowledging differing customs and traditions.
• Moral systems depend on standards and also agreements, understandings and rules of conduct.
• Environmental influence lacks inherent morality, with standards varying between societies.
• Morality involves upholding standards, accepted behavior, and morality impacts interactions. It is reflected by an individual's decisions and values.

Philosophy Defined

• Philosophy, derived from the Greek "philosophia" (love of wisdom), involves rational inquiry into basic principles usually metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
• Rational and logical assessment of societal norms, moral philosophy guides behavior, the need for ethical codes is emphasized by its use.
• Moral philosophy helps individuals make the best decision when facing problems.
• Philosophers include wise interpreters of the world and academic practitioners/instructors.

Functions of Philosophy

• Philosophy trains critical and constructive thinking and offers judgment and suggestions.
• PhilosophytProvides insights into moral, aesthetic, and religious values and facilitates value discrimination.
• It trains individuals for constructive citizenship and wise freedom usage and enables freedom for its users.
• It provides students with methods to systematize, assimilate, and evaluate knowledge.
• Academic philosophy teaches the history of ideas and great philosophers' ideals, and gives students skills in logical or discursive thinking.
• Academic philosophy enhances tolerance and ideological understanding.

Morality: Conduct and Ethics

• Morality means conduct/behavior and Ethics means the study of moral conducts.
• Morality means sexual behavior
• Morality involves more than sexual matters, such as avoiding excessive drinking and gambling.
• Morality is more than the everyday view, impacting choices in behavior, friendships, occupation, civic engagement, and recreation.
• Moral philosophy involves systematically assessing societal standards, and individuals need moral philosophy to guide their decisions based on societal values.

Decadence and Immorality in Nigerian Society

• Nigerian society faces rising social and moral issues like corruption, theft, and undermining public funds.
• Immorality prevails, including sexual misconduct, abortion, greed, trafficking, tribalism, and cult involvement among youths.
• Morality is compromised in both political, social, and religious spheres as parents neglect children for wealth, with law enforcement, justice, and healthcare also affected.
• The army is involved in crime as some defend their citizens by becoming armed robbers.
• Moral corruption extends to religious institutions, where chastity is devalued, wealth is glorified, and youths engage in immoral acts.

Responses to Socio-Moral Decay

• The government introduced the NYSC in 1973 and an ethical revolution in 1979 as well as constitutional sections designed to address socio-moral deterioration.
• Subsequent administrations implemented initiatives like WAI, Mass Mobilization of Self-Reliance, and NOA.
• Serious social and moral issues persisted during the military regime of 1984-1992. Teaching moral philosophy was then pushed in tertiary institutions because of these issues.

Aims of Moral Philosophy

• It aims to establish and maintain a moral society, with a dynamic economy and opportunities for all citizens.
• Values to instill include respect for individual worth, rational decision-making, moral/spiritual values, shared responsibility, and labor dignity.
• Education socializes individuals, helping them adapt to their various environments.

Forms of Explanation for Principles and Problems of Right and Wrong

• Varied implications and consequences for educational perspectives exist for morality and different principles.
• Idealism: Philosophy of reality and knowledge that attributes consciousness a primary role.
• Physical objects are mind-dependent versus materialism that consciousness is reducible to physical elements.
• Those who accept and uphold moral, aesthetic, and religious moral standards are known as idealists.
• Idealism emphasizes that the worth of man and their mental or spiritual ability are significant.

Realism: Philosophical Doctrine

• In philosophy, realism asserts that ordinary objects have an independent existence contrary to idealism.
• Native realism believes things are exactly as they appear while Platonic realism refers to Platonic Forms as universals.
• Greek philosopher Aristotle rooted philosophy in nature, asserting matter as the ultimate reality.
• Realism sees claims about truth, knowledge, morality, and politics as subject to testing.

Pragmatism: Key Points

• Pragmatism encapsulates an American faith and an American distrust of abstract theories (though it was popular in many western countries like France and Italy).
• John Dewey promoted instrumentalism as a type of pragmatism, and pragmatism also has philosophers Fredinand Canning, Scott Schiller and Henri Bergson contributing to its development.
• Sees reality as a constant state of change.
• Provides a method of determining the ultimate meaning and truth value of an idea.
• Ideas change based on scientific insight; and meaning depends on practical results.
• Pragmatists believe theory truth depends on its effects.
• Pragmatism applies practical consequences to determining the value of ideas and sees truth in what is useful.
• Pragmatism emphasizes empirical scientific inquiry.

Criticism of Pragmatism

• Public or community influence can lower pupil reflective thinking and decision-making.
• If education facts continue to change, then there is a need to teach them since they are constantly changing.
• Solutions to past problems may not always be relevant to present or future problems.

Existentialism: Emphasizing the Individual

• A philosophical movement focusing on individual existence and choice made by influential writers in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• It stresses concrete individual existence and free choice. This philosophy could be traced back to ancient and even biblical times.
• Key figures include Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Jasper, Gabriel Marcel, and Jean-Paul Sartre.
• Existentialism concerns itself with human existence and its difficulties.

General Theory of Existentialism

• Freedom, including value determination, and responsibility and commitment, comprises existentialism.
• Individuals should act to their own competencies.
• Authentic existence involves fully choosing actions that align with individual norms and customs.
• Human beings are unique and irreplaceable; individuals should avoid surrendering their authenticity.

Themes of Existentialism: Death

• Death is an important theme in existentialism.
• Death is personalized, seen as a natural process.
• Key existentialist figures include Martin Heidegger.
• Other existentialist themes are nothingness anxiety and facticity.

Views on Human Existence

• Heidegger supports the Satre view by mentioning man by never starting from scratch.
• Dasein lacks inherent properties but consists of possibility. Heidegger argued that a person may have an inclination for an occupation yet be unfit for it.
• Circumstances restrict what a person can do.

Construed Moral Theories: Central Idea

• A central idea is that each individual gauges the rightness of the stress based on the individual pleasure.

Hedonism Explained

• Hedonism emphasizes that pleasure is the chief good in life.
• Egoistic Hedonism: Gratifying personal desires without regard for others is the ultimate goal.

Two Important Hedonistic Theories

• Cyrenaics or egoistic hedonists: Gratifying personal desires and without regard for other is an espoused doctrine.
• Epicureans or rational hedonists: True pleasure attained only by reason focusing on the virtues and self-control.

Utilitarianism: Core Principles

• Utilitarianism says that the ultimate criterion of human behavior is the good of society as well as providing well-being for the greatest number of people.
• Utilitarianism holds ethics to be the doctrine that judges the rightness of actions based on usefulness for the greatest number.
• In utilitarian ethics, right and wrong differ from theology and hedonism as they vary depending on will and pleasure.

Natural Law vs. Utilitarianism

• Legislation opposes that the bad are whether they conform to natural laws principles that would be freely broken by people.

Greek Philosopher Epicurus

• Based on the teachings of his philosophical system.
• Its doctrine emphasizes pleasure (must must be "unreasoned.")
• The pleasure should be intellectual.
• True happiness results from conquering fear, especially of gods and death.

Doctrines of Epicureanism

• Emphasizes pleasure and also scientific insight
• Emphasize friendship with disquieting nature.
• Stresses to always prefer self-restraint, moderation, and detachment
• Denied any possibility after life

Eudemonism: Concept Origins

• Comes from Greek words "eu" (good) and "daimonios" (spirit)
• Advocates happiness as the ultimate goal of human activities.
• Eudaimonia theories include eudemonia, materialism and utilitarianism.

Ancient Views on Eudemonia

• Every important thinker represented instances (such as Aristotle and Plato)
• The greatest criticism was Immanuel Kant who focused on egotistical actions (ones that acting out of a duty instead of for good)

Religious and Ethical Ideals

• There are two approaches.
• Ethnical (being respect) are duties that God wills us to perform.
• Credal focuses on religion as the body of truth and to discover those rules.

Meaning of Virtue

• Virtue can be within.
• Temperance is focusing an individuals higher value on an individuals bodily value.
• There are several aspects including- Self-interest, Just conduct, wisdom, clarity and loyalty.

Moral Absolutism and Relativism

• Philosophical Concepts relating to universal and valid moral propositions across time and cultures.
• Absolutism is a governance structure focuses political system (in which total power is vested in a single individual or a group of rulers).
• Relativists, unlike Absolutisms, believe that the rational moral agents are conditional and no moral rule is absolute

Contextual Ethics

• "Situation ethics" in which moral judgements depend on context rather than specific actions or principles.
• Context and moral choices evoke unique choices and unrepeatable results within unique acts.

Freedom: Central Issues

• Freedom is part of human existence and needs classification to be accepted to a degree.
• Man to choose with birth-right.
• One of aims of education is personal growth and special types of determination.
• Independence is a special side that shows that there is no external hindrance to do act.

Morality

• Is cultivated through individuals or groups in community through ideals or valued societies.

Family as a Moral Agent

• The family is the essential agent of introducing the child to the world.
• It can also transmit segments of culture whether religious or occupational, depending on the child.

Mechanism for Socialization

• This the way for the familiar of the child through the use of rewards and punishments.

School as a Moral Agent

• A school promotes a specific objective and explicit primary objective of the school.
• Its meant conserve transmits people the people's culture.
• The teacher has multiple responsibilities ranging from instruct or to disciplinarian.

Peer Groups and Associations

• Peer group gives experience with others.
• As association is group or people joined for a purpose (This could voluntary and involuntary).

Religious Institution

• This one provides guidance.

Mass Media: A Socializing agent

• Such to be, the press and movies.
• Content and personnel have considerable interest and prestige values and the society is apart of the child.

Citizen Education

• A Status of native and of naturalization.
• Rights and duties are important.

Citizenship Levels

• Comprising of local and world communities.
• All those are apart a greater community built around assignment of jobs.

Goals of Citizenship Education

• To teach people more things about the welfare of others.

Views on Nigerian Values

• Has on whet her their actually Nigeria and African values.
• Social ways are shared by many with groups as well.

How Values are Justified

• They are absolute with great principles and election.
• Values are also more productive and can be self-chosen.

Implementing Values

• Value can become implemented.

Government and Moral Rectitude

• Every government has duties and rules to protect orderly behavior.

Source of Democracy

• Is what the author resi des in and then govern those.
• This all happens and relates to individual opinions.

Constitution

• Ways to access political is through this document.

Law & Sources

• From humans as well as divine from what is to be considered supreme and superior.

Anarchy and Rule

• Anarchy: every is what makes their want and that leads to chaos.
• Authority determined from others as well as society.

Governmental & Ethical Functions

• It's influence influences the development in a variety of ways dependent on the circumstances.

Morality and Steps taken

• Many ways the government needs to step
• Such as, more corps schemes and better life.

Disciplinary Model Concepts

• Situational, Regular and Habitual ways to building more better life.

Value's of Judgement

Psychology

• There can be reinforcement, and also rewards. Punishment only inhibits not kills the bad and evil.

Types of Disciplines

• 3 types- Moral. Environmental and Personal.

Problem Solving Model

• Authority Figures must be better than they now and model better for others.
• Teachers and Parent be better as well.