Philosophy Endterm: Freedom and Morality

Ethics

• Ethics deals with the systematic questioning and critical examination of the underlying principles of morality.
• Sanctions, customs, and habits are formed from society, influencing moral frameworks and standards.
• Normative ethics answers the question "What is good?" and pertains to certain norms or standards for goodness and badness.
• Meta-ethics questions the basis of assumptions proposed in a normative ethical framework.
• Applied ethics describes how to apply normative theories to specific issues.

Morality

• Morality refers to the customs, including the customary behavior of a particular group of people.
• The concept of morality stems from man's basic instinct to survive.
• Freedom is the door to absolute existence, and this is realized by doing deeds in absolute freedom.
• A human person is defined by what they have done and are doing.

Approaches to Moral Reasoning

• Deontological ethics or deontological reasoning is an ethic based on duty.
• Teleological ethics is based on consequences, and the end justifies the means.
• Utilitarianism is based on the maximization of pleasure and the avoidance of pain to promote happiness.
• Immanuel Kant's moral philosophy is based on the categorical imperative, which states "Act only on that maxim, through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."

Intersubjectivity

• Intersubjectivity is the study of that which appears, and it is a product of our interaction with the world.
• The establishment of knowledge is the product of agreement and confirmation of others.
• The objectivity of knowledge requires the perspective of others.
• There is an undeniable existence of meanings shared by a community (Life-World).

Human Person and Society

• According to Aristotle, man by nature is a political animal, naturally directed to form into groups to fulfill their basic needs for subsistence.

• The social nature of the human person is characterized by the formation of groups to fulfill basic needs.

• Societies have evolved from Hunter-Gatherer to Pastoral Societies, with men and women having different roles and responsibilities.### Societies

• Societies are formed to allow people to achieve their human potential and live a good life, characterized by virtue and happiness.

• The simplest type of society is the Hunting and Gathering Society, where people survive by hunting and gathering food, with no permanent settlement and usually egalitarian decision-making.

Pre-Industrial Societies

• Pre-industrial societies are limited to the amount of labor humans can provide, with simple tools and a small land area to be tilled.
• Examples of pre-industrial societies include:
  • Horticultural Societies, which cultivate and nurture plants, with men responsible for clearing the land and women responsible for taking care of fruits and vegetables.
  • Agrarian Societies, which use new materials and methods for cultivating plants and animals, with the invention of the plow and wheel.

Industrial Societies

• Industrial societies were a result of continued innovations in agrarian societies, with the establishment of the printing press and advancements in water transportation.
• The three factors that gave birth to industrial societies are:
  • Further advancements in agricultural techniques and practices.
  • The establishment of the printing press.
  • The use of new energy sources, such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas.
• Industrial societies are characterized by the centralization of wealth and power, with the emergence of a capitalist class and an oppressive working class.

Post-Industrial Societies

• Post-industrial societies are characterized as knowledge and service-oriented, with the service sector being the protagonist.
• The main capital of post-industrial society is knowledge, with education being the source of energy.
• Social classes are divided by access to education in post-industrial societies.

Consumer Society

• The consumer society emerged as a result of the efficiency in production, where the supply of goods exceeded the demand, leading to a culture of consumption.
• The 20th century brought about a new type of person called the consumer, with the rise of advertising and the encouragement of people to consume.

Sign Consumption and the Society of Spectacle

• Sign consumption is the consumption of signs and meanings attached to a commodity, with the focus on the sign value rather than the use value.
• The society of spectacle is characterized by social relations mediated by images, with the reduction of human life and relations to mere appearances.
• Guy Debord argued that the society of spectacle is not a collection of images, but social relations mediated by images.

The Throw-Away Society

• The throw-away society is characterized by the excessive production and consumption of goods, leading to a culture of disposability.
• Examples of throw-away practices include:
  • Throw-away packaging of products.
  • Proliferation of throw-away products.
  • Throw-away practice in food consumption.

Technological Society

• The creation of the internet has changed how people interact with each other, with the emergence of a new type of person called the netizen or cybercitizen.
• The anonymity and absence of physical contact in online interactions have contributed to the openness found in chat rooms and online forums.
• However, the lack of etiquette and the preference for disembodied human relations have led to a decline in physical human interaction.

The Virtual Society

• The virtual society enables people to engage in dialogues and recreate themselves in another world, with the opportunity to show people how they want to be seen.
• Examples of virtual societies include social networking and online forums.
• The virtual society has led to the complication of the question "who am I?" and the risk of losing commitment in human relations.

The Essence of Technology

• Heidegger argues that the essence of technology is a way of thinking that represents nature as something to be harnessed for our use.
• The essence of technology can lead to the reduction of human persons into calculable objects and the distortion of human relationships and even the understanding of God.
• Heidegger calls this Enframing, where thinking reduces everything into measurable and calculable forces.