Ring of Gyges & Ethics Defined

The Ring of Gyges

• A shepherd named Gyges uses a magic ring to become invisible
• He seduces the queen, murders the king, and takes over the kingdom, illustrating the temptation to act immorally if one could get away with it

Ethics Defined

• A person's capacity to live according to what they consider good
• Rooted in the Greek term "ethos," referring to custom, characteristic, or habitual actions derived from one's character
• Synonymous with the Latin "mores," both referring to character and habits

Various Definitions of Ethics

• Lilie (1957): Ethics judges human conduct in societies as right or wrong, good or bad
• Mackenzie (1901): Investigates principles behind habitual acts to determine rightness or wrongness
• Montemayor (1994): A normative, practical science based on reason and studies human conduct to provide integrity and honesty norms
• Pasco, et al. (2018): Philosophy of human action enabling people to learn the art of living

Branches of Ethics

• Normative Ethics: Establishes moral rules governing behavior and justifications for actions
• Metaethics: Explores the meanings of morality and the foundations of moral statements with comments and judgements
• Applied Ethics: Addresses specific ethical questions and situations such as abortion and cloning, involves convincing someone to change their moral stance

Moral Standards vs. Non-Moral Standards

• Moral standards define right and wrong, based on good reason and impartial considerations, overriding self-interest, with serious consequences
• Non-moral standards: Unrelated to moral or ethical considerations, based on relative judgements, depend on group guidelines
  • Etiquette: Responsibly behaving in society
  • Policy: Guiding decision-making rules
  • Laws: Rules enforced by government to maintain order, resolve disputes, and protect rights; can be written or unwritten
  • Statutes: Laws enacted by legislative bodies in written form
  • Commandment: Rules set by a divine entity

Moral Dilemma

• Situations where a moral agent must choose between conflicting actions, in which neither action overrides the other
• Jean Paul Sartre's example: A student wants revenge for his brother's death in war

Three Levels of Moral Dilemma

• Personal: Decision conflict causes potential harm to oneself, another person, or a group
• Organizational: Decision may harm members of a group or organization
• Structural: High-level positions face morally conflicting situations affecting the entire social system

Freedom

• To act or not to act, performing deliberate actions with responsibility
• St. Thomas Aquinas: Differientiates human and animal ethics where people behave rationally and wilfully
• Acts in ways that best achieve their needs in accordance with their set preferences, priorities, and principles

Perspectives in Freedom

• Gabriel Marcel: Freedom is a gift from God, enabling significant choices rather than arbitrary ones
• Aristotle: Freedom complements reason to achieve self-direction and purpose in life
• Jean Paul Sartre: Emphasized absolute freedom with responsibility rooted in existentialism

Human Acts vs. Acts of Man

• According to Montemayor (1994), human acts are voluntary, conscious and actions under control that you are responsible for
• Human acts require acts of knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness
  • Knowledge: Being conscious and aware of the reason and consequences of an action
  • Freedom: Acting on one’s own initiative and choice
  • Voluntariness: Willingly approving and owning an act with knowledge and freedom

Acts of Man

• These actions are involuntary, instinctive and dictated by biological and physiological makeup
• Examples: Breathing, digestion, sweating, etc

Determinants of Morality of Human Action

• Moral Actions: Conform to moral norms and are accepted
• Immoral Actions: Do not conform to moral norms and not acceptable
• Amoral Actions: Neutral to moral norms. Whether they are good or bad depends on the circumstances.
  • Examples: Eating, playing basketball

The morality of the human acts depends on:

• The Object: The action itself
• The Intention: The motivation for doing it
• The Circumstances: Secondary elements and context, which affects the morality of actions
  • Who?
  • Where?
  • What and by what means?
  • With whom?
  • Why?
  • How?
  • When?

Culture

• Encompasses all aspects of shared human experience

Emile Durkheim

• The Father of Sociology, he believed culture creates shared power for individuals, strengthening social order

Edward Taylor

• Defined culture as a group's way of life, including knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities passed down through generations

Five Basic Elements of Culture

• Symbols: Anything a group finds meaningful
  • Example: Cross for Christianity, crescent for Islam
• Language: Enables communication
• Beliefs: Assumptions or convictions
  • Example: Superstitious beliefs
• Values: Standards considered important or beneficial
• Norms: Informal guidelines for social behavior
  • Example: Filipino trait of "pakikisama"

Culture is Considered

• Social and communal, cultivating relationships
• Normative, defining societal principles
• Restrictive in setting boundaries for interactions
• Conditions minds and perceptions
• Represents authorities and guidance

Stages of Moral Development (Kohlberg's Theory)

• Lawrence Kohlberg's theory emphasizes moral reasoning as the basis for ethical behavior has identifiable stages with an increasing response to moral dilemmas
• Justice is considered mainly throughout the individuals lifetime

Three Broad Levels of Moral Development

• Level I: Pre-conventional morality
  • Stage I: Punishment-Obedience Orientation
  • Stage II: Reward Orientation
• Level II: Conventional Morality
  • Stage III: Good Boy/Good Girl Orientation
  • Stage IV: Authority Orientation
• Level III: Post Conventional
  • Stage V: Social Contract Orientation
  • Stage VI: Ethical-Principal Orientation

Cultural Relativism

• Different cultures have different moral codes and can not be judged
• William Graham Summer(1906): The way of ancestors is the right way

Consequences of Cultural Relativism

• The customs of other societies cannot be morally inferior
• Actions are correct just in standards of society
• the idea of moral progress is questioned

Universal Values

• Actions that are accepted around the world
  • Care for children
  • Telling the truth
  • No murder

The Filipino Way

• Qualities of the Filipino Moral Identity Mix of Eastern and Western culture with pre-colonial traditions

Patricia B. Licuanan

• The strengths and weaknesses are the Filipino character are rooted in factors
  • Home Environment
  • Social Environment
  • Culture and Language
  • History
  • Educational System
  • Religion
  • Economic Environment
  • Political Environment
  • Mass Media
  • Leadership and Role Models

Strengths of the Filipino Character

• Pakikipagkapwa-tao(sense of community)
• Family Orientation
• Joy and Humor
• Flexibility, Adaptability and Creativity
• Hard Work and Industry
• Faith and Religiosity
• Ability to Survive

Weaknesses of the Filipino Character

• Extreme Personalism: Prioritizing relationships over the collective good.
• Extreme Family-Centeredness: Over dependence on family, limiting personal growth.
• Lack of Discipline: Difficulty maintaining consistency and self control.
• Passivity and Lack of Initiative: Waiting for others to act instead of taking action
• Colonial Mentality: Preferring foreign cultures over local traditions.
• Kanya-Kanya Syndrome: Focus on individual gain rather than group cooperation
• Lack of Self-Analysis and Reflection: Avoiding introspection and self-improvement.

David Hume’s Ethics

• Theory of Mind": "Slave of the passions”
• Moral distinctions are moral sentiments: feelings of approval(esteem, praise), feelings of disapproval(blame) felt by spectators.
• Virtues and Vices are natural, others(including justice) are artificial.
• Moral Virtue
• Moral agent is able to have control over ones emotions or feelings.
• Reason: alone is insufficient to yield a judgement that something is virtuous or vicious
• Humans: Have passions (emotions or feelings)

Classification of Passion

• Direct Passions: Reflection on our part whever we see something good or bad
  • Instincts: result of social conditioning - Example: Desire, Aversion, Hope, Fear, Grief, and Joy
• Indirect Passions: Double relations between ideas and impressions. Can be secondary feelings and lead to pleasure
  • Example: Pride: passion that emanates from object and quality

Max Scheler and the Philosophy of Feelings

• Structures: Of consciousness including mental acts
• Emotions: Most important aspect in human existence
• Emotions and Feelings: Inherent, objective, it exists even if you have not experienced before (a priori)

Sensual Feelings

• Bodily pleasure or pain

Vital Feelings

• Life functions

Psychic Feelings

• Aesthetics, justice, and knowledge

Spiritual Feelings

• Divinity; holiness

Making Decisions

• Important role of reason and the use of reason
• Hume: acting on emotions instead of reason
• In a given situation, a person would act based on emotions rather than reason
• Emotions: compasses powerfully influenced by feelings

Making Decisions

• Non deliberate natue
• Partial nature
• Make it hard for the three mains reasons
• Emotions arise spontaneously, making it hard to think through decisions carefully.
• Biased when focusing on situations and ignoring others.
• Unpredictable which leads to inconsistent decisions

Kant’s View

• Morality shows what a person must do in the best was

What is a way to Judge from Emotions?

• Signal when the need to adjust in the behavior
• Help us learn from mistakes
• Emotional responses can reshape as time pass
• Surge of negative emotions/ counterfactual thinking : human tendency to create possible or alternative to what has actually happened
• Reason: power to think and logical processes
• The basic requirement for morality Objective Criteria: Rather than bias or prejudice or prefering one person over for their own reasons
• Rachels,2004: “Effort to guide with equal importance with each person involved

An Argument is Reasonable

• How philosopher Dr. James Rachels view moral reasoning
• The facts are correct
• Moral principles are correctly applied
• Everyone’s well being is equitable

The 7 Steps

• How can we start moral decisions using reasoning?
• Step 1: Gather facts - Ask Qs
• Step 2: Stakeholders - Identify them and see situations to the eyes of people affected
• Step 3: Dilemma - Make sure the situation is understandable and the conflict you are facing - Make sure your aware and have comprehension
• Step 4: Alternative - Be creative with choices and dont back into a corner
• Step 5: Compare the alternative within the process - Values to uphold within the process - Check and compare the values with alternative actions in lime
• Step 6: Weigh the Cosnequece - Effects of action filter choice with violations determined - Determine all stakeholders that should be affected
• Step 7: Make a Decision - Avoid over analysing the situations so no action is achieved

Moral Courage

• Careful deliberation is essential for a virtuous life
• Essential for self esteem
• Self mastery, only life for various life
• Will: To act decisively on some desires
• Faculty of mind initiation of action
• Ethics “will” a topic for deliberation

Aritstole's View

• Will is the product of and sensation and the person has capacity for movement in space
• Will is as important because it is actualizing the proper action with reason