Ethics for Prelims PDF

PHILOSOPHY 5. Is there nothing? from Greek words 2. Special Metaphysics “philia” : love a. Cosmology “sophia”: wisdom - Ancient...

PHILOSOPHY 5. Is there nothing? from Greek words 2. Special Metaphysics “philia” : love a. Cosmology “sophia”: wisdom - Ancient Greek: “kosmos”: world LOVE OF WISDOM “logos”: study - strong desire of the human person to - studies the world (or universe), possess knowledge and apply it correctly including: origin, dynamics, and Love: strong desire characteristics and laws that govern its Wisdom: correct application of knowledge order PHILOSOPHY Basic Questions: - science that studies beings in their ultimate 1. What is the origin of the world? causes, reasons and principles 2. What is the basic material of which the world is - attempts to understand things in a critical formed? and logical manner 3. How do things arise? Being/s: all things that exist (material / 4. In what consists its (the world) fundamental form immaterial) or principle of order? 5. Is the world or universe infinite? Karl Jaspers - a famous German existential philosopher b. Psychology / Anthropology - understands philosophy as a discipline in - from the Greek word: which questions are more important than “psyche”: soul / mind answers, because answers themselves will, in “logos”: study turn, become questions - study of nature and dynamics of the human person as a whole - emphasis on the way the person’s mind MAJOR BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY function and behaves 1. METAPHYSICS Basic Questions: -from the Greek word: 1. What is the nature of the human person? “meta”: beyond / after 2. Is there such thing as human nature? “physika”: physical / nature 3. What if the meaning and purpose, if any, of life? - study of things beyond the physical 4. Is there life after death? - concept or things that can’t be experienced 5. How do we account for the existence of sufferings - foundation of philosophy in the world? Aristotle: first philosophy : “metaphysika”: after physics c. Natural Theology / Theodicy - God, freedom, and soul - from the Greek word: “theos”: God Subdivided into two: - study of God 1. General Metaphysics (referred to as - concerned with the justification of the Ontology) goodness of God in the face of existence - from the Greek word: of evil in the world “onto”: being / that which is “logos”: knowledge / study Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - branch of philosophy that studies beings : German Philosopher in 18th century in their ultimate causes, reasons, and : 1710, Théodicée principles - studies the first principle / essence of Basic Questions: all things 1. Is there God? 2. What and who is God, if he exists at all? Heraclitus 3. How do we prove the existence of God? : a Greek philosopher of 6th BCE 4. If God exists, how do we justify the existence of evil : LOGOS: reason or underlying principle of all that is and suffering in the world? 5. Does a belief in God really necessary? Basic Question: 1. What is being? d. Aesthetics 2. Why do things exist, rather than not exist at all? - study of beauty 3. What is the meaning and nature of reality? 4. What is the underlying principle of all that exist? 2. EPISTEMOLOGY Ionia was a Greek city-state on the coast of Asia - from the Greek word: Minor (Turkey). “episteme”: knowledge “logos”: study Origin: MILETUS, IONIA - study of the nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief Decline of Ionia, which began its conquest by the - truth, belief, and justification Persians in 546 BCE, the intellectual life of Green moved to CROTON in southern Italy in 530 BCE. Basic Questions: 1. What is knowledge? 2. What do we know? ETHICS 3. How is knowledge acquired? 4. What is the structures and limits of knowledge? from the Greek word: 5. What makes justified beliefs justified? “ethos”: custom / character -studies the rightness and wrongness of a human 3. LOGIC action - from the Greek word: -discipline constantly evolving as a result of a change “logos”: science of correct thinking in socio-cultural and political context - study of the principles and criteria of a valid argument e.g. - distinguish sound or good reasoning from unsound Greek Tradition or bad reasoning - ethics relating the concept of “good life” Basic Questions: 1. What is the correct reasoning? Aristotle 2. What distinguishes a good argument from a bad :”NICOMACHEAN ETHICS” one? does not only present a theory of happiness 3. How can we detect a fallacy in an argument but also provides ways in which happiness is 4. What are the criteria for determining the validity of attained. an argument? 5. What are the types of logic? Judeo-Christian Tradition :ideals of righteousness before God and the love of 4. ETHICS God and neighbor – constitute the substance of - from the Greek word: ethics “ethos”: custom or habit - morality of human actions ETHICS MORALITY - how human persons ought to act - systematic study of - practice the rightness - the search for a definition of a right conduct and the underlying and wrongness of a good life principle of morality human action - end-governed rational Basic Questions: enterprise 1. What is a right conduct as that which causes the - how we ought to do realization of the greatest good? and exhorts us to 2. How do we determine a right conduct? In other follow the right way words, what makes a right conduct right? 3. What is a good life and can we attain it? TYPES OF ETHICS 4. What is the difference between human act and actions that are based on instinct? 1. Normative ethics 5. What do people think is right? - evaluative and prescriptive in nature - seeks to set norms or standards - develop guidelines or theories that tell us how we THE ORIGIN OF PHILOSOPHY ought to behave - to do good at all times Philosophic wonder : beginning of philosophy : feeling of being perplexed e.g. Immanuel Kant’s claim that an act is morally right if it Thales is done for the sake of duty. :1st Philosopher in Western World :from Miletus (richest, most powerful, and first center of scholarship) 2. Metaethics :first to put his philosophy into writing - analytical and descriptive in nature - type of ethical inquiry that aims to understand the Ethics: Killing is wrong because it violates the basic nature and dynamics of ethical principles ethical principles of “Respect for persons” or “Non- - nature and origin of moral facts maleficence” - the way in which we learn to acquire moral beliefs Morality: Do not kill because it is wrong e.g. “What is good?” “What should I be moral?” QUIZ 1 1. It investigates on the world including the laws 3. Applied ethics that govern its order. - actual application of ethical or moral actions in a a. Ethics b. Ontology c. Epistemology d. Cosmology given situation Answer: D. COSMOLOGY Casuists: concerned with individual moral problems e.g. 2. It is the title of a written work where the word Abortion, Euthanasia Theodicy originated. a. Théodicé b. Theodicee c. Théodicée d. Theodicy Divided into different fields: a. Business ethics: ethical behavior in the Answer: C. THÉODICÉE corporate world b. Biomedical and environmental ethics: issues relating to health, welfare and the 3. The moral issue on abortion will only be responsibility we have towards people and understood in Metaethics. environment True False c. Social ethics: principles and guidelines that regulate corporate welfare within societies Answer: FALSE MORALITY 4. Ethics tells students on what they ought to do and to follow the right way. from the Latin word: True False “mos/mores”: customary behavior Answer: FALSE Moral / Ethical person - one who is good and does the right things 5. It is being investigated and studied in Immoral / Unethical person philosophy. - one who is bad and does what is wrong a. beings b. God c. immaterial beings d. material things ETHICS MORALITY - systematic study of - rightness or Answer: A. BEINGS the rightness or wrongness of human wrongness of a human action action - practice of ethics 6. It is in this study where one can know how to - studies the morality make a good reasoning. of human act - science of morals Answer: LOGIC - theories Basic Ethical Principles 7. Normative Ethics analyzes why are actions 1. Respect for persons considered as right or wrong. 2. Truthfulness and Confidentiality True False 3. Autonomy and Informed Consent 4. Beneficence Answer: FALSE 5. Non-maleficence 6. Justice 8. They are the people who are concerned with e.g. individual moral problems, such as abortion and The person’s moral belief that killing is wrong. euthanasia, among others. Answer: CASUISTS Answer: C. PSYCHE 9. He declared that questions are more important 18. It is where the known first philosopher came than answers for answers will later become from. questions. a. Asia Minor b. Samos c. Miletus d. Croton a. Pythagoras b. Jaspers c. Heraclitus d. Karl Jaspers Answer: C. MILETUS Answer: D. KARL JASPERS 19. It is a type of Ethics that prescribes what is the 10. He claimed that logos is the underlying right thing to be done. principle of all that is. a. Metaethics b. Applied Ethics c. Ethics d. Normative a. Plato b. Heraclitus c. Aristotle d. Socrates Ethics Answer: B. HERACLITUS Answer: A. APPLIED ETHICS 11. He was the first to declare that wonder is the 20. It is in this tradition wherein Ethics is related only beginning of philosophy. with doing what is right. a. Buddha b. Socrates c. Plato d. Thales Answer: JUDEO-CHRISTIAN TRADITION Answer: D. THALES 21. It is that branch of philosophy where the 12. It studies the nature and the limits of question Is there nothing? is asked. knowledge. a. Metaphysics b. Theodicy c. Ontology d. Cosmology a. Logic b. Epistemology c. Psychology d. Ethics Answer: ONTOLOGY Answer: B. EPISTEMOLOGY 22.Metaethics commands every human being 13. It is where the intellectual life of Greece what ought to be done and avoided. transferred after the decline of Ionia. True False a. Samos b. Croton c. Turkey d. Miletus Answer: FALSE Answer: B. CROTON 23. Business Ethics is a branch of Ethics. 14. It is that which implies correct application of True False knowledge. a. wisdom b. love c. love of wisdom d. philosophy Answer: FALSE Business Ethics is a branch of Applied Ethics Answer: D. PHILOSOPHY 24. It is how Aristotle described or called what 15. It is that specific philosophical branch that Metaphysics is. investigates on the world, man's mind, and God. a. first science b. foundation of Logic c. first philosophy d. mother of sciences Answer: THEODICY Answer: C. FIRST PHILOSOPHY 16. It is in this philosophical science where, among others, the question What makes a right 25. It is a philosophical science where the conduct right? is being asked. structures and limitations of knowledge are properly discussed. Answer: ETHICS Answer: EPISTEMOLOGY 17. It is a Greek word that is literally understood as soul or mind. 26. It implies the individual's desire to acquire a. logos b. kosmos c. psyche d. onto knowledge and apply it correctly. a. sophia b. wisdom c. philo d. love of wisdom Answer: D. LOVE OF WISDOM 27. It is where Ethics in early Greek tradition is related to. Answer: GOOD LIFE 28. The question on What is good? is treated specifically in Ethics. True False Answer: TRUE 29. Morality is a theory regarding what is right and wrong action. True False Answer: FALSE 30. It is that ethical type that regulates what needs to be done and what needs to be avoided. Answer: NORMATIVE ETHICS  THE NATURE OF HUMAN ACTS e. Use: the employment by the will of bodily or mental powers or both to carry out its intention by Human Act (Actus Humanus) the means elected - an act which proceeds from the deliberate free will e.g. To actually see you, I will command my mental of man and bodily powers to carry out my intention. - an act that proceeds from the knowing and freely willing human being - moral acts f. Fruition: the enjoyment of a thing willed and done : the will’s act of satisfaction in intention e.g. listening to a talk, studying this PDF fulfilled e.g. I will experience this the moment I will see Act of Man (Actus Hominis) actually see you. - these are man’s animal act of: a. sensation (use of the senses) b. appetition (bodily tendencies) A.2. Commanded Acts -done without advertence and the exercise of free - do not find their adequate cause in the will act but choice are perfected by the action of mental or bodily powers under orders from the will. e.g. actions done in infancy, in sleep, in delirium, etc. (e.g.: Using your mind, eyes, etc. in studying) Thus, a man is what his human acts make him. a. Internal: acts done by internal mental powers under command of the will Classification (e.g.: effort to remember effort to control anger) A. Based on Complete/Adequate Cause b. External: acts effected by bodily powers under - There are some acts that begin and are perfected command of the will in the will itself, and the rest begin in the will and are (e.g.: eating halo halo, writing your answers) perfected by other faculties under control of the will c. Mixed: acts that involve the employment of bodily A.1. Elicited Acts and mental powers - find their adequate cause in the will (the deliberate (e.g.: solving a Math problem) will) alone. (e.g.: Your intention to study in your room.) a. Wish: refers to the simple love of anything B. Based on the Relation of Human Acts to Reason : the first tendency of the will towards a thing, - Human acts are either in agreement or whether realizable or not disagreement with the dictates of reason, and this : every human act begins with the wish to act relationship constitutes the morality of human acts e.g. I do so long to see you tonight B.1. Good : when human acts are in harmony with the dictates b. Intention: the purposive tendency of the will of right reason towards a thing regarded as realizable, whether the thing is actually done or not B.2. Evil e.g. I will see you tonight. : when human acts are in opposition with the dictates of right reason c. Consent: the acceptance by the will of the means B.3. Indifferent necessary to carry out intention : when they stand in no positive relation to the : it is the further intention of doing what dictates of reason necessary to realize the main intention e.g. If I will see you tonight, I consent to how really to Constituents of the Human Acts see you. - These refer to the essential elements or qualities for an act to be human d. Election: the selection by the will of the precise means to be employed in carrying out an intention 1. Knowledge - A human act proceeds from the deliberate will e.g. I will select riding my bike to see you tonight. - it requires deliberation: advertence knowledge - Thus, no human act is possible without knowledge. Suppose that the rabbit is a pet of his children. It gave 2. Freedom them pleasure every time they played with it. The - A human act is an act determined (elicited or father knows that if he will kill the rabbit, it will cause commanded) by the will and by nothing else. his children sorrow. Nevertheless, he kills the rabbit - It is an act that is under control of the will, an act to have something for dinner. that the will can do or leave undone. (There is indirect voluntariness in the sorrow - Such an act is called a free act, thus, every human experienced by the children.) act must be FREE The father’s direct act of killing the rabbit is called 3. Voluntariness voluntary in se while the result, sorrow of his - it must be a will act. children, which he does not directly will, is called - This is to say that there must be both knowledge voluntary in causa. and freedom in the agent or the doer of the action. d. Positive and Negative VOLUNTARINESS OF HUMAN ACTS Positive voluntariness is present in a human act of doing, performing. It is present in an act that I. Degrees of Voluntariness the agent is ought to do and is doing it (e.g. A student attends class on his scheduled time.) a. Perfect and Imperfect Perfect: when the agent fully knows and Negative voluntariness is present in a fully intends the act human act of omitting, refraining from doing. It is e.g. telling a lie to your parents present in an act that the agent is not ought to do but is doing it. Imperfect: when there is some defect in the (e.g. A student deliberately misses class.) agent’s knowledge, intention, or both e.g. adding details in narrating an event e. Actual, Virtual, Habitual, Interpretative Actual voluntariness (intention) is present in b. Simple and Conditional a human act willed here and now Simple voluntariness is present in a human (e.g. The “I do” vows of a man and a woman during act done, whether the agent likes or dislikes doing it. the marriage rites.) e.g. washing the dishes after the family meal Virtual voluntariness (intention) is present in Conditional voluntariness is present in the a human act done as a result of (or in virtue of) a agent’s wish to do something other than that which formerly elicited actual intention even if that he is actually doing, but doing with dislike. intention be here and now forgotten. e.g. washing the dishes with a wish of just watching (e.g. The faithfulness of the husband/wife with his/her TV spouse throughout their married life.) Habitual voluntariness (intention) is present c. Direct and Indirect in a human act done in agreement with, but not as a Direct voluntariness is present in a human result of, a formerly elicited and unrevoked actual act willed in itself. intention. Indirect voluntariness is present in that e.g. human act which is the foreseen result of another You make an intention to be baptized in a Catholic act directly willed. religion. Years passed by, you did not realize it nor you revoked it. One day, you became seriously ill, fighting A human act that is directly willed is called for your life. A priest came over and baptized you in voluntary in se your unconscious state. Here, the act of receiving while that which is indirectly willed is called baptism is in agreement with the actual intention voluntary in causa once made and unrevoked. You possess then habitual voluntariness for the act of receiving the e.g. sacrament of baptism. A father kills a rabbit for dinner. He directly wills the act of killing as a means to an end to be achieved. He also directly wills the dinner as an end to be achieved by this means. (There is direct voluntariness in every aspect of the act.)  Interpretative voluntariness (intention) is that voluntariness which, in the judgment of prudence and common sense, would be actually present if opportunity or ability for it were given. e.g. The small boy who has to be carried literally to school and kept there against his will, has an interpretative intention of going to school. For parents and teachers know that, if the boy could but realize the value of schooling, he would certainly will to attend. II. Indirect Voluntariness - Indirect voluntariness, or voluntariness in causa - is present in that human act which is an effect, foreseen or foreseeable, of another act directly willed. - When we bring together indirect voluntariness and imputability, that is, as worthy of praise/blame, reward/punishment, two ethical questions on responsibility and permissibility of the act are raised: a. When is the agent responsible for the evil effect of a cause directly willed? b. When may one perform an act, not evil in itself, which has two effects – good and evil? Principle of Indirect Voluntariness (First Question) - The agent (doer of the action) is responsible (imputable) for the evil effect of a cause directly willed when the following conditions are met: a. when he can readily foresee the evil effect, at least in a general way b. when he is free to refrain from doing what causes the evil effect c. when he is bound to refrain from doing what causes the evil effect Principle of Double Effect (Second Question) - The agent may lawfully perform an act which has two effects, one good and one evil, when the following conditions are met: a. when the evil effect does not come before the good effect so as to be a means to it b. when there exists a reason, proportionately grave or weighty, which calls for the good effect c. when the agent intends the good effect exclusively, and merely permits the evil effect as a regrettable side issue From these two principles, we may deduce the following thoughts before the performance of any act: - We must do good; we must avoid evil. - We must never do what is evil, even though good may be looked for and intended as a result of it